Accurate?

it COULD be accurate. That's about as good as you can get, as everyone burns calories at a different rate. But it doesn't sound abnormal to me, if that helps you at all.

I have a quick question. I worked out on my Wii Fit for a little while, then walked fast on my treadmill all for a total of 30 minutes.:bigsmile: I was wearing my HRM the whole time and it says that I burned 495 calories. :noway: :noway: Could that be right? I know that bigger people burn more calories in a shorter amount of time and I was sweating my bum off, but I just wanted y'all's input. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Thanks my fellow MFP's!! :flowerforyou: :bigsmile:

CW: 229
Height: 5'7"

Unless you were doing the equivalent of running at 6.0 mph, your HRM is overestimating your calorie burn. "Walking fast", unless that was accompanied by a fairly steep incline, is not a high enough intensity to burn 1000 Calories an hour. I suspect that you actual max heart rate is higher than the age-predicted max HR that is programmed into your HRM. Thus it is assuming that you are working at a higher intensity than you actually are.

If you want to supply your actual numbers (walking speed, incline, number of minutes, average heart rate if your HRM gives you that number) I can calculate a number for you that can perhaps give you more insight.

Doesn't it also depend on there current activity level? I know I don't burn as many calories now as I used to. I'm still extremely heavy, but physically I'm in much better shape.

Not really.

People often mistake calorie burn with perceptions of effort.

The energy cost of an activity, say walking 4.0 mph on a treadmill, is relatively fixed. Whether you do it, I do it, an 80 year old man does it, or an olympic marathoner does it--it's still the same energy cost (~4 METS). The amount of calories expended while waking at 4 mph will vary according to the *weight* of the user, not their fitness level.

What changes is that, as you become more fit, that activity (4.0 mph walking) is now a LOWER percentage of your aerobic maximum, and feels easier. But the calorie burn is the same (as long as your weight is the same). One of the goals of improving your fitness is that, with a higher fitness level, you can now work at a higher level and burn more calories.

Now, if you lose weight, then your rate of calories burned may go down, even if you are working harder, because you have lost weight.

When using a heart rate monitor, one may see the calories burned number decrease for two reasons: one, they have not increased workload that much and, since heart rate is lower, HRM assumes your aren't working as hard; two, your fitness level has improved, but the person has not increased the VO2 max setting on the HRM. As people become more fit, they need to revise the settings on their HRMs--lower the weight, lower the resting HR, and adjust the VO2 max number--either by repeating the fitness test (if you have a Polar model with that feature) or estimating it by some other means.

Hopefully, this makes sense.

it COULD be accurate. That's about as good as you can get, as everyone burns calories at a different rate. But it doesn't sound abnormal to me, if that helps you at all.

What brand HRM do you use wise one? :happy:

polar F6, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I'm thinking of buying this one soon as I do a lot of HIIT training type workouts and like the additional functionality.

http://www.polarusa.com/us-en/products/improve_fitness/fitness_crosstraining/FT80

it does pretty much everything I need, the price is hefty though, 350 bucks.

don't forget that 400+ cal burn she mentioned was not JUST for the 30 min walk, she also mentioned doing the wii fit prior to the walk and saying the HRM gave her that total

it COULD be accurate. That's about as good as you can get, as everyone burns calories at a different rate. But it doesn't sound abnormal to me, if that helps you at all.

What brand HRM do you use wise one? :happy:

polar F6, but it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I'm thinking of buying this one soon as I do a lot of HIIT training type workouts and like the additional functionality.

http://www.polarusa.com/us-en/products/improve_fitness/fitness_crosstraining/FT80

it does pretty much everything I need, the price is hefty though, 350 bucks.

Thanks! You are my MFP super hero.:bigsmile: