Calories Burned per Heart Rate Monitor

AUexit51

I use a heart rate monitor for my workouts primarily to monitor my HR zones. However, it also displays calories burned - but I'm not so certain about the accuracy. An intense workout that combines Interval Cardio Training and Weight Training will last about an hour, and the monitor says that I burn anywhere from 1200-1600 calories. Now, I'm a big guy (6'2", weight fluctuates between 260 and 290) - so that would explain why the calculation is above average, but that is a huge fluctuation.

Furthermore, I have used 3 different HRMs, and they all calculate the same - so I'm certain it's not a problem with the device.

Is it possible to burn that many calories in an hour?

lilybug13

Yes.

pjbercot

You are really kicking your *kitten* to burn that many but yes it is entirely possible. I am 5'8" and 226 An hour run at 160 BPM will generally burn close to 1000 cal for me.

erickirb

It is possible, but HRMs will over estimate your caloric burn burning the strength training portion as the calculation it uses assumes a certain oxygen uptake that does not happen during strength training. Even for intervals it will be slightly over estimated ad the calc assumes you are doing steady state cardio.

And on top of the above issues HRMs give you total calories burned, which includes what you would have burned had you not worked out. So it is best to back out maintenance caloires from the final number. So in your case your maintenance is probably about 1.75-2 cals/minute, so if in the houg is shows 1200 burned you should back out 120 (60 min * 2cals/min burned while not working out) so you would enter 1080 into MFP instead of 1200.

Huskeryogi

I'm 5'11, female and 170-175lbs and during an hour of intense workout I can get pretty close to 1000 so your numbers are probably pretty good.

One caveat - I do subtract out any calories I would have burned during that hour anyway so if my HRM says I burned 966 calories in 1 hour I usually subtract 95 before logging (see my most recent blog for how I did the math).

_SusieQ_

It is possible, but HRMs will over estimate your caloric burn burning the strength training portion as the calculation it uses assumes a certain oxygen uptake that does not happen during strength training. Even for intervals it will be slightly over estimated ad the calc assumes you are doing steady state cardio.

And on top of the above issues HRMs give you total calories burned, which includes what you would have burned had you not worked out. So it is best to back out maintenance caloires from the final number. So in your case your maintenance is probably about 1.75-2 cals/minute, so if in the houg is shows 1200 burned you should back out 120 (60 min * 2cals/min burned while not working out) so you would enter 1080 into MFP instead of 1200.

I have been worried my HRM was over lately also, so I have been logging a little less just to be conservative. Never thought about this theory above. Thanks for posting this, very helpful.

And yes, I can get close to 1000 cal burn doing an hour of Turbo Kick. It's pretty high intensity cardio and I'm a big gal.

TMcBooty

hrm's are pretty accurate, so I'd say yes.. for the cardio part.

jamie31

I use a heart rate monitor for my workouts primarily to monitor my HR zones. However, it also displays calories burned - but I'm not so certain about the accuracy. An intense workout that combines Interval Cardio Training and Weight Training will last about an hour, and the monitor says that I burn anywhere from 1200-1600 calories. Now, I'm a big guy (6'2", weight fluctuates between 260 and 290) - so that would explain why the calculation is above average, but that is a huge fluctuation.

Furthermore, I have used 3 different HRMs, and they all calculate the same - so I'm certain it's not a problem with the device.

Is it possible to burn that many calories in an hour?

I am a 6'2" female that weighs 200lbs and i burn about 1200 calories in a 90 minute run, so yes that is totally possible

becka63

I'm 5'11, female and 170-175lbs and during an hour of intense workout I can get pretty close to 1000 so your numbers are probably pretty good.

One caveat - I do subtract out any calories I would have burned during that hour anyway so if my HRM says I burned 966 calories in 1 hour I usually subtract 95 before logging (see my most recent blog for how I did the math).

This is a total hijack on my part and I'm sorry! But I would be interested in knowing the answer to this....I read your blog and using the equation in there I calculated I needed to subtract 75 kcals from my exercise calories per hour burned.

AUexit51

Thanks for the feedback. In the past, I didn't really pay much attention because it was just a number. Now that I'm using this tool, my caloric burn affects my "net calories" - and I don't want to blow that calculation out of the water with a wrong log of exercise calories.