What can I do with a HRM ?

3foldchord

My mom is letting me use her HRM to see how one works. It is a (older-ish) Polar, it uses a chest band and a watch. (I won't get it from her till the end of September.


MY Question...... Can I wear it all day to see what my BMR is? Like if I am havng a bad allergy day so just laze around all day watching Netflix, wearing the Polar device, would it tell me calories used all,day, being sedentary?
I figure as often as I get migraines or have bad allergy days, I might as well use that time to check my sedentary calorie burn.

MTBrob

All a heart monitor does is follow a math equation .. It Takes your height, and your weight and your age and puts it into a little computer and then based on your actual Heart rate will spit out how many calories it THINKS you burned..

NO different than a elliptical but obviously a lot more accurate than one..

So yes... You can get a HRM wear it all day and get a general consensus of what you burned in calories for the day..


However keep in mind its called a Heart Rate Monitor, NOT a How many Calories did I burn Monitor.

3foldchord

Thanks, that is how I figured it worked, but I was reading yestrday about HRM being better for active exercise (compated to FitBit) so wasn't sure if they did their thing while sedentary.

All a heart monitor does is follow a math equation .. It Takes your height, and your weight and your age and puts it into a little computer and then based on your actual Heart rate will spit out how many calories it THINKS you burned..

NO different than a elliptical but obviously a lot more accurate than one..

So yes... You can get a HRM wear it all day and get a general consensus of what you burned in calories for the day..


However keep in mind its called a Heart Rate Monitor, NOT a How many Calories did I burn Monitor.

GauchoMark

They will work for what you are saying, but it is just another estimate. It is up to you to decide how accurate the estimate is for you, and unfortunately, the only way most of us have to do this is trial and error - stick with a plan for a month or two and see how it works for you and make changes as necessary (but give the changes time to work too!)

yarwell

they do tick along estimating your resting calorie consumption, but I believe the accuracy is poor if your heart rate is below 100 as they're intended to measure exercise at elevated heart rates.

3foldchord

they do tick along estimating your resting calorie consumption, but I believe the accuracy is poor if your heart rate is below 100 as they're intended to measure exercise at elevated heart rates.

Thanks for the info, that sort of answers queries, like 'why are they better for active exercise?' and will be good information to have for this experiment. My daytime / awake resting heart rate is often around 90. I was just curious to see what it would say, compared to the online BMR calculators. I do more 'science experiments' than my kids and ask "Why?" and "Why not?" more than a 4 year old does.