HRMs, interval training, and weight loss

agdeierl

I know you're not supposed to use HRMs for anything besides straight-up cardio or they're not as accurate, but I was wondering if anyone has used their HRM for stuff like interval training (that includes periods of cardio, abs, and weights) and still lost weight, eating back the calories the HRM says you burned...?

JMun

Yup I do. I wear my HRM for strength training and add the exercise calories. On strength training days if I eat the exercise cals I try to stick with protein (rather than carbs)

Newfiedan

I wear mine for every workout, HIIT, weight and cardio as well as metabolic resistance training, it is accurate for all of those.

Christine1110

I wear mine for all exercise.

agdeierl

Ok good! That makes me feel so much better! I've been a little slow to lose lately ad was worried that was why, but I guess not! Thanks so much for weighing in! (no pun intended)

Suzkohlmann

I do P90X and Insanity and use my HRM. I've found it to be a fairly accurate source of calories burned.

You're the 2nd person today who I've noticed posing about eating the calories you've burned. I'm new on myfitnesspal, so maybe that instruction is here and I haven't seen it yet, but that makes no sense to me. Why would you bother working out if you were just going to put those calories back on? My understanding is that you need a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. That won't occur if you eat the calories that you just lost.

I wish you a lot of luck with your interval training. I've found it to be the hardest exercise I've ever done!

aippolito1

Yep! I've been logging my strength calories for the last year or so and have had no problems.

agdeierl

I do P90X and Insanity and use my HRM. I've found it to be a fairly accurate source of calories burned.

You're the 2nd person today who I've noticed posing about eating the calories you've burned. I'm new on myfitnesspal, so maybe that instruction is here and I haven't seen it yet, but that makes no sense to me. Why would you bother working out if you were just going to put those calories back on? My understanding is that you need a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. That won't occur if you eat the calories that you just lost.

I wish you a lot of luck with your interval training. I've found it to be the hardest exercise I've ever done!

Well, you're right that you won't lose if there's no calorie deficit. But what a lot of newbies (to MFP, I mean) don't realize at first is that MFP automatically sets you at a deficit (a different one depending on how much you tell MFP you want to lose a week), so the idea is that say you're set to eat 1200 cals to lose one pound a week, and let's say you burn 400 calories exercising one day and don't eat any of them back. with the built-in deficit, it's like you only really ate 800 calories...and that's not enough to keep your body up and running!