Heart Rate Monitor Accuracy?

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dp1228
dp1228 Posts: 439 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Up until about a month ago I thought that heart rate monitors were extremely accurate down the last calorie (like if I burned 567 then that's exactly what I burned). Then I started reading that that may not actually be the case. Maybe I'm just a little confused on how HRM's actually work. Basically I want to know how much should I actually report as my calories burned from workout. Should I be subtracting calories from what my heart rate monitor tells me just to be on the safe side? Hope there aren't a million questions like this one on the forums already. Just wanted to write it down before I forgot to ask again.

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  • Phrak
    Phrak Posts: 353 Member
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    Up until about a month ago I thought that heart rate monitors were extremely accurate down the last calorie (like if I burned 567 then that's exactly what I burned). Then I started reading that that may not actually be the case. Maybe I'm just a little confused on how HRM's actually work. Basically I want to know how much should I actually report as my calories burned from workout. Should I be subtracting calories from what my heart rate monitor tells me just to be on the safe side? Hope there aren't a million questions like this one on the forums already. Just wanted to write it down before I forgot to ask again.

    They are decent at steady state cardio, other then that they are pretty bad. Most of them are plus/minus 30% accurate.
  • jonnyk82
    jonnyk82 Posts: 24
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    Ugh! Glad to know I just wasted my money....
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Ugh! Glad to know I just wasted my money....

    I wouldn't say you wasted your money just yet.

    HRM's are a better way to get a calorie estimation but they are still an estimation.

    If you think about it, everything that we do is an estimation. Yes foods have a calorie count on them but can you say for sure that an apple has 80 calories? No.. it may be more or it may be less depending on different factors. Just like with HRM's.. depending on which one you get, how much info it has, and how good the calorie estimating formula is, affects it's accuracy at estimating.
  • dp1228
    dp1228 Posts: 439 Member
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    Bleh I'd really rather not have to worry about the calories being overestimated. I'm going to have to do some research to find one that is known to be pretty accurate. I currently have the polar ft4. Thanks for the help!
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Bleh I'd really rather not have to worry about the calories being overestimated. I'm going to have to do some research to find one that is known to be pretty accurate. I currently have the polar ft4. Thanks for the help!

    Polar FT4 is a good brand to have.. and from what I hear gives a pretty accurate estimation.

    The point is, nothing can tell you for sure that you burned 567 calories during exercise.. it's impossible.

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