How accurate is HRM when it comes to calorie burn.

Ianultrarunner

Who knows how accurate any of these devices are?
Use them as guides as TTWT said but it also helps if you enter the correct information in them such as sex, height and current weight (and update that every time you change weight).
Everyone is different and what you put in your body can affect how much weight and fat you loose or gain.
Concentrate on a mixture of weight training and cardio, eat your excercise calories for sure and drink plenty of water (not soda although the occasional one is ok).
Try to enjoy the workout and the rest will come.

withchaco

I think if you get your maximum HR and VO2max tested at a lab (the fitness test on Polar HRMs isn't going to be super accurate), and your HRM lets you custom-input your max HR and VO2max, the calorie count will be reasonably accurate for cardio.

Like TrainingWithTony said, though, there are so many factors that could affect your heart rate. I agree they're very useful as guides, but should not be taken as god's word or anything.

DanceYogaRun

bumping this thread.

I've been trying to sort out my HRM for the past few days - a Polar ft60. I've checked and double checked all of my info.

I'm 5'8, 174 lbs, female. My Vo2Max, as determined by my HRM, is 38 and polar initially had my MaxHR at 188, but I did an average of the top three MaxHR formulas and pushed it up to 190, letting it move my zones to match this. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/maxhr.htm

Yesterday, I did an hour on the elliptical. OwnZone (from polar) was active and MaxHR was set to 188.
HRM said 657, elliptical claimed 420.

Today, I did another hour on the elliptical. Own Zone was not activated, but I bumped MaxHR to 190.
HRM said 655, elliptical said 425. The gap is still over 200 calories!

Even if I subtracted out my BMR from the HRM only, it would be 590 vs 425.

Can anyone help me get this sorted? Do you think the HRM is accurate for me? My average HR was 147 today and 149 yesterday.