Am I Logging workouts correctly ??

jla2982

When logging work out times such as cardio do you log the entire work our time including rest intervals or just the actual time using the machine doing sprints etc. (provided the rest intervals aren’t prolonged chatting or mucking around)
ie : today I spent 36 mins on the stair climber although it was paused for a total of 12 mins 90 seconds at a time when doing some HIIT on the machine.
So Today I trained 36 mins with 12 mins of pauses (8 x 90secs) making 24 mins although I know my heart rate was way up the whole workout. Do I log 36mins or 24 mins ?
Be good to know if I’m logging my calorie burn correctly if anyone knows the correct way pretty please !

Cricketmad88

If you eat back all of your exercise cals I would suggest log the 24 mins as this app often over estimates the cals lost for exercise, if like most you eat back half the exercise cals then I would log the 36 mins as then you are only eating for 18 mins and so are definitely at a loss.

AnnPT77

For typical cardio activities like the ones you mention, the calorie estimates are for continuous activity, so don't include the rest breaks.

The "strength training" entry in MFP under cardio, used for estimating strength training calories, assumes normal reps/sets with rest breaks, so you use wall clock time for that.

That your heart rate stays high during rest is irrelevant. It's the work, the body movement, that burns calories. Heart rate increases because of the oxygen demand by your body. As you get fitter, you'll have a lower heart rate doing the same exercise (stronger heart pumps more per beat, delivers more oxygen, so doesn't need to beat as often, loosely speaking). But the same exercise at the same intensity burns the same number of calories at the same body weight, fit or unfit, regardless of heart rate.

Heart rate doesn't measure calorie burn, it's just a somewhat-correlated proxy measurement used to estimate calorie burn. Depending on the activity, and on the algorithms used by the device, it can be a decent estimate, or a very misleading one.

jla2982

Thank you so much for your answer ! I appreciate that !!