Exercise Heart Rate vs. Nerves Heart Rate

Aliciaaah

I posted a blog today and brought up a question that I have absolutely no answer for, so I thought I'd bring it to you guys. Do you burn the same calories when your heart rate is high from nerves as you do when you're exercising?? I was on the elliptical today and for some reason it was really hard to get up into the 160's. But then later I was standing for about 10 minutes, just standing trying to convince myself to do a backhandspring and I was SUPER nervous, I looked down at my HRM and it was consistently about 158. Then after I did it, and a few other tricks, I looked down and it was 138. So it was definitely nerves. Does that change the calories?

BTW, I'm only asking because I'm curious, not because I'm stressing about those few possibly inaccurate calories. Here's an excerpt from my blog post that brought up the concern and a link to the whole thing if you're interested:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Aliciaaah/view/today-s-experience-my-first-blog-post-ever-272115


I stood there, probably for about 10 minutes. This is a little bit of what was going through my mind (okay, I said some of it outloud too). Every time I pictured myself doing it, I pictured me going face first into the grass, or straight onto my knees.
"Okayyy now. Okay now. It's now or.. well it's just now, cuz it's definitely not never.

*look to my left, look to my right* Nope too many people. *people clear* Okay, now.

*put my hands up* No. Okay, I'm not allowed to move till I do it. *look left, look right, adjust my shorts, adjust my ponytail* Fidgeting is moving, Alicia.

Okay now, wait, that guy is looking at me *He looks away* Okay, he's not looking. *He looks up again* ****. Okay, now

*raised my hands, sees them shaking* Oh ****. *raise my hands again, get dizzy (I do that when I'm about to do a backward trick)* Oh ****, that was the closest I got to actually doing it.

*raised my hands and see them shaking again* Okay, I know I said I wouldn't move, but I can't do it with these nerves. *did a backbend with a kickover to kick the nerves*

*Started thinking about the last time I got nervous doing one, turned out fine* Nerves gone, okay now.

And then I did it. And then I landed it. WTF was I so worried about???

On top of it all, the whole time I was standing there I kept looking at my HRM and my heartrate was like 158. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I'm probably burning more calories standing here nervous as **** than I was on that stupid elliptical. Then I looked at my HRM after doing it, 138. ahahahahaha So it really was nerves. Good to know.

But then it makes me wonder if nervous heart rates are different than activity heart rates and if they burn different calories..

neurochamp

That's a good question, and I'm interested to see if anyone with actual medical experience has anything to add, but here's my thoughts (as a part-time biology prof):

When your heart rate increases during exercise, it's to bring more oxygen to your muscles (after about 1 minute of strenuous exercise, your muscles have used up all of their "stored" energy and need oxygen to make more; coincidentally, this is also why you breathe harder during strenuous exercise - to bring in more oxygen for your muscles).

When your heart rate increases due to nerves (your 'fight-or-flight" response), it is your body's way of PREPARING to use your muscles in the event of an emergency (basically getting your body ready in case you need to run for your life for more than 1 minute; you can't afford to wait until your muscles "run out" of energy when your life/health are on the line), but it doesn't necessarily mean that you WILL use your muscles.

So... Using your muscles for hard work is what makes you burn calories during exercise. When you use your muscles, your heart rate increases, so measuring your heart rate is a convenient way to estimate how hard your muscles are working (and how many calories you're burning), but the change in your heart rate doesn't actually CAUSE the calorie burn.

While your metabolism may increase a bit temporarily when you're nervous (due to the same hormones that make your heart race, like adrenaline), I would assume that any metabolism boost you get from nerves doesn't really burn a significant number of extra calories unless you actually "act on" your fight-or-flight response by using your muscles to do hard work.

Aliciaaah

So from what I'm gathering, the muscle use is what burns the calories, not the actual heart rate. Heart rate is just a way to help measure muscle use.

It sounds reasonable enough, I was really hoping we could get more opinions on it.

Here's for hoping, my fingers are crossed!

davidmcgowan1987

I just went on a walk and i went past this hill that i was always told ghost stories about, it also happens to be completely pitch black (great for viewing the stars) and it makes me terrified everytime i go there until i get to the open part and look up,

long story short, i had my HRM on and it only went up by around 5 bpm after getting a massive surge of adrenaline (legs and arms and scalp went tingly and the tiredness in my calf muscles went away)

so i dont think it raises your heart rate so much as it diverts it to muscle instead of organs

just my observations

Jynus

> Do you burn the same calories when your heart rate is high from nerves as you do when you're exercising??

No. you do not. This is why HRM need to know your resting heart rate and max heart rate as a basis of comparison for their formulas to guesstimate calorie burn. Heartrate during cardio is somewhat accurate. Heartrate while doing anything is is meaningless to calorie burn.