Help! Which one to believe?

mavsteriom
mavsteriom Posts: 9
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All

Hope you can help. I use Endomondo on my smart phone and have a basic chest strap heart rate monitor.

I went for a walk last night and Endomondo gave me the following data:

Miles: 4.22
Average pace: 3.2mph
Calories used: 544 cals

However, when I looked at my heart rate monitor, it suggested that I had only used 299 cals for the same period.

Which one would you believe as there seems to be a vast discrepancy between the two figures quoted?

Endomondo feeds direct into MFP and therefore alters the amount of Calories I am allowed / have to eat back, but of course, I dont want to be overeating my 'calories back' (although I dont usually manage to eat them all back anyway :-) )

Can you help?

Thanks

Replies

  • Naomi_84
    Naomi_84 Posts: 197 Member
    Go with you HRM to be safe.
  • 88meli88
    88meli88 Posts: 238 Member
    The relationship between heart rate and calorie burn is not linear. HRMs are calibrated for aerobic activity. They are vastly inacurate for anything not aerobic, i.e. at lower heart rates. So unless you worked very fast pace, almost jogging, I would expect to see a difference bwn HRM and your tracker. When i jog, my tracker and my HRMs are nearly identical. Check it out when you are sedantary just sitting around. You should burn about 85 calories an hour but I bet your HRM is showing you are burning about 200. So for walking, I would go w the tracker and not the HRM, for any aerobic activity, I would go w the HRM as it is more specific to you.
  • 88meli88
    88meli88 Posts: 238 Member
    I just re-read your post.....You walked for about an hour, right? So I would expect of about 300-400 burn. for that depending on your weight. Endomondo seems quite a bit high. Others on MFP have also reported higher than expected burns w Endomondo. You can search for their posts.

    ... Also make sure you entered the right height and weight in Endomondo and it matches your lb/kg setting.

    You can also just look in the MFP database for the calorie burn of a walk.
  • mavsteriom
    mavsteriom Posts: 9
    I walked as follows (according to Endomondo)

    Distance 4.22 mi
    Duration 1h:19m:30s
    Avg. Speed 3.2 mph
    Max. Speed 4.9 mph
    Calories 544 kcal

    I always reset my weight as I loose it - I am currently 198lb, 5'4" tall, 45yo, woman.

    The HRM said I was 'below zone' for most of my walk - zone being between 118 and 140 beats per minute.

    Usually, I walk at about 3.7mph but I had the hubby with me last night. :-)

    I have only just started using both bits of techonology together.

    There is a saying isnt there 'man with one watch always knows the right time, man with two watches never quite sure' . Maybe this anology fits .....
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
    I'd go with the higher estimate in this case.

    To move a person a certain distance takes a certain amount of energy, there is a slight difference based on intensity, but you can get an approximation by multiplying your bodyweight in kg by the distance you covered in km.

    So assuming you weigh 70kg - I can't see your weight, so complete guess based on an average person.
    4.22 miles = 6.79km

    70 x 6.79 = 475 .3 - closer to the higher number.

    Hope that helps.
  • HelloDan
    HelloDan Posts: 712 Member
    Just saw you posted weight, so modified:

    6.9 x 89.8 = 619.62 calories

    Assume ~100 calories from that 619 is an hour and a bit of your BMR (what you would have burned anyway by just being alive), so 519 calories, pretty close to the 544 from the Endomondo.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    If you go to the Endomondo website on your PC (not the app) you can enter the values from your heart rate monitor (max and avg heart rate) and it will calculate differently had you not done this. I personally have the HRM that connects to my phone using bluetooth that syncs with Endo automatically...but either way, using the HRM's values in Endo changes things. I would go online with your values to see then which would be closer to the truth.
  • rachlat
    rachlat Posts: 23
    I'm a bit on the science side with HRM and so if you buy one that accepts all of your personal data, Height, sex, age, weight etc.... then trust it and what it says in terms of calories burned. MFP gives an average amount of calories burned based on info we give it where a HRM is specific to our pace and how it varies while we excercise.
    Hope this helps. I've been using one for nearly 20 years and it's the best money I ever spent.
  • mavsteriom
    mavsteriom Posts: 9
    Thanks All

    I didnt know you could enter HRM details into Endomondo - maybe because I only use the basic version ? I will take a look.

    My HRM does accept height, weight, age, gender details and is set specifically for me. I generally havent used the MFP data but have stuck with Endomondo as this links straight into MFP. I was just surprised by the large difference in readings between Endomondo and my HRM.

    Thank you for the calculation details, that is interesting.

    I will try to keep an eye on both sets of data.

    Still rather confusing about which one is more accurate.

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