HRM: Am I doin somethin wrong or is my expectation high?

mmreed

another vote for Polar - they are great HRMs.

I use a FT7 and love it.

Preacher224

The monitor I have must be worn slightly to the left side rather than right in the middle of the chest to work correctly. Try this and see if it helps. Also, I agree, 74 is a pretty good resting heart rate and even walking a few feet at a leisurely pace should raise it higher than that unless you are a marathoner or something. I would say the monitor is either faulty or needs to be adjusted. Hope this helps.

kmuree

My resting heart rate is anywhere from 74 - 85, and my heart rate when I'm hiking is around 140 - 170, when I'm running 120 - 140 and when I'm doing my workout DVD's anywhere from 130 - 180. My fitness zone on my Polar FT4 is from 129 to 180.

You need a better device. :laugh:

munchlaxx

Post workout, take the avg HR to this site with your stats and get your calorie burn estimate.
http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm

I'm so glad I discovered that webpage last week, it's been a huge help to me and my clueless self!

viannee

If it helps my resting heart rate when I first turn the HRM on is around 65 then if I get up and move around I'm up near 74 so that isn't much of a HR. What is your resting heart rate?

my resting HR is at around 64 (I measured it first thing in the morning for 3 days).

Also, as a very general rule of thumb, a vigorous workout should put you in the 6-12 calories per minute range. And by vigorous, I mean 60%+ of your max. Max heart rates differ strongly between individuals. A generic formula to use is 220 minus your age. Try that as your max HR to get a target HR for a good workout, and then adjust depending on your experience. For example, my estimated max HR is about 185, but I can easily hit that during a hard workout, so that means that my actual max HR is probably a bit higher.

You can get a basic idea of the relative accuracy of your HRM by comparing its results with the calculation from this site:
http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/calculators/calories-burned-calculator-based-on-average-heart-rate/

Your HRM results should be within 10% or so. The online calculator will also be more accurate if you know your actual VO2Max.

Here is a MFP blog post on HRM calibration:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/new-hrm-how-to-make-the-calorie-estimate-more-accurate-183102

Congratulations on getting one. Accurate measurements of your inputs and outputs are key to success at a healthy lifestyle.

OMG I am so confused! But I will study this. Thank you!

the person saying you dont need a HRM because you are just trying to lose weight is way off...

you DO want to know where your HR falls during cardio - especially if you want to manage the fat burn and fitness HR zones, but more importantly, if you are tracking your calorie burn you want to know how much you burn - a good HRM does that.

a good HRM is a fundamental tool for exercise and fitness assessment and ongoing tracking/monitoring.

Definately check it against your pulse so you can feel confident in what it reports.

Also - make sure your chest strap is used properly - most you need to wet the conductor pads to get good body signal and readings.

I'll make manual readings for the next few days so I can get a good baseline before I try this hrm again. Thank you!

74 as a max HR is low...I use a Polar FT4 and my resting heart rate is higher than that. Polar is pretty accurate IMO. You may need to invest in a higher quality HRM.

Thank you. I think I should. Oh man, I hope I get the best out of all this.

The monitor I have must be worn slightly to the left side rather than right in the middle of the chest to work correctly. Try this and see if it helps. Also, I agree, 74 is a pretty good resting heart rate and even walking a few feet at a leisurely pace should raise it higher than that unless you are a marathoner or something. I would say the monitor is either faulty or needs to be adjusted. Hope this helps.

Thank you! I'll try it and see it works better.

My resting heart rate is anywhere from 74 - 85, and my heart rate when I'm hiking is around 140 - 170, when I'm running 120 - 140 and when I'm doing my workout DVD's anywhere from 130 - 180. My fitness zone on my Polar FT4 is from 129 to 180.

You need a better device. laugh

Thank you! At least I know have a few baselines to test when working out. I wish I can return this thing. lol

munchlaxx

If in denial try the non gimmicky method :P
http://www.wikihow.com/Check-Your-Pulse

You know what? you're right. Maybe I don't really need all these thingamajigs.

Honestly, I was about to buy myself a HRM until I realized I had more important things to spend my money on right now (school prep, etc). I have found that by checking my pulse via my neck (during spinning, treadmill), I now know what my average heart rate is. Since I started doing that, it's made a difference in my weight loss. I'm now NOT eating all of my exercise calories back. lol (my previous calorie burn numbers were way off).

The brayden webpage someone mentioned earlier is a nifty thing to bookmark! That's what I've been using before I enter my exercise into mfp. It's a bummer to find out my heart rate isn't too high and I am really only burning like 3xx for 60 mins of spinning instead of 5xx...but, at least I know now.

viannee

If in denial try the non gimmicky method :P
http://www.wikihow.com/Check-Your-Pulse

You know what? you're right. Maybe I don't really need all these thingamajigs.

Honestly, I was about to buy myself a HRM until I realized I had more important things to spend my money on right now (school prep, etc). I have found that by checking my pulse via my neck (during spinning, treadmill), I now know what my average heart rate is. Since I started doing that, it's made a difference in my weight loss. I'm now NOT eating all of my exercise calories back. lol (my previous calorie burn numbers were way off).

The brayden webpage someone mentioned earlier is a nifty thing to bookmark! That's what I've been using before I enter my exercise into mfp. It's a bummer to find out my heart rate isn't too high and I am really only burning like 3xx for 60 mins of spinning instead of 5xx...but, at least I know now.

Thank you. Bookmarked and reading the site right now.

heybales

Honestly, I was about to buy myself a HRM until I realized I had more important things to spend my money on right now (school prep, etc). I have found that by checking my pulse via my neck (during spinning, treadmill), I now know what my average heart rate is. Since I started doing that, it's made a difference in my weight loss. I'm now NOT eating all of my exercise calories back. lol (my previous calorie burn numbers were way off).

The brayden webpage someone mentioned earlier is a nifty thing to bookmark! That's what I've been using before I enter my exercise into mfp. It's a bummer to find out my heart rate isn't too high and I am really only burning like 3xx for 60 mins of spinning instead of 5xx...but, at least I know now.

Here's an even niftier thing for that brayden webpage for calorie burn estimate.

It is of course more accurate if you can tell it your VO2max.
Outside doing a max test, the next most accurate thing as study found out, was a formula.

Here is how to estimate your VO2max to use on that page.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/577839-hrm-s-with-vo2max-stat-improve-calorie-estimate

Or you can use a calculator in my spreadsheet. HRM tab, second section down, just plug in your numbers above, and get results below.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/620206-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calcs-mfp-tweaks-hrm