HRM/Calories Burned - to log or not to log?

eeeekie

Quick question:

I've noticed when I watch my HRM after I stop working out (like when I'm getting my breath and heart rate starts to decline) that I'm still burning calories. Do you immediately take your HRM off and log what it says at that exact moment you stop working out or do you wait for your heart rate and breath to equal out and then record that #?

The difference between mine is roughly about 50-60 calories extra although I've never logged it I just log it at the # it is as SOON as I stop the workout.

Sasha_Bear

Good Question Bump

beahawk

I don't turn my HRM off until my heartrate has gone down. You're still burning more calories when your heart is up than when its at your normal resting heartrate. And I do record those!

carlfry

I wait until my HR goes back down to normal.. sometimes in the 110's I'll log that number if I want to get the thing off.

eeeekie

Thanks for the bump teasem

Thank you beahawk...I've always wondered what other people do because there is such a big difference. I'd like to get some more opinions before I make a decision though...anyone else??

david081

Wait till your heart rate drops to normal then log the result...

carrie145

Wait until your heart rate and breathing return to normal...

eeeekie

I wait until my HR goes back down to normal.. sometimes in the 110's I'll log that number if I want to get the thing off.

I took mine off at like 104 because I was annoyed waiting for it to drop lol...but the difference was about 55 calories. Good to know though! Thanks

Wait till your heart rate drops to normal then log the result...

Okay thank you!

Wait until your heart rate and breathing return to normal...

Alright, I guess that's unanimous lol...I appreciate the input guys!

foxxybrown

At home, I stop it as soon as my workout is over. At the gym, I stop it once I hit the locker room door.

spiritmachine

That is an interesting question. I would say log it, for this reason. Your calorie intake on this site is based on your basal metabolic rate. That is based on how active you are and your weight etc. It will not take into account the calories that you burn above your basal metabolic rate post-exercise. I think the most accurate way (if you really want to get into it) would be this:

Say it takes 10 minutes to go from elevated HR to resting HR
Calculate how many calories you burn in those 10 minutes at resting HR
Measure how many calories you burn at the elevated HR

Subtract resting HR calories from elevated HR calories and log that number.

This is just mean making a conjecture. Seems logically but maybe someone else has more expertise in this area.

I guess if you think about it the amount of calories you burn during workout takes into account your BMR. Since you are going from HR of 50 to 150 or whatever...not 0 to 150.

Agglaki

Here is my take.

Press start when you start your workout

Press stop once your workout stops - you could wait till your heart rate drops if you really want. But to be perfectly honest with you, personally after burning approx 800cal during a workout the extra 10-50 isn't going to make much of a difference in the scheme of things.

Simple.

The only thing to consider is that if you are taking a longer break e.g. toilet break, someone stops to chat to you (over 2min) I will stop the monitor.

Agglaki

Here is my take.

Press start when you start your workout

Press stop once your workout stops - you could wait till your heart rate drops if you really want. But to be perfectly honest with you, personally after burning approx 800cal during a workout the extra 10-50 isn't going to make much of a difference in the scheme of things.

Simple.

The only thing to consider is that if you are taking a longer break e.g. toilet break, someone stops to chat to you (over 2min) I will stop the monitor.

alygoo615

If you really want to be the most precise, also make sure that you are only logging calories burned in ADDITION to what you would have burned sitting on the couch since MFP already accounts for those. For example- if your resting metabolic rate is 1800 calories, you burn 75 calories an hour doing nothing. If you work out for a total of 1.5 hours, and you burn 800 calories on your HRM- deduct the 75 calories from the first hour and 37.5 from the second hour to come up with a total of 687.5 calories.

It might not seem like a big deal when you only work out for 45 minutes- but you end up counting those extra 56.25 burned calories twice. That's if you are anal and want to be super precise and accurate

eeeekie

Thank you foxxybrown...appreciate the input.

That is an interesting question. I would say log it, for this reason. Your calorie intake on this site is based on your basal metabolic rate. That is based on how active you are and your weight etc. It will not take into account the calories that you burn above your basal metabolic rate post-exercise. I think the most accurate way (if you really want to get into it) would be this:

Say it takes 10 minutes to go from elevated HR to resting HR
Calculate how many calories you burn in those 10 minutes at resting HR
Measure how many calories you burn at the elevated HR

Subtract resting HR calories from elevated HR calories and log that number.

This is just mean making a conjecture. Seems logically but maybe someone else has more expertise in this area.

I guess if you think about it the amount of calories you burn during workout takes into account your BMR. Since you are going from HR of 50 to 150 or whatever...not 0 to 150.

That's a good idea but I didn't wait the 10 minutes before I started working out. I'll try that next time but for now I think I'm gonna go with the group as a whole and log it the way it was on my hrm.

Much appreciated guys!!

eeeekie

Here is my take.

Press start when you start your workout

Press stop once your workout stops - you could wait till your heart rate drops if you really want. But to be perfectly honest with you, personally after burning approx 800cal during a workout the extra 10-50 isn't going to make much of a difference in the scheme of things.

Simple.

The only thing to consider is that if you are taking a longer break e.g. toilet break, someone stops to chat to you (over 2min) I will stop the monitor.

That's true...I did burned over 900 calories so that extra 50-60 isn't that big of a difference. I appreciate the input. I'd have to agree about the stopping to use toilet or talk to someone. Thank you!

eeeekie

If you really want to be the most precise, also make sure that you are only logging calories burned in ADDITION to what you would have burned sitting on the couch since MFP already accounts for those. For example- if your resting metabolic rate is 1800 calories, you burn 75 calories an hour doing nothing. If you work out for a total of 1.5 hours, and you burn 800 calories on your HRM- deduct the 75 calories from the first hour and 37.5 from the second hour to come up with a total of 687.5 calories.

It might not seem like a big deal when you only work out for 45 minutes- but you end up counting those extra 56.25 burned calories twice. That's if you are anal and want to be super precise and accurate

lol not that anal about it but I appreciate the input

pyroxian

Read this (and the other blog post linked to in the very beginning of this one): http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/calories-burned-during-exercise-it-s-the-intensity-not-the-heart-rate-that-counts-26524

He explains that the heart rate is NOT indicative of extra calories being burned directly, but more a measurement that can (under certain circumstances - specifically steady-state cardio) be used to estimate what the caloric burn really is. So at the end of your actual workout, you're no longer using those large muscle groups which are what actually burns the extra calories during a workout, I would read 2 things into this
1) Using a typical (ie Polar/Timex/Mio/etc) HRM during non-cardio workouts is really not going to give anything like an accurate estimate anyway and
2) The algorithm used to estimate calorie burn stops being even remotely accurate once the actual activity stops (in steady state cardio exercises)

As for the advisability of being anal and deducting your BMR or RMR calories per minute * number of minutes of exercise, I believe that depends on the specific HRM you are using. In my own case, I replaced a physically damaged (cracked screen) but functional Polar F55 with a Polar FT60, programmed them identically (V02 Max, weight/gender/etc) and did an identical workout (allowing 2 days rest time between) at as close to identical perceived exertion/intensity level, and got a significantly higher result from the new FT60 than from the F55. Interestingly the numbers from the F55 were almost exactly what I would get by deducting my RMR * minutes of exercise from what the FT60 reported. That leads me to believe that some Polar units include an automatic deduction of "normal/resting" calories while others do not.

In my own case, I now only use my HRM for timing duration of my non-cardio workouts (unless I'm doing circuits with low resistance), and I _DO_ back out my resting calories from what my HRM shows for cardio before I log it on MFP, but I'm OCD like that. In fairness it is a recent change for me to do so, triggered by the observation of the different results between my 2 Polar HRMs and reading Azdak's blog entries (linked above).