HRM vs. Machine calories burned

jacqueline0821

So I have a Polar HRM with my user settings entered. I worked out for an hour on an arc trainer and my HRM says I burned 344 calories. Now when I got on the arc trainer I plugged in my weight and it was picking up my heart rate from my monitor and it says I burned 471. Which one to I rely on??? The only difference is that the HRM has my age.

Anyone with some advice would be great!!!

Thank you!

xdudeitsliz

I've been told to rely on your HRM. The machine, from what I have noticed, overcompensates what you actually burn. Even the HRM might, but at least you know that its not outrageous. I would go with the HRM

lilchino4af

HRM. It has a constant read on your heart rate whereas teh machine takes samples and averages them together giving you an estimate of how many calories you burned. HRM tells you what you DID burn. Hope that makes sense.

Azdak

The Arc Trainer uses one set of equations for determining the aerobic intensity of the workout, the HRM uses a completely different methodology. Which is more accurate? Depends on how accurately the setup info in the HRM matches your actual physiology. Also depends on how accurate the equations are that are built into the Arc Trainer. The Arc Trainer has a unique movement so they would have had to develop their own algorithms based on testing a large group of people. Or they just extrapolated data from another study or machine.

Knowing what I know about the industry and about Cybex, I would guess that the Arc Trainer number is a little high, but, 471 calories for an hour of work is not an exorbitant number, even at your weight. To be on the safe side, I would just split the difference.

Azdak

HRM. It has a constant read on your heart rate whereas teh machine takes samples and averages them together giving you an estimate of how many calories you burned. HRM tells you what you DID burn. Hope that makes sense.

If you are wearing an HRM, the machine uses the constant transmission of data from the chest strap--just like the monitor on your wrist. Actually, any machine that is Polar-compatible actually uses a Polar receiver which plugs into the display circuit board.

Oh, and HRMs only estimate calories burned as well--they do not directly measure caloric expenditure.

jacqueline0821

HRM. It has a constant read on your heart rate whereas teh machine takes samples and averages them together giving you an estimate of how many calories you burned. HRM tells you what you DID burn. Hope that makes sense.

If you are wearing an HRM, the machine uses the constant transmission of data from the chest strap--just like the monitor on your wrist. Actually, any machine that is Polar-compatible actually uses a Polar receiver which plugs into the display circuit board.

Oh, and HRMs only estimate calories burned as well--they do not directly measure caloric expenditure.

So even if the arc trainer is picking up my constant heart rate I should rely more on my actual HRM because it has more personal data entered? I just want to be sure that I am understanding you correctly. I really appreciate your feedback.

nukehiker

ok so this is a perplexing question that i wish i knew the true and accurate question to also !! so maybe someone can guide me a little bit in regards to what value to use. so I am male 5'10" 207 and 48 y/o for a 30 minute cardio session on the arc trainer my polar HRM will read about 325-350 depending upon how vigorous i am in my session etc. now by comparison when i in put my info into the arc trainer it only asks me my weight i think for the same 30 minute cardio session it will say i burn about 500-550 calories. any thoughts ? i know most will say to use the HRM but am i recording the true calorie burned value ?

bachooka

My advice is that if the number is not off by a crazy outrageous number... go with the lower one. If it turns out you were wrong you get a bonus instead of a deficit!

Nigel99

If you are wearing an HRM, the machine uses the constant transmission of data from the chest strap--just like the monitor on your wrist. Actually, any machine that is Polar-compatible actually uses a Polar receiver which plugs into the display circuit board.

Oh, and HRMs only estimate calories burned as well--they do not directly measure caloric expenditure.

Interesting! I had no idea the machines could receive the info from the chest strap. The other day I ran on a treadmill for the first time, and I was really surprised at how darn accurate it was with my heart rate compared to what my watch was pulling from the chest strap. That explains that! Calories on the machine were a bit low for what was burned, however.