HRM calories

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shipleyak
shipleyak Posts: 65 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
When using my HRM should I subtract what the website has already calculated in my BMR for that time period?

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  • pange
    pange Posts: 82
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    I do. I went to a BMR calculator site and found how many calories I burn per hour, then I subtract that from my workouts (depending on the length of the workout of course). I'm not sure if HRMs take BMR into account, but I figure it won't hurt to subtract a little from it.
  • Mom_To_5
    Mom_To_5 Posts: 646 Member
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    I never use what the website says for calories, i ALWAYS go by my HRM. You never know who put the info in for the exercise and their age, weight, gender, so it could be way off for you. Nothing will be as accurate as your HRM.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Are you only wearing it during exercise? If so for that period yes you should back out the calories you would have burned at rest or they would be double counted. It isn't a big deal if you workout for half an an hour or less, but once you get to that level you would have burned a significant amount of calories anyway. That being said the most accurate caloric burn to add to MFP would be HRM cals burned minus what you would have burned at rest.

    Most people don't realize this and if they eat all their exercise calories are actually eating above the proper caloric allotment to meet their goals.
  • TabiHerbalifeCoach
    TabiHerbalifeCoach Posts: 691 Member
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    I agree, subtract your normal calories burned at rest. I don't eat my exercise calories, back but I eat 1500-1600 calories a day, I think eating them back is more important when you are eating the min of 1200 for woman and 1500 for men.
  • shipleyak
    shipleyak Posts: 65 Member
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    Thank you very much that is what my common sense told me but wasn't sure. Yes I only wear my HRM while I exercise and normally when I exercise its for 1 to 2 hours so I have probably been over on calories the last few days :flowerforyou:
  • Ellem86
    Ellem86 Posts: 204
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    This is a really useful thread, thanks to everyone that replied!
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    When using my HRM should I subtract what the website has already calculated in my BMR for that time period?

    Yes and no - when I do something that is not high intensity I do, like Yoga for example, i might log 150 or 200 calories not 300, but if I do kickboxing or zumba I log all 600. This is because I typically leave my HRM on the hour following (reset to another exercise period) just for reference (not for logging) and have found I typically burn about 200 instead of 100 calories the hour after stopping an intense workout. I usually burn right around my normal 100 the hour following a low intensity workout. So I take the change in the following hour into account when deciding if I should subtract what the site already accounts for.

    (Side note, I tend to always round down my cals and round up my food - I figure this helps account for any errors measuring and forgotten snacking or licking the spoon etc. Also check the model HRM that you have to be sure that it is not a kind that already accounts for resting cals. Polar (at least F6) does not.)
  • abricklin
    abricklin Posts: 156 Member
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    Are you only wearing it during exercise? If so for that period yes you should back out the calories you would have burned at rest or they would be double counted. It isn't a big deal if you workout for half an an hour or less, but once you get to that level you would have burned a significant amount of calories anyway. That being said the most accurate caloric burn to add to MFP would be HRM cals burned minus what you would have burned at rest.

    Most people don't realize this and if they eat all their exercise calories are actually eating above the proper caloric allotment to meet their goals.

    agreed word for word. I do not eat all of my exercise calories, and now am successful not eating most of them so I enter into MFP what my HRM readouts are, for consistency sake. But, if you eat back your calories/go by MFP goals exactly based on your exercise calories earned then back out your BMR calories. For me its about 1.2 per minute.
  • abricklin
    abricklin Posts: 156 Member
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    I have been told (read here) that some HRM companies do back out those calories. Polar is not one of them. Not sure what the brand discussed was, but if you have Polar, yes, back it out.

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