HRM and cooldown

WillowLeaves

Hello everyone. I am a 5ft4 123lb female. I am in shape, but i jog/walk when I workout. I have a polar HRM and my question is how accurate is it when you are cooling down? My heart rate is still pretty high on my cool down, but i don't want it to be inaccurate

juliapurpletoes

I have a Polar HRM too and I would think it is accurately calculating calories even throughout your cool down period. Once you are down to your resting heart rate (if you even left it on that long) folks here tell you that it isn't so accurate. But even at a low cardio intensity it should still be doing its job. Have you checked their website for other info?

Since you are interested in accuracy (I am too, since I only had 25 to lose when I started) another thing to do is to subtract off your "resting calories" from what your HRM tells you and then log that number on your exercise. It isn't so important for those with 50 or more pounds to lose because they have larger fat stores and more wiggle room in their diets.

To find that number, go to the BMR tool here, see what it says for you, then divide it my 24, then again by 60. This will tell you how many caloires you burn per minute just resting. Once you subtract that off your HRM score after working out, you are left with your actual exercise calories. It is important to only eat back those!

Best of Luck!