Heart Rate Monitor- lots of questions

beckysiz

I exercise often, but my resting heart rate is still pretty high-often in the 80's. When I work out my heart rate goes up to 170, sometimes even a little higher than that.

My partner's resting heart rate is usually 66 or so and when she works out it goes to about 120. She is a lot bigger than me and has way more to lose than me, but according to the heart rate monitor I burm WAY MORE calories than her because my heart rate goes higher.

How is this possible when she is so much bigger than me? I know mine is still going higher than hers, but with her having so much more weight to lose you think she would burn more.

How accurate are heart rate monitors? Is it going to be way off if it doesn't ask for your gender?

I heard that you shouldn't wear the monitor when you are lifting because it over estimates your burn- that HRM are made for cardio only.

That being said, I have been doing 30 minutes of pretty intense cardio and 30 of lifting- is this enough to really start toning up? Should I increase either/both of these? I used to to 45-60 minutes of cardio, but recently dropped back so I could start lifting as I was at a stand still with the weight loss and I really need to tone up- I have a lot of excess skin....

jamaicanlady

I exercise often, but my resting heart rate is still pretty high-often in the 80's. When I work out my heart rate goes up to 170, sometimes even a little higher than that.

My partner's resting heart rate is usually 66 or so and when she works out it goes to about 120. She is a lot bigger than me and has way more to lose than me, but according to the heart rate monitor I burm WAY MORE calories than her because my heart rate goes higher.

How is this possible when she is so much bigger than me? I know mine is still going higher than hers, but with her having so much more weight to lose you think she would burn more.

How accurate are heart rate monitors? Is it going to be way off if it doesn't ask for your gender?

I heard that you shouldn't wear the monitor when you are lifting because it over estimates your burn- that HRM are made for cardio only.

That being said, I have been doing 30 minutes of pretty intense cardio and 30 of lifting- is this enough to really start toning up? Should I increase either/both of these? I used to to 45-60 minutes of cardio, but recently dropped back so I could start lifting as I was at a stand still with the weight loss and I really need to tone up- I have a lot of excess skin....

I can't necessarily answer your questions but I can tell you that you and I are similar. I'm 5'1 and weight 132 lbs. My resting heart rate is in the 80s and when I work out doing Insanity it goes up to as much as 186. In terms of calories though I don't burn a lot. An average of 350 for a half hour Insanity session (although I take plenty of breaks). Not sure about the accuracy of HRMs, but I have a Polar FT7 and it seems to work well according to reviews. It DOES ask for gender as well as age and weight.

I would expect someone bigger to be getting a bigger calorie burn but that's just a guess on my part, I don't know for sure.

In terms of lifting, I was told the same thing not to wear the HRM because you won't get an accurate reading. I still wear it though and I've been using the numbers it gives me to work out my calorie deficit each day and I've steadily been losing 1 lb a week. So i don't know...