Accuracy of Heart Rate Monitor: Inflated Calories Burned?

DanielleRN8
DanielleRN8 Posts: 409
in Fitness and Exercise
Question: My husband bought me a Timex heart rate monitor today. I tested it out and it says I burned 420 calories during my 30 minute circuit training. I don't think this can be accurate but I'm not sure. My heart rate never went below 150 and maxed out at 190. Any takers on this?

Replies

  • mariah_papaya
    mariah_papaya Posts: 39 Member
    Possible, but not likely. The 300 range (for me) is a good estimate for 30 minutes if I'm really going all-out. Of course when I pound a lot of coffee right before a workout, it elevates my heartrate and gives an artificially high calorie burn.
  • tqoura
    tqoura Posts: 6 Member
    TL;DR: 420 cals in 30 minutes is completely reasonable at the heart rate range you're suggesting.

    Caloric burn will depend on both your weight (which affects the amount of work your body is doing to move itself around) and the intensity at which you're working, plus the amount of time at which you work at that level.

    If your heart rate was between 150-190 the entire time (let's assume an average of 170bpm), it's *completely* possible that you've burned 420 calories in a half-hour.

    I have a Polar FT60 and can easily burn 800-900 per hour in a high intensity session. For some scale of reference, for example, in the duration of a 30 Day Shred workout (20 mins), I will burn approx 250-300 calories. Similarly, if I run 5km, which takes me about 35 minutes, I'll burn around 500 calories.

    Bear in mind that if you're used to relying on the caloric burn readouts on cardio machines in the gym, they are *wildly* inaccurate, so it might just take you some time to adjust to the new numbers you're getting from the HRM.
  • DanielleRN8
    DanielleRN8 Posts: 409
    Thanks for the info. I had a really cheap HRM before this one and it would say that I burned about 280 calories for the same workout that I did for the new HRM. I'm just trying to figure out which one is accurate but I think I'm just going to have to take the medium of the two numbers. I do have a crazy high heart rate during my entire workout so I know it might be possible but I'm a little skeptic. Thank you both for taking the time to help out though. :)

Categories