Calories, Heart Rate and Confusion

dironza
dironza Posts: 3
in Fitness and Exercise
I am confused and hoping somone can give me some info and tips. My workout buddy and I bought Polar FT4's a few weeks ago. We do the.same workouts when we are together and she is burning 200+ more calories than me almost everytime. My heart rate stays within my range for 75% of my workouts, her monitor shows her rate is always higher than her range and she is usually only in range for about 25% of the workouts. She is 5'4 and 246lbs. I am 5'8 and 270. I workout hard, tonight i tried to get my heart rate above my range and couldn't. My max is 162 and 158 is as high as i could get it. I don' t understand how she can burn so much than me when alot of times she has to stop for breaks and I keep working . I thought being in your target heart rate zone was good, but it seems like she is burning way more being above her zone. Im confused. Any information would be appreciated.

Sorry about the typos. My phone doesnt like the format of the message board so it was difficult to type

Thanks in advance.
Diane

Replies

  • caitlinen
    caitlinen Posts: 36 Member
    Well as to the heart rate stuff... everyone can train their "heart" to be "better" and you must just handle hard exercises better than her. The more out of shape you are the higher the heart rate and therefore the more calories you burn. Hence why she has to take a lot of breaks too. So really, it's not strange at all.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Well as to the heart rate stuff... everyone can train their "heart" to be "better" and you must just handle hard exercises better than her. The more out of shape you are the higher the heart rate and therefore the more calories you burn. Hence why she has to take a lot of breaks too. So really, it's not strange at all.

    Thats not correct. Heart rate is not directly related to calories burned.

    Make sure yours is set up correctly.

    (it's a long one but the info is in here)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/spreadsheet-ver-3-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calcs-macro-calcs-hrm-zones-426221

    This one too
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is


    In the end HRMs are just estimates. There is an acceptable degree of error with them to start with and they are accurate for all types of activities.

    Weight and intensity determine calorie burn. HRMs do not measure calorie burn. They use a formula based on a relationship between HR and VO 2 max during steady state cardio and require a number of data points to estimate it. there are also variables that can affect your, your HR and the HRM. All of these can account for different numbers.
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
    All that is telling you is that her heart rate is higher than yours, and thus HER HEART is working harder.

    That could be for a number of reasons, maybe you're in better shape and your heart is more efficient. Maybe she is comfortable at a higher heart rate than you? Maybe you recover more quickly?

    Not everyone is the same.

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