Heart rate monitor pros/cons

sunshinestate

I just invested in a heart monitor with a chest band, and while I absolutely love it, I am so bummed at the calorie count! It is great for making me aware of how hard I am working. As a result, I have really been pushing myself harder.

But the bad side is I thought for sure my intense exercise was burning more that the heart rate monitor tells me. For instance, running/walking (high intensity intervals) are only burning about 250 calories for a 35 minute session. I would imagine these things are pretty accurate since they are based on your height/weight and exact heart rate. Anyone else discouraged by their heart rate monitor calorie count?

Oh yeah, and according to the monitor, MFP calorie count for exercise are way off. I have had to enter my exercise very carefully to make sure I don't end up with too many exercise calories.

fiendiish

The more weight you lose and the more cardio you are able to tolerate at a lower heart rate will affect your calorie burn. The lighter you are, the less calories you burn at a particular exercise than someone who is heavier.

I've found that MFP exercises are off too...but for me...they showed I was not burning enough...I was essentially cheating myself. My HRM says I burn appx 100+ calories more than MFP says I do at any activity. Some people will tell you to subtract your hourly BMR from your calorie burn....but research and advice from others have convinced me that that is completely unnecessary.

AnnieeR

I'm about to buy a HRM and I'm a bit nervous what it's going to tell me if I'm honest! But I'm losing at the rate that I think I should be, so I'm assuming that my formula is close. I use the calorie counter on the treadmill but I'm very careful to enter my weight and age before I start because that definitely makes a difference. Then I subtract 10% from the final count because I don't trust that it's completely accurate.

Avandel

I was also disappointed when I got my Polar & also noticed how way off MFP's counts & other sites were. Everyone burns cals differently, age, starting weight, etc & I can understand being out by a few cals but in most cases by 200-400 ??????????? I have the watch set up properly but only burn 127 cals doing 20 Min Turbo Jam & I'm keeping up with Chalene! For 30 mins of yoga I burn 138 cals, or I can go for a moderate walk for 40 mins & burn 175 cals. Umm! which one should I do????

I do bikram yoga for 75 mins & burn 479 cals but other sites have it listed as 1100+ based on my information ....

So folks be careful about eating back all your cals if you aren't using a good HRM, you just might be overeating without knowing it.


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

Sandeee

I have been using a Polar HRM for several weeks now. I am so relieved to know exactly what I am burning rather that using generic sources since we all burn calories differently. I too see my calories burned declining as I continue to lose. But that's a good thing right?