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MyFitnessPal Community

Accuracy of Heart Rate Monitor / Calories

Alan

I just got a new heart rate monitor with chest strap. My old watch would only show the heart rate, but the new ones lets you enter your birthday and weight, then it calculates the calories and fat burned. I used it for the first time today at the gym and got results that are very different than what the elliptical reported:
For 42 minutes (37 minute workout with varying intensity plus 5 minute cooldown), average speed: 4.40 MPH, Average heart rate: 147.
The elliptical reported 544 calories burned. The watch reported 947 calories. MFP calculates 555 calories.

Some of the other threads I read say the machines and MFP over-calculate calories, so now I'm really doubting the HRM. Does it seem awfully high?

Replies

3dogsrunning

HRM accuracy depends on a lot of factors.

Here are a couple of posts on it to read over about what can be affecting it and how to check how accurate.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is?page=1

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak?month=201112

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak

HeartRateMonitorsUSA

42 Minute workout with 947 calories burned seems high. Which Model did you purchase?

phjorg

42 Minute workout with 947 calories burned seems high. Which Model did you purchase?

"seems" high?? Thats way above the output of tour de france riders and marathon runners going full out. This man is able to able to exercise at an intensity thats greater that any other living person on earth's measured output if this reading is accurate.

Even the 500 is high. in the 3's would be the more proper reading. maybe 4's if the OP is very large, like well above 200lbs.

Alan

The model I bought is a Kyto HRM-2803, purchased online. It came with a Chinese-only manual, but I emailed the company and they sent me a link for the English manual, so maybe there's more I need to do to set it up. Or maybe it's not a high-quality instrument.

I'm 5'10", 195 lbs, 37 years old. The elliptical at my gym is a LifeFitness 95X and on that day I was doing the Hill program with an average intensity level of 16. If that helps give an idea of what my calories burned should be.

I will read through those links, thank you 3dogsrunning.

Alan

I read through the manual and it would appear that I need to set the activity level in the watch (from 1 to 4) in order to calculate the calories. I can either set the activity level manually, or from the current heart rate. I'm not sure if it auto-updates the activity level as my heart rate increases, but if not, it's possible that I was at 80% MHR and the watch thought my activity level was Low (1). I have some more experimentation to do, it seems.

mdelcott

In my experience anything that comes with a chinese only manual is garbage and you should consider returning it and purchasing a different brand

MaxVonMagnus

Hi everybody!

New member here. I created my account to ask this question and top keep track of my weight/health goals. I would like to know about the accuracy of calculations that show calories burned based on heart rate during exercise and duration of exercise.

My workout for today was 4 hours of walking at 2.8 mph. I've got a lot of time on my hands for the next month. A little about me: I'm male, 24 years old, 5 foot 10 and 230 pounds. My body fat percentage is 28ish. It might be lower but I'm wrong on the side of caution since I haven't had it tested.

When using a calorie calculator, should I enter my lean wrought or my total weight? Based on 28% fat my lean weight would be a little over 165 lb.

I'm pretty or of shape as you can guess from the fat percentage. What I want to know is which figure should I believe for calories burned? An online calorie calculator said around 1300 calories for walking 11 miles in 234 minutes. But if I use an online heart rate based calorie calculator, it gives me s figure over 2000 calories. Which one is right?

My health goal is to decrease my fat percentage to below 12 or hopefully even 10. And to maintain a lean muscle weight over 210 lb.

Help?
Max.

MaxVonMagnus

One more thing. I have a hearty rate monitor but it doesn't have the calories burned function. It's a cheap Omron hrm with the chest strap and digital watch but it's very accurate.