Most accurate calorie calculation?

dad106

Who says you cant wear an HRM for 24 hours? I wore my Polar for 24 hours on a non exercise day to find out how many calories I burn without working out. I even wore it in the shower. The bottom line is, no matter what you use, its just an estimate. A good HRM or Body Bugg either one will work fine. Keep in mind that Body Bugg requires a subscription which runs $10 a month.

Uh, the manual? It states that HRM's are meant for exercise only I'm pretty sure... Their algorithm's for figuring out calorie burned estimations are meant to use elevated heart rate.. not resting, sitting around doing nothing heart rate.

Which is why Body Bugg is always offered up if you want something to wear all day.

Sully0511

Just got My Basis unit. It's a wrist watch: measures Heart rate, skin temperature, galvonic skin response, pedometer, and an accelerometer to track sleeping habits. One unit to rule them all... ain't technology grand!

Caviat: the company is still in it's infancy. no phone app yet. only water resistant. backorder can have a lengthy wait. lots of bugs to work out judging from the support blogs. Got my fingers crossed mine doesn't develop any....

stummee

The calorie formula for heart rate that I have seen from research is good for heart rates between 90 bpm - 150 bpm. You got to remember statistics, confidence interviews, size of the sampling pool of people, etc. I have not see any research regarding skin temperature and sweating. Sometimes you workout and you do not sweat as much and I question that to be used to calculate calories expended. I'm an engineer and I like numbers. HRM is really for cardio training so you can tell when you are in the aerobice or anaerbic zones so you don't overwork or injure yourself. In order to really get calories burned at the end, there should be a range using 95% confidence interval. Just find it hard to believe when you are not given a range for calories burned and it is just simply a number.

smiledriven

Any device that underestimates your calorie consumption will be the one that helps you loose more. Someone mentioned that Bodybug said they lost 350 calories vs 500 with the gym cardio machine estimate. So therefore, it sounds like body bug might possibly underestimate a persons number of calories burned, causing a person to work harder or eat less and achieve better results. Less accurate could have its benefits.

Also something I learn is that the gym machines use a gross calorie burn estimate. Meaning it counts the amount of calories you loose exercising plus the amount of calories your body already burns at a resting rate. You're deceived into thinking I lost 500 calories MORE from running for an hour, but really you lost 500 - 75 calories/hr from your resting metabolic rate = only 425 calories.

Here is a link that explains it. http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn.aspx

Personally I would prefer the HRM b/c there is more evidence based research correlating HR and calories burned. Plus you can track how your HR changes over time when exercising at the same intensity. Then pushing yourself to a greater intensity to keep yourself challenged and HR up. I love seeing how the body works and responds.

the_seraphim

Dont forget that if your digestive system does not digest the same calories as someone else.

for example, if you have rapid transit, then a sizeable portion of the food consumed will be ejected.
if you have slow transit then the max will be consumed.

the calories in/out debate is not simple...

how much of the calories eaten are used in keeping your body warm in winter, and how much of that is done by bacteria in your gut, vented as hot gas.

How efficient are your bodily processes, how fast does your hair grow....

there is no way to be sure. The only thing you can know is 1+1=2 and if you lose weight at the end of the day you can change only one of 2 things... the amount/type of things you eat, and how much extra exercise you do...

you cannot change your metabolism safely and in a controlled fashion... food diaries are useful in that they tend to expose the hidden calories that you don't realise are there and help with creating an effective long term diet (in the none weight loss sense of diet) for maintenance,

Once you get to a low calorie level for your body size (without lying to yourself) then you know to step up exercise.


The best way to calculate RMR

eat a controlled amount of food, measured and weighed to give exact calorie consumption.

do only your daily routine,

adjust food in until your not gaining or losing any weight

that is your RMR.

its a long, drawn out process.


in the end, what most of us want to do, is either lose fat, or gain muscle....

well thats simple... try, if nothing happens, change a variable and try again, repeat as necessary until the result you want starts to be achieved.

KBmoments

This is an old thread, but responding anyway I have a Polar HRM and I love it. I know nothing is 100% accurate so I just take my total calories burned and deduct about 15%. The HRM definitely shows that the numbers on the machines were over estimating! I still take into account that the HRM isn't error proof, hence the deduction... That way, I'm pretty sure I will not be eating back 'unburned' calories. Working great so far! Down 6 lbs in 6 weeks.

congruns

I know that my company program using the SonicPed is just an estimate based on gender, age, height and weight; and I can it in the water.

1 pound = 3,500 calories

10 pounds = 35,000 calories

35,000 calories / 365 days = 95.8 calories/day

Okay, so it's not exactly 100 but it's close enough and easy to remember. (You don't see food manufacturers advertising 95.8-calorie snack packs!)