HRM Frustration!!! Help :(

jessihoover

I am sooo frustrated with my HRM and I don't know where to turn! Story: I am overweight I am 5lbs away from "2derland" but I can hold my own and workout all the time! MFP says Zumba=high impact aerobics should burn over 1000 calories for 1 hour. I wear and work my butt off with my HRM monitor and it says I only burn 500 calories. I am huffing & puffing & drenched in sweat usually at the end of my workouts. Circuit training for an hour my HRM=300 MFP=1000 calories.

I have a Polar FT7 HRM. I have changed out the batteries and I wet the band and am wearing it properly. I always get a signal. I have it configured correctly with my height/weight/etc. So is there something wrong with me/my heart? or the HRM? or MFP? I read forums on here about people significantly smaller than me burning way more calories than me by walking! I would have thought that since I am carrying extra weight that I would be burning more?

I try not to eat my fitness calories that often, I am just trying to meet my weekly fitness goals of burning 3000-3500 calories a week. What should I believe? What should i do?

Phrak

Your HRM is probably more correct and even then probably over estimating. Burning almost 17cal a minute is crazy.

dad106

Just want to point out MFP already has a deficit figured in for you to burn a pound, two pounds, etc a week. Anything on top of that is extra, and should be eaten back at the risk of making the deficit too large.

With that being said, I think your HRM is spot on. Do a search for Zumba and a lot of people burn between 500-600 calories an hour for it... 1000 calories seems way to generous.

Circuit training same thing.. 1000 calories, way to generous. You don't burn that much lifting weights anyway.... only like 100 calories in a half an hour or something like that.

Ambrogio1

Workout cals are buffers. Go with what monitor says and then just eat half of it. Thats 250. You always have 250 to play with

dixiech1ck

Do not beat yourself up.

Remember, what they "say" you will burn is a very skewed number based on averages. It depends on your height, your weight, and the level of intensity for the class. Heck, some classes I'm barely pulling in 450 calories burned but when I'm 110% invested, I'm getting it up to 630 calories. I also don't stop my HRM right after class. I wait til my heart rate goes under 100. Then I stop it. So I gain the remaining calories that are still burning.

ninerbuff

I am sooo frustrated with my HRM and I don't know where to turn! Story: I am overweight I am 5lbs away from "2derland" but I can hold my own and workout all the time! MFP says Zumba=high impact aerobics should burn over 1000 calories for 1 hour. I wear and work my butt off with my HRM monitor and it says I only burn 500 calories. I am huffing & puffing & drenched in sweat usually at the end of my workouts. Circuit training for an hour my HRM=300 MFP=1000 calories.

I have a Polar FT7 HRM. I have changed out the batteries and I wet the band and am wearing it properly. I always get a signal. I have it configured correctly with my height/weight/etc. So is there something wrong with me/my heart? or the HRM? or MFP? I read forums on here about people significantly smaller than me burning way more calories than me by walking! I would have thought that since I am carrying extra weight that I would be burning more?

I try not to eat my fitness calories that often, I am just trying to meet my weekly fitness goals of burning 3000-3500 calories a week. What should I believe? What should i do?

Your HRM is more accurate. Trust me when I say that many people who do Zumba aren't burning as much as they think they are. And sweat isn't always an indication you're working hard.
Just continue and be patient.


A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

hbrittingham

500-600 sounds about right. 1000 sounds way too high. I have an FT7 and it's quite accurate. It was an eye opener because I was using the machines at the gym to calculate my calories burned originally and the arc trainer was over calculating by about 150 calories per workout, but the treadmill was UNDER estimating my burn by about 150 calories per workout. I never use the MFP calculations. They are usually quite high.

BerryH

Here's the thing. MFP has a good guess based on your age, sex, weight and height. Your HRM does similar but factors in your heart rate too. You obviously work out regularly and are therefore quite fit. Your heart rate doesn't elevate as much as an unfit person of the same weight, so you burn fewer calories.

Huge kudos for the tough workouts you do and your progress so far :flowerforyou:

MinnieInMaine

Congrats on your success so far!

Any chance you're taking blood pressure meds? My gym buddy bought an HRM a few months ago and was shocked by how few calories she burned. We always figured her burns must be about the same as mine, maybe a little less because we're at the same weight but she's a bit shorter than me. Come to find out, she burns more like half of what I do, doing the same EXACT workouts because she's on blood pressure medication and therefore her heart rate is regulated and doesn't get as high as mine.

Sweat and is no real indication of effort because some people just sweat more than others. And huffing and puffing is more of an indication of how fit you are. What the HRM bases your calorie burn on is your actual heart rate and if it's not getting that high, yo're not burning that many calories.

As far as what MFP gives, as other posters mentioned, it's a total guesstimation and getting as high as 17 calories per minute (1000 for 1 hour) is pretty unreasonable. Usually 10-12 per minute is about right for a high intensity workout for most.

Good to know you're wetting the strap before use but also make sure you're rinsing it afterwards and washing it at least once per week as per the user guide.

dport7

I have the FT7 also. I'm very pleased with it. It does differ from every guesstament, I trust the FT7 with is's chest strap, means better accuracy.