HRM question

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Shannonigans84
Shannonigans84 Posts: 693 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I recently got a Polar FT7. I have everything set up correctly but I have a hard time believing I'm burning what it says I am. I played the Wii game Walk It Out for an hour and a half today and my HRM said I burned 701 calories. That seems like a lot for just walking in place at a decent pace.. any thoughts? I'm 5'10 and in the healthy bmi range at 165lbs.

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  • sjtreely
    sjtreely Posts: 1,014 Member
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    Yes, that seems high to me too - considering you're in a normal bmi.
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    It's possible.. and hour and a half is a long time to be walking. Was the room warm? That also can cause an increase in calories burned.

    Plus BMI has nothing to do with HRM calculations... It should be based off of weight, height, gender and age.
  • sjtreely
    sjtreely Posts: 1,014 Member
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    Her normal range bmi would indicate to me she's more healthy than non-healthy making it easier for her to handle the task at hand and not elevate her heart rate to burn 700 calories.

    If she exercised at a brisk pace for an hour and a half, she walked probably somewhere around 6 miles. That's a tough pace to keep up for 90 minutes if she's not in some kind of decent shape. 6 miles should be around 600 calories give or take ... but I don't see her earning 700. To me it seems generous.
  • Shannonigans84
    Shannonigans84 Posts: 693 Member
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    It's possible.. and hour and a half is a long time to be walking. Was the room warm? That also can cause an increase in calories burned.

    Plus BMI has nothing to do with HRM calculations... It should be based off of weight, height, gender and age.

    I just meant my weight is normal to help paint a picture if I should question my HRM. I'm also 27 years old. The temp was 74 degrees, so not warm to me. I got this thing to help, but I can't help but doubt it.
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    It's possible.. and hour and a half is a long time to be walking. Was the room warm? That also can cause an increase in calories burned.

    Plus BMI has nothing to do with HRM calculations... It should be based off of weight, height, gender and age.

    I just meant my weight is normal to help paint a picture if I should question my HRM. I'm also 27 years old. The temp was 74 degrees, so not warm to me. I got this thing to help, but I can't help but doubt it.

    I have an FT7.. and for an hour and a half of walking, it may be high.. but it may also be right. It depends on what kind of walking you are doing too.. If its more high impact, I can see you burning more then if it was just a leisurely pace.

    The taller you are and the more that you weigh, the more calories you will burn. 74 degrees may not seem warm to you, but I know that when I exercise in heat(even 74 degrees that doesn't seem warm) the calories burned on my HRM is elevated.

    Also check that the strap is tight enough, the contacts are wet.. all things that can affect a reading.
  • sjtreely
    sjtreely Posts: 1,014 Member
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    I agree. 74 degrees would be warm for me. I'm not sure where you're located, but most people would be pretty warm exercising in that temperature. Doable, but warm.

    Did you leave the HRM on longer than you exercised? If you cooled down with it on, it would have added more calories burned for that, too.
  • Shannonigans84
    Shannonigans84 Posts: 693 Member
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    It's getting cold here in Minnesota, so 74 is still cool to me transitioning from summer. The strap is tight and it stays wet. I just don't want to get my hopes up that I'm burning that much. It's too soon to tell if exercising is helping me lose weight, my diet hasn't changed since I think it was fine, so hopefully I'll see some progress. Thanks for everyone's input!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    It's possible.. and hour and a half is a long time to be walking. Was the room warm? That also can cause an increase in calories burned.

    Plus BMI has nothing to do with HRM calculations... It should be based off of weight, height, gender and age.

    A warm room MIGHT lead to an increase in heart rate, but it will not increase actual calories burned (the HRM will overestimate under those conditions).
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I recently got a Polar FT7. I have everything set up correctly but I have a hard time believing I'm burning what it says I am. I played the Wii game Walk It Out for an hour and a half today and my HRM said I burned 701 calories. That seems like a lot for just walking in place at a decent pace.. any thoughts? I'm 5'10 and in the healthy bmi range at 165lbs.

    The primary reason why an HRM will overestimate your calories burned is if your HR is higher than the "age-predicted" formula that the HRM uses estimate your max HR. In other words, according to the "220-age" formula, the HRM assumes your max HR is 193. If your actual max HR is, say 205, then it will assume that you are working harder than you are. If you did the "fitness test" (can't remember if the FT7 has one), it may be that your resting HR is low, so it assumes your fitness level is higher than it is.

    At your weight, walking at a speed of 4.0 mph for 90 min would result in a calorie burn of about 500 calories. The fact that you did the workout for 90 min suggests that it was not that intense. I would think that 500 is an "upper limit" figure.
  • Shannonigans84
    Shannonigans84 Posts: 693 Member
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    Thanks! I had a 20 min break where I paused the workout (wasn't recording HR) because my daughter came home from school. I'm not in very good shape so I'm not really sure what my max heart rate is. The formula suggests 193. My average HR for my fast walking is 122 and max is 140. It says I'm in fitness mode most of the time. I'm just stumped.

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