How accurate is my Polar ft4 HRM?

Rachel_Leigh84
Rachel_Leigh84 Posts: 120
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone,

I've recently upgraded my HRM from a cheap and cheerful Argos one to a Polar ft4. I absolutely love it compared to my old one!! However, it is telling me I am burning quite afew more calories then what my old one used to tell me. I have made sure I have put all my details in correctly. I have heard nothing but good things about Polars but is there anyway this could not be as accurate as my old one? Or maybe I have actually been burning more calories then what I thought?? Just don't want to be over-stating my calories when I work out.

Thanks

Replies

  • Lulzaroonie
    Lulzaroonie Posts: 222 Member
    Most people find them much more accurate than the cheaper versions. Because they go off your weight, sex, and inputs that you yourself put in and the chest monitor can monitor your heart rate more closely than a wrist watch one.

    If you want to check, you can use this site http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx if you know your average heart rate, and it will work out your calories burnt by heart rate, weight, age and activity duration (the same values as the Polar) and see if there is a difference.
  • bobf279
    bobf279 Posts: 342 Member
    I wish my FT4 said I was burning more calories than I used to record :cry:
  • running_shoe
    running_shoe Posts: 180 Member
    I found mine always read me quite high, too. I went for a cycle one day and used my bikometer, Polar, and MFP to calculate and got three different readings with a discrepance of approximately 300 calories between the two extremes, MFP in the middle. I eventually just opted to use the burn calculated in MFP because it seemed more reasonable, and my weight loss trajectory was predictable with this strategy. On a previous post about this a few months ago, I believe it was explained that the Polar works best if you can keep in your target heart rate range. Not sure this is true, but could be, I suppose.
  • Rachel_Leigh84
    Rachel_Leigh84 Posts: 120
    I must admit, i do find that my heart rate does get really high when i do my workouts ( not sure if this is good or bad!) so maybe I am burning more calories then i thought as i do high intensity cardio.

    Thanks for the info ladies!
  • T0M0
    T0M0 Posts: 250 Member
    I'd say it was accurate. Polar are the muts nuts of the HRM monitor world with renound reviews on accuracy. I love mine and compared to a friends cheaper one (not sure of make) mine is always lower than his burns on the same workouts.

    Tomo

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