Yet another HRM question...

Options
vanessa915
vanessa915 Posts: 68 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all!

I have a Reebok Precision XT HRM that I haven't used very much. I've been working out a lot more consistently lately and want to make sure I'm tracking my calories burned accurately. So I have it all set up with my age, height, weight, etc.

My confusion comes with how to read it though. If the HRM tells me after a workout that I burned 500 calories, does that include the calories I would have burned just sitting still? So I burn 500 during my 60 minute workout, but I would have burned 100 doing nothing, so I really only burned 400 calories? (Obviously the numbers are just made up ones for the example.) Is that how the HRM's work?

Also, how do I then enter that on MFP? Would I put in a workout of 400 cals, or 500 cals?

I tried to search for this question to see if someone else asked it, but didn't quite find it. Thanks in advance for your help!

Vanessa

Replies

  • heygirl1954
    heygirl1954 Posts: 92
    Options
    That is a good question. I put in the calories that I burn in the 60 minutes I work out, don't know if it correct or not. I would think you would though
  • Pineapples
    Pineapples Posts: 246 Member
    Options
    I always enter the amount the HRM tells me because even if you are standing still for a min or two your HR still higher than when in resting mode, besides you should be measuting your heart rate before starting, during and after doing whatever workout
  • adopt4
    adopt4 Posts: 970 Member
    Options
    I take mine minus what i would have burned otherwise (which for me is 250/hr right now) because MFP has already added those calories into my food, so I don't want to eat them twice. It seems to be pretty accurate. I would use it to test your "regular" calorie burn, I was using the 200 cal/hr and then when I used my HRM to test, found out I was burning more.

    If you are not using MFP's deficit for your eating, then you don't need to take out those extra cals, because they haven't been accounted for.

    Hope this makes sense, I just woke up. LOL
  • jljohnson
    jljohnson Posts: 719 Member
    Options
    I have the same HRM. It tells you calories burned...period. It does not take into account the calories you would have burned just sitting there. You will want to subtract out those extras. I would use your maintenance calories and divide it out by 96 to get the amount of calories in 15 minute increments. Then if you workout for an hour, take that number times 4 and subract from the number on your HRM. For example, I need 1650 calories to maintain, divided by 96 is about 17 every 15 minutes. So if I workout for 30 minutes, and my HRM says 200 calories, I enter 166 (200-34). Hope that helps!

Categories