Heart rate monitor accuracy

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lcmartin
lcmartin Posts: 163 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just began using a Polar F11 HRM. Does anyone know how accurate they are in terms of calories. It says that I'm burning around 700 for a normal 75 minute workout (mix of treadmill, wave machine, elliptical, weight machines, bike). But on the other hand, the machines are usually 200 calories lower? I want to make sure that I'm eating my exercise calories without eating too much.

Also, what site has the most accurate BMR? I've been on 3 sites and all have a different number ranging up to 1000 calories different! :noway:

Replies

  • lcmartin
    lcmartin Posts: 163 Member
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    I just began using a Polar F11 HRM. Does anyone know how accurate they are in terms of calories. It says that I'm burning around 700 for a normal 75 minute workout (mix of treadmill, wave machine, elliptical, weight machines, bike). But on the other hand, the machines are usually 200 calories lower? I want to make sure that I'm eating my exercise calories without eating too much.

    Also, what site has the most accurate BMR? I've been on 3 sites and all have a different number ranging up to 1000 calories different! :noway:
  • Fab140
    Fab140 Posts: 1,976 Member
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    the machines tend to guess-timate, which is why having a HRM is so important.

    As for figuring out your BMR.....I'm clueless!!

    Where are our resident HRM users!
  • PrincessLaundry
    PrincessLaundry Posts: 2,758 Member
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    the machines tend to guess-timate, which is why having a HRM is so important.

    As for figuring out your BMR.....I'm clueless!!

    Where are our resident HRM users!

    I don't know anything about your type of HRM. I have a Sportline HRM, and I am losing weight by following the calories it tells me to eat. So that seems to be working for me. As long as you are losing by using yours, it works. Right? LOL

    Did you use the BMR calculator from this website yet? I think unless someone boils you bit by bit using a chemistry set, you never can get a perfect BMR. LOL So let's not do that, K? Did you use the MFP BMR calculator yet? It is all...and I mean ALL guesstimates, sometimes over and sometimes under. So total the three numbers from the BMR calculators you found and divide by three.

    I have used the one from this site and it seems to be working for me.
  • PrincessLaundry
    PrincessLaundry Posts: 2,758 Member
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    Oh...To find the MFP (My Fitness Pal) BMR calculator:



    Click on TOOLS

    Under that tab click on the blue area where you see the BMR

    Now make sure all your information is accurate and click CALCULATOR

    There's your BMR!
  • snelfk
    snelfk Posts: 151 Member
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    When I first bought my F11, I too was skeptic about the calories. I set it up one more time to make sure I had done it correctly - then just trusted it. I have been losing by eating the calories it says I burned.
  • davidhaxor
    davidhaxor Posts: 9
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    my heart rate monitor (which is just a watch style , not the chest strap) it ststes in the manual that is is accurate with a variance of 10 bpm and i follow that, machines are a little less accurate most dont allow you to include height, weight, and age, which are all very important factors

    the treadmill i use is set for a female age 30 and weight 160, but im a guy 21 185lbs, when i run for 40 minutes at 6.5 mph, the treadmill states im burning about 200 less then my monitor, i go with the monitor becuase when u calculate it out with your age and wieght on MFP or other calculators its a closer representation
  • lcmartin
    lcmartin Posts: 163 Member
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    Did you use the BMR calculator from this website yet? I think unless someone boils you bit by bit using a chemistry set, you never can get a perfect BMR. LOL So let's not do that, K? Did you use the MFP BMR calculator yet? It is all...and I mean ALL guesstimates, sometimes over and sometimes under. So total the three numbers from the BMR calculators you found and divide by three.

    I have used the one from this site and it seems to be working for me.

    I did use this site and it gave me 1600 calories...the Mayo Clinic site gave me 2300 (for maintaining) and another site said 3200! I'm guessing that the other sites is already factoring in exercise calories, but still..that seems pretty high?
  • lcmartin
    lcmartin Posts: 163 Member
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    And woo hoo! Go ME for burning up 750 calories yesterday then!!! :drinker: (thats huge for me!)
  • PrincessLaundry
    PrincessLaundry Posts: 2,758 Member
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    Did you use the BMR calculator from this website yet? I think unless someone boils you bit by bit using a chemistry set, you never can get a perfect BMR. LOL So let's not do that, K? Did you use the MFP BMR calculator yet? It is all...and I mean ALL guesstimates, sometimes over and sometimes under. So total the three numbers from the BMR calculators you found and divide by three.

    I have used the one from this site and it seems to be working for me.

    I did use this site and it gave me 1600 calories...the Mayo Clinic site gave me 2300 (for maintaining) and another site said 3200! I'm guessing that the other sites is already factoring in exercise calories, but still..that seems pretty high?

    I believe the Mayo one is including your workout calories based on working out X amount of calories for X amount of days per week. I looked at that website and somewhere think that was typed on the page. ???

    If I ate 3300 calories that would be wwayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many.
  • Fab140
    Fab140 Posts: 1,976 Member
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    And woo hoo! Go ME for burning up 750 calories yesterday then!!! :drinker: (thats huge for me!)

    :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile:

    Go you!!!!
  • PrincessLaundry
    PrincessLaundry Posts: 2,758 Member
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    And woo hoo! Go ME for burning up 750 calories yesterday then!!! :drinker: (thats huge for me!)

    :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile:

    Go you!!!!

    Ditto! YEY YOU! :flowerforyou:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    And woo hoo! Go ME for burning up 750 calories yesterday then!!! :drinker: (thats huge for me!)

    :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile: :drinker: :bigsmile:

    Go you!!!!

    Ditto! YEY YOU! :flowerforyou:

    Had to join in WOO HOO!!!:drinker: ( I think i burn 750 cals a WEEK!!):laugh:
  • mamakitty
    mamakitty Posts: 249
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    for your BMR. put on your HRM and just sit and do nothing. see what cals it says after 1 hour and multiply that by 24. That may be a pretty good number for your BMR.
  • lcmartin
    lcmartin Posts: 163 Member
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    Thank you everyone!

    And I thought of wearing my hrm all day, but the dang thing beeps at me when I don't have my heart rate up high enough. Guess that I should read the instructions all the way. I'm sure there's a way to make it shut up or take it off of exercise mode and still keep track of my heart rate and calories?
  • BrandNewLaura
    BrandNewLaura Posts: 1,650 Member
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    I have the Polar F11 also and you can turn the beeping off. I did that when I wanted to wear it for 24 hours to see what my BMR was, but after about an hour of wearing it, I realized that I didn't really want to use up that much battery just for an experiment and I stopped it and took it off.

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