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Is a HRM Accurate during body pump

gemmaleigh1989
gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
edited January 13 in Fitness and Exercise
My heart rate monitor says I only burn 150-200 calories during pump (granted I am only 5 foot weighing in at 49kg) so I'm just wondering if this is accurate or not. I know heart rate monitors are mostly accurate during cardio/aerobic exercise so if my hrm tells me my burn during pump, can I expect it to be underestimated?

Replies

  • robhigareda
    robhigareda Posts: 47 Member
    That seems a tiny bit low, but not far off. The gains in weight lifting don't come from the immediate calorie burn during lifting. It's the calories you burn additional for the next 24hrs that are your real benefit, and the muscle you put on burns calories at rest all the time. Don't be discourage by low HRM numbers in pump, the more muscle you build the better off you'll be.
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    Thanks. I definitely am not getting discouraged, just trying to get a better understanding of the ccalories burned so I can accurately eat back the right amount of calories and so on.

    My hrm is a polar (with a chest strap) and I physically can't lift heavier at this stage and be able to complete the tracks so it's not like I'm slacking off either lol.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
    I am no expert, however although HRMs aren't accurate during lifting, pump is really move of a cardio class so I would say it would be pretty accurate.

    ETA: The burns sounds reasonable to me for a small person. I am also small and get low burns, hence why I will never been joining any of the challenge type threads of trying to burn 1000cals a day or whatever lol
  • CaffeinatedConfectionist
    CaffeinatedConfectionist Posts: 1,046 Member
    From what I understand, they tend to overestimate circuit training types of activities, or really most things that aren't pretty much straight aerobic activities. I have found this blog post helpful:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698

    This other article says that "unless your weight training is very vigorous circuit training, the HRM will be overestimating your calorie burn by a fair amount," but I'm not really sure what "very vigorous" counts as. I know my heart rate is pretty high doing pump, but I usually log my HRM minus 20 to 30%
    http://www.sparkpeople.com/community/ask_the_experts.asp?q=75
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