HRM Accuracy

waster196
waster196 Posts: 138 Member
edited September 25 in Fitness and Exercise
I've been using a new HRM which just arrived yesterday and I'm a bit concerned about the accuracy. The HRM is a Sigma PC15.

I biked today for 45 minutes - my exercise bike told me I'd burned 450kcal, the HRM told me I'd burned 840kcal. That's a pretty huge difference so it's hard to know what to trust.

Can anyone with any experience help me out?

Replies

  • missie21
    missie21 Posts: 103 Member
    I would go with the HRM .... is it a type that asks for age weight and if your sex?
  • missie21
    missie21 Posts: 103 Member
    I found out the hard way that information is key to getting when your calorie burn...
  • waster196
    waster196 Posts: 138 Member
    Yeah it's asked for all the info - age, sex, weight, and has a chest strap etc etc so I was tempted to trust it - it's just that it's such a big difference!
  • alecta337
    alecta337 Posts: 622 Member
    A HRM is most accurate when it has a chest strap, and has your height, weight, and age entered into it
  • mrsweigl
    mrsweigl Posts: 198 Member
    It has a chest strap right? I was confused and skeptical at first too but i am going with what my HRM says i burn
  • quara
    quara Posts: 255 Member
    My HRM also tells me I burn more than the machines, but not by that much! That is a huge difference, but do you enter your weight into the bike too? Do you know if the heart rate that it's detecting is accurate (by taking your pulse?) If the heart rate is accurate, and it's a good model HRM, I might go with that.. and the chest strap is on correctly?
  • lesley12345
    lesley12345 Posts: 89 Member
    That is a huge difference, although it would be awesome to burn 840 in 45 minutes I find that rather hard to believe, I would go by the exercise bikes number. The watch u got, do you have the ability to program your height, weight, strides and so on. Also does your heartrate monitor watch have a chest strap to monitor your heartrate or just the watch. I think the watches with the chest strap give a better reading since it's measuring your actual heart rate. Check to see if u can program your info, this might give u more accurate readings.
  • lesley12345
    lesley12345 Posts: 89 Member
    Just read your post, I guess if you entered all your info in and are using the chest strap and u feel like the watch is a good model then go by those numbers, that's quite a burn in 45 minutes! :smile:
  • waster196
    waster196 Posts: 138 Member
    Thanks for all the responses.

    The HRM is programmed with my weight, age, sex etc and chest strap is (i think) attached properly. The bike also has a pulse monitor and they read pretty similar numbers. I'm going at a 140bpm average and I know that count is about right. It's just the calorie calculator I'm a bit unsure of.

    The only other instance in which I've used the HRM so far is on a long brisk walk yesterday - HRM told me 800kcal again, whilst pedometer gave me a 680kcal read. The difference there is not so huge so I was inclined to believe the HRM was correct (my weight is higher than the max on the pedometer, so I figured maybe that'd allow for it being a little lower).

    Any ideas? :)
  • ahbach2005
    ahbach2005 Posts: 119
    One thing that people forget is that if you are a larger person you will burn more calories doing the same activity. My guess is the HRM is more accurate than the bike is. Double check your settings to be sure that they are accurate.

    I know that I have burned in excess of 600 calories in just over 40 minutes of excercise (cirquit training) and on road rides in the warm months I have burned 1000 calories=/- on an aggressive raod ride. So don't get too worried about the calorie count being too high.

    If you have a way of checking...say borrowing one you may want to do that.

    Good luck
  • missie21
    missie21 Posts: 103 Member
    One thing that people forget is that if you are a larger person you will burn more calories doing the same activity. My guess is the HRM is more accurate than the bike is. Double check your settings to be sure that they are accurate.

    I know that I have burned in excess of 600 calories in just over 40 minutes of excercise (cirquit training) and on road rides in the warm months I have burned 1000 calories=/- on an aggressive raod ride. So don't get too worried about the calorie count being too high.

    If you have a way of checking...say borrowing one you may want to do that.

    Good luck

    Great point....
  • nickyevans
    nickyevans Posts: 216 Member
    You are lucky! I see people logging hundreds of calories for doing 30 day shred, I do mine wearing my HRM, sweat like a horse and my watch (with strap, sex, height, weight and age all correctly configured) gives me a reading of around 60 calories - which kind of makes me think, why bother I burn that many sitting down and watching Scrubs :laugh:
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