HRM calories, walking

NovemberJune

Are HRM calorie estimates less accurate for walks? I took my kids for a 70 minute walk today, pulling them in the wagon. According to my HRM, my heart rate was from the low to high end of my target zone most of the time. I felt like I was working but not too strenuously. Well it said I burned 574!

Is it at all accurate? I'm used to burning about 10 calories per minute doing much more intense exercises. I do think my HRM overestimates in general because I'm near my max heart rate a lot.

It's a polar ft4 btw.

Forgive any typos, posting from mobile is difficult

NovemberJune

Actually, thinking about it, I'd probably burn 800 calories in 70 minutes of rollerblading. But I also feel like I can barely go on after about 35 minutes of that! Lol. I could have kept walking another 30 minutes or so

NovemberJune

Bump

AmyRhubarb

I usually burn 300+ when I go for an hour long walk. If you're keeping a good pace, it adds up!

gsager

I think the polar was right.

Reckabek

I burned 325 after a 60 min walk! Fast walking for me over a bridge! I was impressed that walking could burn that much, it was so easy and peaceful to!

clarebrad

I burn about that on my polar FT4. 70 mins is decent, i always make sure i am at least in the zone a good amount of the time, having my hrm has made me push harder on walk. Even when i go on shorter walks with the dog, but heart rate about 130 ish, i burn nearly 200 cals.

MAndrews723

Holy wow.. I've been wanting a heart rate montior.. and now I am determined to get one.. like NOW

StarIsMoving

Yours is a Polar and has the strap - so my guess is it was on target. As long as you wet the strap to make the communication fluid, there is no reason it wouldn't be accurate So... from my standpoint, don't worry about the over estimation, just throw yourself in for a good walk and enjoy the burn of the calories

Coolhand1969

What I keep wondering about is if one should subtract the calories from doing nothing for the amount of time of the exercise from the exercise calories....

Hood25

I'd say its pretty accurate especially if you were pulling a wagon and gettting your heart rate in your zone for that long of a time. My polar FT4 actually is lower compared to my treadmill and especially the MFP calculations. I think it is more accurate. I actually did 45 minutes on the treadmill and burned over 300 calories and immediately went outside and put weed killer on our lawn with a pushy thing and burned over 200 calories in 20-25 minutes! My guess is my heart rate was already up from working out and just doing brisk yard work kept me in the calorie burn zone.

abnerner

Absolutely! Just because you don't feel totally winded and exhausted after doesn't mean you didn't have a good work out!