HRM Cals Burned - Fitness experts advice please!

kirstiey

Hey guys, just some advice really.

I am using my new HRM for a few weeks now (Which I love!!)

I am basically taking the total calories on the display, dividing it by the total mins it has been recording my efforts and then multiplying this number by the actually amount of mins I was in the Target heart rate (cardio / fatburing zone).

e.g. 60 mins work out, 400 cals. In target HR for 45 mins = 300cals burned in reality.

Is this giving me the most accurate reading?

Thanks peeps

kirstiey

No experts, there are usually loads of them on here LOL

kirstiey

BUMP

kirstiey

mmmmmm

dad106

What you are doing makes no sense.

If you HRM has a chest strap, then it should be taking into consideration all heart rates.. Be it if you were in the fat burning/cardio zone, under that zone or about that zone.

You burn fat and calories no matter where the heart rate is.. so doing this seems kinda of silly.

kirstiey

No You don't understand what I mean.

I know I burn cals whatever the heart rate is (this is my BMR) but I account for these in my daily activity. If I wore the HRM whilst sleeping it would show cals burned and I don't want to log these as exercise either do i?

I only want to log the EXTRA cals I burned through proper exercise.

Thanks for your constructive comments though......

dad106

No You don't understand what I mean.

I know I burn cals whatever the heart rate is (this is my BMR) but I account for these in my daily activity. If I wore the HRM whilst sleeping it would show cals burned and I don't want to log these as exercise either do i?

I only want to log the EXTRA cals I burned through proper exercise.

Thanks for your constructive comments though......

So what you want to be doing is taking your BMR dividing by 24 to figure out how much you burn an hour and then divide by 60 to figure out how much you burn a minute. Take that number times how long you worked out and then subtract that from the calories it gives you.

I think this is what you want.

Personally I don't see a point in doing this... I never do it and have lost weight just fine.

Di3012

No You don't understand what I mean.

I know I burn cals whatever the heart rate is (this is my BMR) but I account for these in my daily activity. If I wore the HRM whilst sleeping it would show cals burned and I don't want to log these as exercise either do i?

I only want to log the EXTRA cals I burned through proper exercise.

Thanks for your constructive comments though......

The HRM is only good for calorie burning during exercises. It's ability to record calories burned during sleep for instance are not accurate in the slightest.

and registering calories burned during sleep is not meant to be logged as "exercise" no, neither is the other 16 odd hours in the day whereby you just move around in your day to day business - these particular calories are what is included in your daily calorie allotment that you are given in your diary at the beginning of the day.. If your settings are logged as "sedentary" the only exercise you should log is that over and above your normal day to day living.

kirstiey

December child can you read the Orig post. You are out of context.

That is exactly what I am saying, which is why I ONLY want to log the amount of cals burned on the target Zone, not the general ones the HRM is logging whilst my heart is beating generally in warm up and cool downs.

Thanks again for all comments but please respond to the question, not the comments after it. :flowerforyou:

ItsANewMe2012

[/quote]

So what you want to be doing is taking your BMR dividing by 24 to figure out how much you burn an hour and then divide by 60 to figure out how much you burn a minute. Take that number times how long you worked out and then subtract that from the calories it gives you.

I think this is what you want.

[/quote]

This^^

Kirstiey - Its the BACKGROUND CALORIES which I believe you mean. I use a HRM during exercise too and I do deduct the background calories from my total calorie burn,as I don't want to be eating calories which have already been accounted for in my daily calorie goal.

liftingbro

There is no target zone, so forget trying to partition the calories burned that way. Target Zone is just a marketing tool. You do burn more fat calories at ~60% of max HR but you burn more total fat at higher HR.

So, you are over complicating things.

CyberEd312

You are way over thinking things. You go to the gym, you get on the elliptical, and hit the start button on your HRM and begin your workout an hour later (or whatever) and when your finished you hit the stop button on your HRM and when you get home you log your exercise calories into your MFP diary and it will add those calories into your caloric intake. (Which I eat every bit of my exercise calories back because your deficit to lose 1/2, 1, 2 lbs. is already built into your MFP loss projections for the week...) It really isn't any harder than that... Unless I am totally missing something......... ???

You are constantly burning calories while you are exercising only difference is what target HR zone you are working out in, but your calories burned are just that calories burned. The only difference is if you are burning more calories from fat stores in a lower zone (say zone 1 which is 40-50% of your max HR) or burning pure carbohydrates in an anaerobic zone ( say zone 4 which is exercising at 80-90% of your max HR)

kirstiey

So what you want to be doing is taking your BMR dividing by 24 to figure out how much you burn an hour and then divide by 60 to figure out how much you burn a minute. Take that number times how long you worked out and then subtract that from the calories it gives you.

I think this is what you want.

[/quote]

This^^

Kirstiey - Its the BACKGROUND CALORIES which I believe you mean. I use a HRM during exercise too and I do deduct the background calories from my total calorie burn,as I don't want to be eating calories which have already been accounted for in my daily calorie goal.
[/quote]

Yeah that's what I meant! xxxx standing around in gym burns cals but I don't want to count them and eat them, as I already have accounted for "standing around" in my activity level to create my deficit for weightloss, using the method above. I don't think I am over complicating things, I am just trying to be accurate.

Thanks all x

liftingbro

Yeah that's what I meant! xxxx standing around in gym burns cals but I don't want to count them and eat them, as I already have accounted for "standing around" in my activity level to create my deficit for weightloss, using the method above. I don't think I am over complicating things, I am just trying to be accurate.

Thanks all x

Most HRMs have a "pause" function. So if for some reason you stop exercising to stand around in the gym then just pause the workout and start it again when you get back on the machine.

kirstiey

Before everyone goes mental, I DO turn off the HRM between classes, by "standing around" I mean low impact stuff cool down warm up etc.

I think I will carry on doing it this way, unless my body tells me otherwise.

Thanks again for all the comments

kirstiey

See I KNEW someone would jump on that! :laugh:

liftingbro

Before everyone goes mental, I DO turn off the HRM between classes, by "standing around" I mean low impact stuff cool down warm up etc.

I think I will carry on doing it this way, unless my body tells me otherwise.

Thanks again for all the comments

Do what you want but the entire idea is silly.

kirstiey

In classes you are at the mercy of the instructor, I don't do machines, that's the main reason I am asking this. If I paused every time I wasn't jumping around, I'd have repetitive strain injury in my finger from button pressing....it might burn an extra cal or two though :laugh:

jhardenbergh

You are way over thinking things. You go to the gym, you get on the elliptical, and hit the start button on your HRM and begin your workout an hour later (or whatever) and when your finished you hit the stop button on your HRM and when you get home you log your exercise calories into your MFP diary and it will add those calories into your caloric intake. (Which I eat every bit of my exercise calories back because your deficit to lose 1/2, 1, 2 lbs. is already built into your MFP loss projections for the week...) It really isn't any harder than that... Unless I am totally missing something......... ???

You are constantly burning calories while you are exercising only difference is what target HR zone you are working out in, but your calories burned are just that calories burned. The only difference is if you are burning more calories from fat stores in a lower zone (say zone 1 which is 40-50% of your max HR) or burning pure carbohydrates in an anaerobic zone ( say zone 4 which is exercising at 80-90% of your max HR)

Definately agree with Ed, you are making it way too complicated. Just log what you burn. If you trust your HRM is accurate, don't worry about all the math. I simply log what it reads. If it makes you feel better on MFP, put in that you're not even seldomly active and you'll be fine. I might think about your method if I put in my regular activity level as very very active. Don't overthink it, cause the more difficult you make it for yourself the less likely you will be to continue it.

liftingbro

In classes you are at the mercy of the instructor, I don't do machines, that's the main reason I am asking this. If I paused every time I wasn't jumping around, I'd have repetitive strain injury in my finger from button pressing....it might burn an extra cal or two though :laugh:

You do realize that you're way over complicating this? In the grand scheme of things your little tactic will make absolutely no difference. It's pretty much on the verge of being OCD.:laugh:

kirstiey

I will take that from someone who has lost 186lbs! Well done. Maybe I am a bit bonkers, but I was only asking. No need for some people to insult. It is MFPal. It's the PAL bit I like!

pkarim

I just take my total calories burned from the HRM usually it is around 700 for a hard workout and i enter that into here and it bumps my from eating 1200 to 1900 calories. It's very simple don't worry about calculating your bmr and dividing anything. It is a great tool especially if you have 1 with a chest strap it has worked very well for me good luck!

kirstiey

In classes you are at the mercy of the instructor, I don't do machines, that's the main reason I am asking this. If I paused every time I wasn't jumping around, I'd have repetitive strain injury in my finger from button pressing....it might burn an extra cal or two though :laugh:

You do realize that you're way over complicating this? In the grand scheme of things your little tactic will make absolutely no difference. It's pretty much on the verge of being OCD.:laugh:

It was meant to suggest that.....less obvious irony is clearly wasted....

kirstiey

Bully in life bully on the forum, only the method has changed I see...Thanks for SOME of the comments

What????

Since when is telling it like it is being a bully. Not telling you exactly what you want to here isn't bullying. We're trying to help you out, not bullying you.

Yes but only two of you are doing it in a ****ty way! Everyone else is managing to get the same point across without making me feel like a **** head. But cheers for that. Have a great day.

kirstiey

Thanks, I will chill out about the whole thing. It was just that I had plateaued and was worried I have mis-understood the cals burned thing and was over eating my calories.

Well some of the comments about me being a fool have certainly got my heart rate up, but don't worry I won't be logging that

trlyblssd79

I love my HRM but wonder sometimes if it is counting my calories right b/c when I put it on it always has my HR around 100-115 which is crazy as that is BEFORE I even workout. When ever I go to the doctor my RHR is always in the 75-82 range so I am wondering if it is counting me as burning TOO MANY calories since it has my HR pretty high to start off with???

hirensthenameliftinsthegame

December child can you read the Orig post. You are out of context.

That is exactly what I am saying, which is why I ONLY want to log the amount of cals burned on the target Zone, not the general ones the HRM is logging whilst my heart is beating generally in warm up and cool downs.

Thanks again for all comments but please respond to the question, not the comments after it. :flowerforyou:

Take it from me, you are making it more complicated for yourself then it really is, I have a heart rate monitor that tells you even more than just cals burned and effort, very fancy and all but no need for any of that. Do you know your VO2 max? Your heartrate at vt1 and vt2?

My point is that its just an adjustment of calories every other week until you start seeing minor losses...while keeping all the other variables the same. You can still try to calculate if you really think thats necessary, there isn't one heart rate monitor thats gonna give you the best calculation. Instead id repartition my time towards a better macro ratio and training protocol that goes hand in hand with the macro ratio.

brittbergh

You are way over thinking things. Just record what your trusty hrm says and be good with that. If you have hit a plateau than stop and reevaluate your goals and eating habits. Up the food intake maybe or change your workout routine for two weeks and see what shakes your body up.

Newf77

You are way over thinking things. You go to the gym, you get on the elliptical, and hit the start button on your HRM and begin your workout an hour later (or whatever) and when your finished you hit the stop button on your HRM and when you get home you log your exercise calories into your MFP diary and it will add those calories into your caloric intake. (Which I eat every bit of my exercise calories back because your deficit to lose 1/2, 1, 2 lbs. is already built into your MFP loss projections for the week...) It really isn't any harder than that... Unless I am totally missing something......... ???

You are constantly burning calories while you are exercising only difference is what target HR zone you are working out in, but your calories burned are just that calories burned. The only difference is if you are burning more calories from fat stores in a lower zone (say zone 1 which is 40-50% of your max HR) or burning pure carbohydrates in an anaerobic zone ( say zone 4 which is exercising at 80-90% of your max HR)

Best answer

Dtho5159

Wow not quite sure why you jump all over people who are trying to help you! I saw nothing "bullying" of the sort. Ive been using a HRM since August of last year. I start it right when my warm up begins and stop it after my cool down. Ive lost 41lb so far doing so. That is what most everyone I know who has a HRM does as well. I just don't see the point in being rude when people were trying to answer your question, regardless if they answered it to your approval or not.

inuit

I think i see where the OP is coming from.

Lets say i go to the gym for 2 hours (this is only an example) and i burn 500 calories in that 2 hours according to my HRM.

Well i would have probably burnt 100 - 150 just standing there doing nothing. Therefore i really only burnt an extra 350 - 400 calories from the extra exercise, therefore you should only log the 350ish not the 500 otherwise you are eating 150 too many calories.

Perhaps for the OP that amount bothers her or is making the difference. perhaps just eat half or three quarters of what your HRM says, at least that would give you a safety net if you feel you need one.

I wouldnt worry about it too much unless you are eating close or over the targets you have set. To me in the grand scheme an extra 150 a day is nothing as i have my targets set quite low and have a decent deficit without the exercise calories, but i can guess to others that 150 might mean the difference to them losing weight. I always log everything my HRM says and then sometimes i eat them all, sometimes none, but normally at least half, really depends on what i have done or am planning to do on that day.

After a few weeks you will work out what is best for you.