HR Monitor vs MFP

katieyoung712

I have noticed that when I work out my heart rate monitor typically says I burn a great deal more of calories then when I put it into my fitness log. How do you record this? I have bounced back and forth between creating my own exercise and inputting it manually and just adjusting the time on the database exercise. What do you do?

Yogi_Carl

I kept putting on weight after exercise, or just not losing any, until I realised I was believing the calorie readings on my Polar FT40 HRM. Sold the HRM and I'm losing steadily - problem solved!

DavPul

i track my scale and if after a few weeks the trends isn't going in the direction i want, i adjust my food intake. calories from mfp or hrm be damned

PikaKnight

When I use my HRM, I'll record the # in my exercise notes. If MFP has a lower # than the HRM - that's the # I'll more likely use and vice versa.

jadams1650

Make sure you have the HRM set up correctly. I have the Polar FT-7 and if you have the wrong age, gender, weight, height in the watch, it will miscalculate your caloric expenditure. My HRM always shows about 20% less than the calories shown on the machine and MFP. So it's kinda odd that yours goes the other way.

3dogsrunning

I agree with all of the above.

HRMs are not infallible.
If you want to make sure yours is as accurate as possible here is one way to test
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is

This one walks you through setting up for accuracy
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/spreadsheet-ver-3-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calcs-macro-calcs-hrm-zones-426221

And for reference - things that can interfere with accuracy
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn

ETA - well, it was down to Joy when I posted this but I don't disagree with the blue guy either.

PetulantOne

Eat at TDEE-cut and you don't have to worry about it. Like Dav said, just watch the scale and adjust accordingly.