HRM calorie question

amw8675309
amw8675309 Posts: 95 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
for those that use an HRM...

do you count the calories it shows at the end of the workout, or subtract out what you would have burned had you not been working out?

So for example, if i burn about 1700 calories (sedentary setting) per day and I typically run for 60 minutes--should i be subtracting 70 calories from what the monitor is telling me (1700/24= 70 calories per hour burned a day) before adding them into my daily goal? I'm not concerned when i work out for a shorter period of time, but typically my workouts are 60 minutes+ and that number can make a difference if i'm eating back my exercise calories

Replies

  • amw8675309
    amw8675309 Posts: 95 Member
    anyone?
  • aebkahle
    aebkahle Posts: 13 Member
    I've given this a lot of thought and here's what I've come up with: After I put in a good workout, my body continues to burn calories at a higher rate that it would during normal activity. To test this, I wore my HRM for 24 hours without deviating from my regular workout then did the same a different day with no workouts.what I found was that when I subtracted the workout calories burned from the total for that day, the remaining calories burned were still far higher than my control day. Does that make sense? So essentially, no, I don't. I use exactly what my HRM says.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    A HRM doesn't deduct your BMR so if you wanted to be more accurate you could do that.

    FWIW. wearing your HRM 24 hrs a day will give you hugely inflated numbers. The algorithms are set for elevated HR so when you wear it during normal activity it throws the math off.
  • dogo187
    dogo187 Posts: 376
    i only wear my HRM when i workout at the gym, that is it...

    i turn it on as soon as i start and turn it off once im done with my cool down....

    i fail to see how wearing it all day is of any help at all...thats not what its intended for...

    if you want something that you were all day look into the BodyMedia HRM...
  • BobbieLee1959
    BobbieLee1959 Posts: 605 Member
    This is a great question... I have been wondering the same thing because I use a fitbit and a friend asked if logging and letting my fitbit add or subtract at the end of the day were not "double dipping". I told her no and gave her the reason that I am set up on the site for a 1000 calorie deficit and in the long run, the only additional calories that I would have to subtract are 50 that I would have burned with no activity according to my BMR during my 1 hour workout...I just keep under my daily limit by about 50 and call it good...that is why the programmers write programs, so I do not have to *think about these things...I figure if I stay under by 50-100 on most days, I am good....
  • underwater77
    underwater77 Posts: 331 Member
    I've given this a lot of thought and here's what I've come up with: After I put in a good workout, my body continues to burn calories at a higher rate that it would during normal activity. To test this, I wore my HRM for 24 hours without deviating from my regular workout then did the same a different day with no workouts.what I found was that when I subtracted the workout calories burned from the total for that day, the remaining calories burned were still far higher than my control day. Does that make sense? So essentially, no, I don't. I use exactly what my HRM says.

    i did the same thing and noticed the same thing also.

    that said, i turn that puppy on when I start my workout and it is off before I even get off the bike.
  • Riemersma4
    Riemersma4 Posts: 400 Member
    I stop as soon as I am done AND subtract the baseline BMR contribution. Yes, you burn longer but that slows down pretty quickly, unless you have done somthing crazy like an all out Tabata.

    I also try to make sure that i log everything a little conservatively... i round my food calories up, i round my work out calories down, i only eat back half of my exercise calories, etc. That always assures that i will be near or under my daily allotment. make sense?

    Also, i have gone through 4 HRMs. My personal experience is that they end up rating your workout a bit harder than it actually was.

    Great question and good luck!
  • aebkahle
    aebkahle Posts: 13 Member
    I've given this a lot of thought and here's what I've come up with: After I put in a good workout, my body continues to burn calories at a higher rate that it would during normal activity. To test this, I wore my HRM for 24 hours without deviating from my regular workout then did the same a different day with no workouts.what I found was that when I subtracted the workout calories burned from the total for that day, the remaining calories burned were still far higher than my control day. Does that make sense? So essentially, no, I don't. I use exactly what my HRM says.

    i did the same thing and noticed the same thing also.

    that said, i turn that puppy on when I start my workout and it is off before I even get off the bike.
    I like to have it off as well, but the first few days I had it, I performed this test. I actually got the idea from a friend of mine who is a professional fitness coach. He said that you wouldn't want to wear it non stop but that it would be a good idea to see the difference in how my own body Burns calories. I asked him about the comments about calories being inflated and he laughed. I guess I would say that what works for one person may not be the best solution for another. I love my HRM, it's given me far more insight into how my body works.
  • HartJames
    HartJames Posts: 789 Member
    I deduct my BMR to eat back calories. If you're not then it oesnt really matter.

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