POLAR HRM vs MFP

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  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Lets put it this way..

    HRM's when set up correctly(age, weight, height, gender) and used during steady state cardio(IE walking, running) are going to be 80% accurate. Add in Vo2max or tweak max heart rate and it goes up to about 90% I believe.

    Personally, I wouldn't back out anything for risk of screwing up those percentages even more... I never did and lost weight just fine.

    actually you will over estimate if you don't back them out as you would double count the maintenance calories portion, once on the HRM and MFP already accounts for them in your daily caloric intake. So by not taking them out you would be increasing the inaccuracy.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I used to use MFP for working out my calories then got dubious and ended up buying a FT4 polar. While some things were quite accurate others were way out! As other people have said the HRM knows how hard your heart is working MFP doesnt :) I use my HRM for each exercise then just log the calorie in MFP and make it the same. For example i go to the gym for an hour and burn 450 calories so i just pick a random item for cardio and play with the minutes until i reach 450 caloies lol.

    Instead of playing with the minutes, just go over to the cals burned box and override the number MFP has there.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I have the same problem with a high resting hr and silly high hr while running. If i wear the Polar HRM sitting on the sofa for an hour it says I use 250 calories. I've tended to go with the MFP values which are usually around 200 less than what my HRM says and have managed to lose weight as predicted.

    I would suggest changing the max HR in your HRM, to 205 or something that way when you run you will be a lower % of max HR, as if you HR is naturally high, your max HR is probably much higher then the 220-age that is programed in the HRM.

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