What to believe...Polar FT7 or the gym machines?

LilacDreamer

just tried my new polar ft7 and it says i burned 868 calories...can that be right? i did cardio for like 24 minutes and strength/weights for the rest of the time (totaling 1hr and 19 minutes). the treadmill said i burned 256 calories....so where is the 868 coming from?

KareninCanada

Depending on your body weight and intensity of your workout, weight lifting does burn a fair amount. One website lists it is over 500/hour for a 200-lb person doing a vigorous workout, for example.

LilacDreamer

Depending on your body weight and intensity of your workout, weight lifting does burn a fair amount. One website lists it is over 500/hour for a 200-lb person doing a vigorous workout, for example.

i'm 254 lbs. i wasnt on super high intensity but i was trying to get as much done as possible before the gym closed - didnt really space out the "reps" and such...just went at it to get it done.

heybales

Depending on your body weight and intensity of your workout, weight lifting does burn a fair amount. One website lists it is over 500/hour for a 200-lb person doing a vigorous workout, for example.

i'm 254 lbs. i wasnt on super high intensity but i was trying to get as much done as possible before the gym closed - didnt really space out the "reps" and such...just went at it to get it done.

HRM calculations, even the best from Polar, are only valid for aerobic activities in the 90-150 bpm zone.
http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm
Outside of this very inaccurate calculations.
And anaerobic activity within that range is going to be inaccurate too.
Polar has one HRM that claims to better estimate weight lifting calorie burn, not sure what they do different.

So while interesting during weights, over-estimated probably.

Also, you may want to confirm you got all the settings on there correct anyway. MHR is the one they calc for you, but you can correct it.
If you don't know your HRM figure, it goes off calculation, and for women it is really off potentially. Guys luck out.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/466973-i-want-to-test-for-my-max-heart-rate-vo2-max

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study

nz_deevaa

Is your Polar set up correctly? (weight, height, age etc) If it is, then there is no reason not to believe it.

I do a 45min PT session which includes 15mins of cardio and the rest weights and abs, and I burn approx 400cals. I know if I stay and do more (cardio usually) after my session my numbers go up pretty quickly.

LilacDreamer

Is your Polar set up correctly? (weight, height, age etc) If it is, then there is no reason not to believe it.

I do a 45min PT session which includes 15mins of cardio and the rest weights and abs, and I burn approx 400cals. I know if I stay and do more (cardio usually) after my session my numbers go up pretty quickly.

yup i set all that stuff up before i put it on. didnt want the calculations to be off. but the polar ft7 does not have the vo2max. i also do not know my max heartrate. it tried to put it as 193 but i lowered it to like... 165 i think

snookumss

You also need to understand you have math to do now.

If I work out for 6 hours, yes I burn a ton of calories. HOWEVER. MFP already accounts for that six hours if I don't work out so I have to take out extra calories I would have burned anyway.

You take your maintenance calories/24 (hours)/60 (minutes) to find X burned per minute no exercise.
Times X by the minutes you worked out for Y.
Subtract Y from calories shown on HRM for actual extra calories burned to enter into MFP.

Your HRM isn't SUPER accurate for weight lifting, but its better than guessing! You burned more calories doing that as well than not doing it.

abraam

I would go with the FT7. I just bought one a couple weeks ago and I only use it for cardio exercises, but not for weight lifting. It seems pretty accurate for cardio exercises and I am really loving it!

LilacDreamer

I would go with the FT7. I just bought one a couple weeks ago and I only use it for cardio exercises, but not for weight lifting. It seems pretty accurate for cardio exercises and I am really loving it!

between the cardio and the weight machines, it gave me a reading of 868 calories for 1:20 minutes (about 25 minutes or so was cardio)
it just seems a little crazy.

how did you figure out your maximum heart rate? or did you just use the maximum heart rate the FT7 said?

nz_deevaa

You also need to understand you have math to do now.

If I work out for 6 hours, yes I burn a ton of calories. HOWEVER. MFP already accounts for that six hours if I don't work out so I have to take out extra calories I would have burned anyway.

You take your maintenance calories/24 (hours)/60 (minutes) to find X burned per minute no exercise.
Times X by the minutes you worked out for Y.
Subtract Y from calories shown on HRM for actual extra calories burned to enter into MFP.

Your HRM isn't SUPER accurate for weight lifting, but its better than guessing! You burned more calories doing that as well than not doing it.

When I was eating 1200 cals a day, I didn't bother worrying about the maths. I ate em all back. LOL.

Now I've upped my cals to 1500 a day, I like to leave some as a 'buffer' I don't worry about the maths, I just leave approx. 100ish.

Although I'm only doing an hour max, I can understand that if you are doing 6hrs it's probably worth calculating.

LilacDreamer

You also need to understand you have math to do now.

If I work out for 6 hours, yes I burn a ton of calories. HOWEVER. MFP already accounts for that six hours if I don't work out so I have to take out extra calories I would have burned anyway.

You take your maintenance calories/24 (hours)/60 (minutes) to find X burned per minute no exercise.
Times X by the minutes you worked out for Y.
Subtract Y from calories shown on HRM for actual extra calories burned to enter into MFP.

Your HRM isn't SUPER accurate for weight lifting, but its better than guessing! You burned more calories doing that as well than not doing it.

assuming i did this right...i switched my profile to maintenance for a minute to find out that my maintenance calories would be 2590
i did 2590/24/60
then took that and multiplied it by 80 minutes
and then took that total and subtracted it from 868

i got 724.111111111111111111111111111111

i dont know if i did it right. will i have to do this math every time?

I also need to know if the number that i set as my MAX Hr has anything to do with the calculations for my calorie count? because polar said 193..but i set it to around 165 because i didnt want to go to high...

heybales

i dont know if i did it right. will i have to do this math every time?

I also need to know if the number that i set as my MAX Hr has anything to do with the calculations for my calorie count? because polar said 193..but i set it to around 165 because i didnt want to go to high...

Yes you did it right.

Please see my post above for the HRM setup aspect, yes that figure is used for more accurate estimate.