Should I trust my HRM?

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amymeenieminymo
amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I went for the shortest bike route that I normally take today....usually i would burn about 300 calories on this route. My HRM didn't seem to be acting weird or anything, but it said I burned over 600! Should I trust this?

I haven't rode my bike in about three months, and I am at my heaviest weight right now (not that I was that much lighter earlier in the summer when I was riding more, maybe 3 pounds less) but would that really account for burning double what I normally do? It wasn't particularly windy and the weather was cool, I didn't even really feel like I was working extra hard.

Edit: I've had my HRM for about two years now, it's never seemed to give me any troubles before. It's a Polar F4

Replies

  • needamulligan
    needamulligan Posts: 558 Member
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    bumping because I'm interested in getting a hrm.

    Good luck finding out!
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Nope! What would have suddenly caused your burn to double. I think you knew the answer. There was some malfunction.
  • schmenge55
    schmenge55 Posts: 745 Member
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    Sounds suspicious to me. Was your heart rate way higher? I would guess not if you felt the effort was not different
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    Distance? Duration?
    What Is the weight that you set your HRM to?
  • lambertj
    lambertj Posts: 675 Member
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    I have a FT4 too and I have never had that happen, usually when the battery is dying or the strap needs to be washed I get a lower burn or it gets stuck on 00 HR. I would tend to think it's accurate. Perhaps put fresh batteries in the wrist part and the chest part and wash the strap and see if it happens again
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
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    Distance? Duration?
    What Is the weight that you set your HRM to?

    It was only 8 miles round trip, about 42 minutes so roughly 9 MPH...doesn't seem enough at all. I checked the weight setting, it is correct for my current weight (which I won't say what that is though :)
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
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    Sounds suspicious to me. Was your heart rate way higher? I would guess not if you felt the effort was not different

    When I was checking it, it was in the high 130's, low 140's which seems normal. The max was 159 which also seems normal for hills and such. I wasn't checking it in the very beginning, but when I checked it about 10 minutes in it was already reading almost 200 calories burned....at that point I should have only burned about 75 calories. Maybe it was flipping out during that first 10 minutes. Though even if I subtract out that 200 it's still way higher than normal, so I don't know.
  • RowanMyBoat
    RowanMyBoat Posts: 3 Member
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    Try using this. You also burn more calories when you have a higher weight so you might have had a problem with that.
    http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc
  • sh4690
    sh4690 Posts: 169 Member
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    The heavier you are the more calories you burn because your body has to work harder to move concerning the extra weight...

    So depending on how much you have gained and how active you were before, then yes, it is possible.
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
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    The heavier you are the more calories you burn because your body has to work harder to move concerning the extra weight...

    So depending on how much you have gained and how active you were before, then yes, it is possible.

    Yeah I considered that, but I've been yo-yoing the same 3-4 pounds for the last several months. So if I was lighter when I was biking more, it was only by a couple of pounds so I doubt that was it.

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