Quest for those with Heart Rate Monitors

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justal313
justal313 Posts: 1,375 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
When I'm using fitness machines, should I pause the counter (for calories burned) when I get up to grab the bottle of cleaner or I'm waiting for the next machine to free up or generally not working?

What do you do?

Replies

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I leave it running the entire time.
  • thekarens
    thekarens Posts: 254 Member
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    I used to pause it, now I just leave it on. Half the time I would forget to turn it back on. I don't think it's worth turning off for the 30 seconds it takes to clean the machine or 10 seconds to take a drink or walk to different equipment.
  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
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    I leave mine running for my entire workout, even when I'm just sitting around resting between sets. I know it's not highly accurate that way, but I like to know what my heart rate is!
  • LBachynsky
    LBachynsky Posts: 64
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    No, leaving it running till you're completely done and cooled down.
  • kennie2
    kennie2 Posts: 1,171 Member
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    leave it as your heart rate is still high when you come off the machine, so unless youre gonna be walking round or sitting down doing nothing for 5 minutes its pointless
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
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    I leave it running. I don't use my monitor to calculate calories, only to observe my heart rate.
  • laurasimmons
    laurasimmons Posts: 578 Member
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    I leave it running
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
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    When I'm using fitness machines, should I pause the counter (for calories burned) when I get up to grab the bottle of cleaner or I'm waiting for the next machine to free up or generally not working?

    What do you do?
    I keep working when I'm "not working" - if I'm waiting between machines I do lunges or whatever to max out the calorie burn.

    I do switch it off straight after I finish, even though my heart rate is still high. Some people think that if your heart rate is high you're burning calories, but that's back to front. The higher heart rate is just what the HRM uses to estimate how much physical work you're doing, if your rate is high and you're resting you're not burning any more calories than if you were sitting at home on the sofa.
  • spinedocmfp
    spinedocmfp Posts: 109 Member
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    I leave it on. I only rest about a minute between sets, and usually my heart rate doesn't drop, I am sweating and breathing hard most of the workout. If you wanted to get crazy about it, divide your daily calories before the deficit by 24. That is your calories per hour base level. Then multiply that by your work out length and that is your base calories burned during you work out. eg. If your HRM says you burned 500 in an hour, subtract the base calories burned for an hour and that takes out your "rest" calories from your workout. I feel that my metabolism is raised my whole work out and even after, so I don't worry about the "rest" calories.
  • firedragon064
    firedragon064 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    Depend how long you have to rest. If it's over 3 minutes, pause!
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I leave mine running for my entire workout, even when I'm just sitting around resting between sets. I know it's not highly accurate that way, but I like to know what my heart rate is!
    But that's just it. It IS accurate. It's YOUR heart. :-)
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
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    I leave mine running for my entire workout, even when I'm just sitting around resting between sets. I know it's not highly accurate that way, but I like to know what my heart rate is!
    But that's just it. It IS accurate. It's YOUR heart. :-)

    Exactly. It's accurate for your heart rate, that's a direct measure. It's not accurate for the number of calories burned. The reason I bought a monitor in the first place was because whenever I tried to stay within the zones on the machines I could barely break a sweat. I realized that I have a faster heart beat. It's not uncommon for smaller women. Their hearts tend to be smaller, so their hearts beat faster, or at least that's my understanding.

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