Big Diff of wrist HRM and Polar FT4.. 100 cal< than wrist

Webona293
Webona293 Posts: 39 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I was using a sportline wristwatch HRM and I switched to a Polar F4 so I wouldn't have to push button every few minutes to get accurate HR for calories burned. I was told chest strap monitor is much more accurate than the wrist one but when I did a workout routine that normally clocked over 500 calories with wrist HRM the polar F4 was considerably less, almost a 100 calories less. Does this mean I have been over-shooting my calories burned?

Replies

  • T1mH
    T1mH Posts: 568 Member
    There is no magic calorie burned calculator. Every one of them has to use a formula to guess at what calories you burned. It's an educated guess but it's still a guess. Was your old one giving you to many or is the new one giving you to few?

    Did the old one actually take your heart rate into account or did it simply make a calculation based on the amount of time you worked out. This is a common complaint I have read of the lower end models.
  • Webona293
    Webona293 Posts: 39 Member
    There is no magic calorie burned calculator. Every one of them has to use a formula to guess at what calories you burned. It's an educated guess but it's still a guess. Was your old one giving you to many or is the new one giving you to few?

    Did the old one actually take your heart rate into account or did it simply make a calculation based on the amount of time you worked out. This is a common complaint I have read of the lower end models.

    I was using a sportline wrist HRM and it clocked usually around 100 more calories burned than the cardio machines at the gym, but less than the calorie burned calculators onine. This polar FT4 said I burned only 446 calories in 53 minutes doing zumba on the wii, while the exact same workout with the wrist HRM clocked me at 654. According to zumbacalories.com I should have burn like 800. So I have no idea what to go by. I'm assuming the Polar F4 (446 cal) will be most accurate because it's a chest strap monitor.
  • denezy
    denezy Posts: 573 Member
    The chest strap is generally accepted to be far more accurate.
  • taintedbutterfly18
    taintedbutterfly18 Posts: 189 Member
    I have a polar ft4 and I would go with that.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    Definitely the polar. It gives a constant measurement of your HR where the wrist one does not. Yes, you were likely overestimating your burn. You probably still are in general, but by a lesser amount.

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