HRM advice

SuffolkSally
SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I recently started using a Polar HRM. My activity level is set to sedentary, and I've been using the calorie burn it gives me for activities to guide how many calories I eat, i.e. I'm eating my exercise calories back.

However my weight loss has stalled!

I'm accurate about what I eat (I weigh everything) and I deduct my BMR from the burn the HRM shows.

However most of my exercise is low intensity - walking, yoga, etc. I'm wondering whether HRM's can be expected to be accurate for this sort of activity, or whether they're only really suitable for use when really working out. Does anyone know?

Replies

  • fihealth
    fihealth Posts: 165 Member
    Things to try:

    - different types of exercise to confuse your body (doing the same thing all the time can make you *too* efficient)
    - if you're in starvation mode, could try increasing calorie intake for awhile and see if that breaks your plateau (try for a couple weeks)
    - the cals burned from your HRM might be an overestimate - try slightly reducing daily cals by not eating your exercise cals
  • PriceK01
    PriceK01 Posts: 834 Member
    What percentage of max are you in while doing your exercises? I read somewhere that an HRM won't give an accurate calorie count for intensities below 60%. I've no idea if this is true, hopefully someone else will chime in.
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    ^^^ that's interesting. I have no idea... and don't know how to calculate it!
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    Your HR needs to be significantly elevated for a HRM to be accurate. I have to walk very briskly to get it there and yoga never makes it so you may be getting inflated burns if you aren't getting your HR up enough.
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    I worked out what my 50% is (I think!) using an online guide, and I'd rarely hit with the exercise I currently do. So should I just disregard the HRM and not eat exercise calories back?
  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
    I worked out what my 50% is (I think!) using an online guide, and I'd rarely hit with the exercise I currently do. So should I just disregard the HRM and not eat exercise calories back?

    Yes.

    Even better would be to actually do some cardio exercises from time to time. Amazing benefits beyond just calorie burn :)
  • jchrisman717
    jchrisman717 Posts: 780 Member
    Add some weights to your training schedule. Just doing yoga and walking probably isn't going to get your heart rate up to a fat loss rate.
  • ggv1978
    ggv1978 Posts: 10
    Your HRM over estimates the calories you've burn, try using HRM calculators. I use Shapesense.com it provides more accurate info based on gender, weight, height, etc...
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    Add some weights to your training schedule. Just doing yoga and walking probably isn't going to get your heart rate up to a fat loss rate.

    Yeah I do some weight work as well. But I don't use the HRM then, having read that they're not accurate for lifting.
  • jchrisman717
    jchrisman717 Posts: 780 Member
    That's what I read too. I just thought it might help to boost your metabolism some. I use mine when I do weights but I basically follow the TDEE cut for my calories so I just log to keep track and to make sure I am eating enough if I work out.
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    Your HRM over estimates the calories you've burn, try using HRM calculators. I use Shapesense.com it provides more accurate info based on gender, weight, height, etc...
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    Thanks! I just checked it against today's exercise though, and it gave me a significantly higher estimated burn than the HRM! Which would be great as I could have an extra snack, but I don't really trust it...

    Part of the Polar (it's an F55) set up is programming in age/weight/height/gender so it is taking those things into account I think, and it also assesses your resting heart rate.
  • ggv1978
    ggv1978 Posts: 10
    Yeah, I have the same HRM...just don't trust it cause it's giving me close to 1000 cals..I'm currently doing INSANITY. When I use the Heart rate calculators from Shapesense.com, I usually get lower outputs from 600-800. Also make sure your calculating your net calories burned instead of your gross.

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