Heart rate monitor confusion

emshair

I have bought a cheap "crane" heart rate monitor, I was/am planning on on getting a "polar"at some point but I thought i would start out with the crane as I found it really cheap,

My question is should I be subtracting any calories, when I done a test the other day while I was just sitting it said i burned 2.1 cals per minute,

I can't stop thinking about this and wish I bought the Polar, but would I feel the same if I bought one of them?

on my stationary bike it said that for 43 mins I burned 436 calories, I'm 5ft 9 1/2 and weigh 153.8 lbs at the minute

and for a 40 minute walk the calorie burn was 123 cals

I know its all an estimate but I don't want to end up over eating my exercise calories.

WaterBunnie

I've got one recently too but only tested it this weekend. Got a way higher calorie reading than the gym machines were giving me using the same heart rate and weight/age so I'm a bit dubious that it's reliable but I am going to test again next weekend (by doing exactly the same workout wearing my partner's polar hrm instead) and if his hrm gives me a reading closer to the gym machines than the Crane then I'll know to ignore its calorie estimation in future but it's still a good way to see what zone you are working in when away from the gym and the chest band transmits to the gym machines meaning I don't have to worry about holding on to the sensor handles to check it.

Mokey41

HRM's aren't accurate if your heart rate isn't elevated so pay no attention to the calories while you were just sitting. The burns sound a bit off to me.

If you use your partners Polar make sure that you change the settings to be for a female of your age, weight etc. It makes a huge difference to the burn.

WaterBunnie

Thank you. The Precor gym equipment doesn't ask what sex you are, just age and weight, which is strange, but both HRMs do. I got about 2.5 times the burn the machines gave me on the HRM so didn't use that figure for here.