calorie burn question

gpies

Ok, so they say that when you begin to develop more muscle, your body will become more efficient and begin to burn more calories - even when "at rest " than it would have before. So, my question is - why, when you are developing more muscle and have the ability to burn more, you would see a lower calorie burn amount on your HRM rather than higher? I've heard mixed reviews on this and had some say you will burn more and others less. My HRM has been pretty consistant and I average 330 cals burned for different types of workouts. I haven't seen a huge change one way or the other. I have however not lost much in terms of the scale, but have in terms of measurements that I'm noticing recently and so have others (which is nice), but I was just thinking about this and wondering if anyone might know more on this.

:-)

mimi7grands

I suppose it could be that your heart rate is slightly lower for the same level of exertion. I'd think that you're still burning the same number of calories though. I'll be interested to see what some folks who are more into exercise have to say. I'm just getting into it!

hiddensecant

The lower calorie burn is the result of your heart being in better shape and not a result of strength training.

You're burning more calories while the HRM isn't on. But more so, your muscles are absorbing surrounding fat for energy while at rest. That's why the inches are going. The scale isn't moving as much as your inches because your muscles now need more water than it did before. But the pounds will move faster once the muscles become more efficient at repairing itself after a workout (wont need to keep storing as much water at that point).

tavander

I'm not sure what kind of HRM you have but I have to set a reminder for myself to remember to routinely update my metrics on my HRM. The metrics include, my resting HR, my weight and my fitness level (which is tested by my HRM).

My understanding is that when you become more fit, your body also becomes more efficient at burning calories thus the total burn is lower. Two ways that I combat this is to keep an eye on my HRM to make sure i'm not getting lazy in my workouts and that I challenge myself. Secondly, change up your workouts. If you do the same things all the time, the body get's use to it and becomes more efficient. I need to keep things mixed up to stave off boredom anyhow, so it helps there too

Azdak

HRMs do not count calories--they count heart rate. They ESTIMATE calorie expenditure, based on a number of assumptions about the relationship between heart rate and oxygen uptake during certain types of aerobic exercise (that's a simplified answer).

The energy cost for most steady-state aerobic activities is relatively fixed. When an HRM shows that your heart rate is lower for a given activity (e.g. running 6 mph), you are NOT burning fewer calories. Your VO2max has increased so that now that workload represents a lower percentage of your maximum than it did before.

The fact that the HRM shows a lower calorie burn is an artifact--it means--as another poster stated--that you haven't updated your metrics (i.e. VO2 max) or it means you have a cheapo monitor that probably wasn't that accurate to begin with.

Regardless of the accuracy of the calorie count, if you see your HR lowering for a given activity or workload, that's a sign that you can/should WORK HARDER.

DJH510

^^^^^^^^^^^ What he said! good man