HRM questions....

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PatWasHere
PatWasHere Posts: 19
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all,
I have been messing around with my new Polar FT7. I am bought it to get a better idea on how many calories I burn during my work outs. I do mainly cardio with a bit of strength training. Usually between 40-90 minutes a day at the gym. I also do about 60-90 walking at > 3.5mph in average day. I have been doing this for 9 months now. Lost 50lb and feeling good.
Today I went for a 1.5 hour walk at lunch. The HRM says I burned 774 :noway: calories. That seems like a lot. Is that accurate? I have all my personal stats in correctly in the settings.

Full stats from the walk:

Duration 1:36
Calories 774
Average hr 109
Max hr 140
Fatburn 1:13
Fitness 0:23

About me, 45, male, 6 foot , 185lb

Thanks.

--pat

Replies

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    Your maxHR is wrong, IMHO. Set too low. Should be closer to 175.
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
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    I can burn 900 cals in a 50 minute spin class, but it takes a lot of work. That does seem a little high if your hr maxed out at 140. What is your resting hr?
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    That is the max I hit during the walk.
    Your maxHR is wrong, IMHO. Set too low. Should be closer to 175.
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    My resting rate is 72'ish. But my resting has always been high. Even as teenager, I ran 50-60 miles a week and my resting was always high.
    I can burn 900 cals in a 50 minute spin class, but it takes a lot of work. That does seem a little high if your hr maxed out at 140. What is your resting hr?
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Hi all,
    I have been messing around with my new Polar FT7. I am bought it to get a better idea on how many calories I burn during my work outs. I do mainly cardio with a bit of strength training. Usually between 40-90 minutes a day at the gym. I also do about 60-90 walking at > 3.5mph in average day. I have been doing this for 9 months now. Lost 50lb and feeling good.
    Today I went for a 1.5 hour walk at lunch. The HRM says I burned 774 :noway: calories. That seems like a lot. Is that accurate? I have all my personal stats in correctly in the settings.

    Full stats from the walk:

    Duration 1:36
    Calories 774
    Average hr 109
    Max hr 140
    Fatburn 1:13
    Fitness 0:23

    About me, 45, male, 6 foot , 185lb

    Thanks.

    --pat

    Unless you were really cranking up some hills (not likely, since your avg HR was 109), at 3.5 mph, your avg calorie burn for 90 min would be more like 450-500. So, yes, I think the HRM is overestimating. Why that is, I am not sure. To be honest, it seems to have you pegged at the right % of HR max. I would double check the weight. The only other thing would be that it is way overestimating your fitness level, but I am not sure how the FT7 determines that.
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    Thanks. I was sweaty at the end. some hills but nothing hard. Might shoot an email to the HRM company. Thanks.

    --pat
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    found this thread. seems I need to adjust my age down a bit for this to work for me

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/548645-setup-polar-hrm-for-more-accurate-calorie-burn-for-known-bmr
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    Did you first check was the MaxHR setting is on polar?
    The VO2max calculation is based on that. Despite what you read in that thread.
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    Thanks for clarifying. I checked mine was set to 182. I have changed it to 175 and will try that. Will let you know how that goes. I did do a test last night after doing the age modification from the other thread. Did not seem to make much of a difference in the calories burned. I compared two training sessions with the exact same walking path/duration etc.. Came out to about the same calories.

    Thanks again

    --pat
    Did you first check was the MaxHR setting is on polar?
    The VO2max calculation is based on that. Despite what you read in that thread.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    Sorry, the number I gave you at the start of this thread was when I thought your MaxHR in the polar was set to 140. Actually your maxHR might be higher - setting it lower means that you are closer, percentage wise, to 100% VO2Max therefore burning more. Setting it higher should give you a lower calories burned for a specific effort.

    I'm a year older than you but the same height, 10 lbs heavier - my HRMax running is 190, my HRMax cycling is 185.
  • PatWasHere
    PatWasHere Posts: 19
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    tested today with maxhr set to 190.

    walking 1 hour six minutes, burned 469 calories, so it seamed to have lowered the calory burn a bit. as the previous 1.5 hours was 774 1.5* 469 = 703. so about 10% less calories.

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