Why is my HRM so different from my gps pedometer??

LadyIvysMom
LadyIvysMom Posts: 391 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am baffled.

I went for a vigorous walk that was mostly flat terrain. I have a GPS pedometer app on my phone that takes my height and weight into account. I have a Polar FT4 that has a chest band and also takes my height & weight into account.

Tonight, I took the HRM & Pedometer on my walk to see if the calorie burns were similiar.

The HRM estimated that I burned almost 50% more calories over the same distance/time period with the same height & weight data.

Which would you consider more accurate?

Replies

  • YoukilledJosh
    YoukilledJosh Posts: 49
    I would assume the HRM is more accurate but it may be safer to go with the lower number
  • carramel0705
    carramel0705 Posts: 183 Member
    i usually take the average of the 2 numbers.
  • Tan43
    Tan43 Posts: 87 Member
    Hi,

    Yesterday I went for a 5KM run (PB of 31 minutes and 25 sec) and my Polar FT4 logged the run at 400 calories and the Nike Running App logged it at 367 calories. I did have to stop a couple of times to tie up shoelaces and to catch my breath (stupid hills!) so I paused the App during this time. With this in mind the Polar would have registered more calories burned because this tracked calories whilst I had paused the App.
    I always go off my HRM as I have a lower resting heart rate which means the ave calories burned suggested by Apps may not be correct for me.

    Cheers
  • Tann19
    Tann19 Posts: 94 Member
    hrm takes 3 aspects into consideration, height, weight and heartrate which it uses to measure your intensity, while gps pedometer only uses 2, height and weight , logic dictates that hrm should be more accurate. nothing commercial is 100% accurate, just use it as a guide.
  • LadyIvysMom
    LadyIvysMom Posts: 391 Member
    What is considered to be a low resting heart rate?
  • spersephone
    spersephone Posts: 148 Member
    Your heart rate monitor should also know your sex, which makes a huge difference. Does the GPS pedometer know your sex? The pedometer also is unlikely to know your heart rate throughout the workout, which affects the overall calorie burn/calculation. If your heart rate monitor is set up with your statistics, it's likely to be the more accurate item.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    Your HRM will be the accurate one because it's using your HR to make the calculation not assuming what you would burn just based on height and weight. Your HR must be higher than what the pedometer is using for calculations.
  • Tan43
    Tan43 Posts: 87 Member
    My resting heart rate sits around 55/60 beats per minute. Everyone is different based on a lot of things. Genetics, fitness etc.
    I incorporate High Intensity Interval Training with strength training so the cardio really helps with improving heart health which then causes it to not have to work so hard whilst resting. Don`t worry I can peak it out around 180 beats per minute when sprinting or lifting some heavy weight.
  • LadyIvysMom
    LadyIvysMom Posts: 391 Member
    The GPS/Pedometer had no gender selected but if it thought I was a man, wouldn't it have me burning more?

    My resting heart rate according to a few tests with the HRM is around 86. Is that high? I have no idea what number the pedometer is using in it's calculation.
  • LadyIvysMom
    LadyIvysMom Posts: 391 Member
    The actual numbers I got were:

    HRM - 1021
    Pedometer - 569

    That's a huge difference. My concern is with a big difference like that, I really don't want to eat back 500 exercise calories if I didn't actually burn them. But I also don't want to undereat by 500 calories either. I hope that makes sense. If it was smaller numbers, I wouldn't be as concerned.
  • FitAddictAmanda
    FitAddictAmanda Posts: 26
    I personally would go with the HRM but you could average the two just to be on the safe side.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    If the HRM doesn't know or use your aerobic fitness it will be assuming something using an average for the population, which could be a fair way off. Use one of the protocols to get a VO2max estimate http://www.brianmac.co.uk/vo2max.htm
  • LadyIvysMom
    LadyIvysMom Posts: 391 Member
    Thank you. I will check out that site.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Heart Rate Monitor will always be more accurate. Your phone is rarely given pin-point accuracy on location via gps.

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