Heart rate without HRM - opinions/advice please

sophieamhaley

So I walk about 5 miles a day with my dog, around 4mph pace, I use MapMyWalk app. It estimates calories used but since I've started getting to grips with heart rate/calorie burn, I decided to try and estimate my average HR and log it via www.shapesense.com and see how many cals it says I've burned on there, using age, height, weight etc, along with average HR per min.

The way that I get an average heart rate, is to take a ten second reading at various intervals on my walk. Generally I'll do it like, one reading after I've descended the hill from my house, one after walking through mud, one after a hill, one after walking on the flat etc, so I get a decent variation. I then work out the average - have I got the right idea? I can't afford an HRM at the moment (amongst general expenditures, I'm getting married this year) so this, although time consuming and quite annoying, is the only way I can think of to do things! The HR I get given via shapesense is quite different to the cal burn I am given by MapMyWalk (sis being the higher cal burn).

I've tried to do the same during my Jillian Michaels work out too.
Does this sound like a fair way to work it out minus an HRM?

Thanks

sophieamhaley

Sorry I meant the calorie burns are different between the two method, ss is the higher, not sis! Stupid autocorrect.

Soccermavrick

I would say that it is close enough, as long as you are not trying to be exact. I know some people get hung up with being dead on, and are not OK using an estimate. (Admittedly, you are using a website which will get you closer than some.) Though I will say most people are surprised at their numbers when a monitor is used. (Both good & Bad.) And still others I think find the monitors as good motivators. But last time I checked exercise existed long before HRM, so I would say it is not a necessity. Moving is the necessity.