myfitnesspal vs heart rate monitor burned calories.

Fonarios
Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to mfp, 120 minutes of weight lifting is 487 calories. According to my heart rate monitor i burned 795. I wonder which ones more accurate ???

Replies

  • Alphastate
    Alphastate Posts: 295 Member
    I would say the heart rate monitor would be more accurate. Out of curiosity, why did you do 2 hours of weight lifting?
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    that's how about how long it usually takes me to finish my work out...
  • MsEndomorph
    MsEndomorph Posts: 604 Member
    You cannot use a heart rate monitor to estimate calories burned during anything other than steady state cardio. They don't measure accurately for things like weight lifting, because it's anaerobic exercise, not aerobic. Don't believe me, read your instructions or visit your HRMs website :)
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    ^^^^ This. HRM's aren't made for lifting.
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    You cannot use a heart rate monitor to estimate calories burned during anything other than steady state cardio. They don't measure accurately for things like weight lifting, because it's anaerobic exercise, not aerobic. Don't believe me, read your instructions or visit your HRMs website :)


    yeah, i only wore it today to compare and thats why i was wondering. but doesn't it count that its taking into account your heart rate anyways?
  • Alphastate
    Alphastate Posts: 295 Member
    "By taking blood samples of their athletes, Eastern Bloc researchers determined that at the 45-minute mark your testosterone levels are coming back down to baseline. And after sixty minutes your body will start to produce less testosterone and more cortisol, which is a hormone that eats muscle tissue and increases body fat storage."
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    so 45 minutes? im not sure how id be able to fit in my work outs into that time frame. the two hours is the complete time im there though. taking into account the rest between sets and so forth...
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    According to mfp, 120 minutes of weight lifting is 487 calories. According to my heart rate monitor i burned 795. I wonder which ones more accurate ???

    without measuring VO2 (I believe that's it) which you cannot do, you can't really be sure. Knowing this I go with the lower off the two in order to 'under estimate' my burn.
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/35320/35322/423294.html?d=dmtHMSContent
    The most accurate counts of energy expended are done in special laboratories. The direct method of tracking calories burned measures how much heat is produced during exercise; however, technically it is quite difficult. More commonly, energy is measured by determining the amount of oxygen consumed to calculate the number of calories burned. Except for short bursts of anaerobic metabolism, cells use oxygen to create the energized ATP from food calories. This maintains basal metabolic rate and allows muscles to quickly and vigorously contract when exercising. Since there is a direct relationship between the amounts of oxygen consumed and calories burned, this is a straightforward calculation. Calories (kcal) burned per minute equals the liters of oxygen consumed per minute multiplied by 5.
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    thanks!! i dont take them into account but i just wondered what i really was burning!
  • lms1220
    lms1220 Posts: 60
    You cannot use a heart rate monitor to estimate calories burned during anything other than steady state cardio. They don't measure accurately for things like weight lifting, because it's anaerobic exercise, not aerobic. Don't believe me, read your instructions or visit your HRMs website :)

    So the polar ft7 wouldn't measure hiit/interval/tabata cardio correctly?
  • Alphastate
    Alphastate Posts: 295 Member
    45-60 minutes is a general rule of thumb, I'd say. Are you doing cardio, as well as strength training? What is your routine consisting of?
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    somedays i take way longer than others but here's typically how my week goes down
    tues: 4x10-12 of chest, 3-10-12 of calves and 3x25 of abs
    wed: 4x10-12 of shoulders, 4x10-12 of traps and 3x25 of abs
    thur: 4x10-12 of triceps, 4x10-12 of biceps and 9x30 of calves
    fri: 5x10-12 legs. (this one usually takes about an hour tops)

    ill rotate tues,wed or thurs with a back day everyweek.
  • Alphastate
    Alphastate Posts: 295 Member
    I don't want to go into too much detail, because if ain't broke, don't fix it, but the rest periods with the amount of reps you are doing, should be anywhere from 60-120 sec, with a slightly longer rest between exercises. Just for example, your leg day should only take about 20 minutes. 4 2-minute rests between sets, and approximately 1 minute or so to complete each set. That would give you at least 5 seconds to complete a rep, and will keep your heart rate up during the shorter rest periods. At first, I would focus more on the rest periods than the time to complete the set, because it can get tough to count reps and seconds at the same time.
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    somedays i take way longer than others but here's typically how my week goes down
    tues: 4x10-12 of chest, 3-10-12 of calves and 3x25 of abs
    wed: 4x10-12 of shoulders, 4x10-12 of traps and 3x25 of abs
    thur: 4x10-12 of triceps, 4x10-12 of biceps and 9x30 of calves
    fri: 5x10-12 legs. (this one usually takes about an hour tops)

    ill rotate tues,wed or thurs with a back day everyweek.

    5 sets of 10-12 reps takes 1 hour? How long are your breaks?

    When I was working out I'd do squats, leg extensions, thigh biceps curls and calf raises -- 5 sets each and do it in an hour.

    Breaks between sets usually ran 60 seconds unless on heavy days then as much as 90 seconds. A set takes less then a minute so 5 sets = 10 minutes. roughly.
  • Fonarios
    Fonarios Posts: 31 Member
    im gonna try to do that. i think the biggest reason for the time is that i cant always get all 10 reps at once. ill take a 30second rest inbetween to finish up....im going to shoot for less time tomm though..thanks!!
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    im gonna try to do that. i think the biggest reason for the time is that i cant always get all 10 reps at once. ill take a 30second rest inbetween to finish up....im going to shoot for less time tomm though..thanks!!

    The reps amount is based on your ability and not a specific total. Example:

    1 set 10-12 reps with 200lbs on bench -- lifter fails at 9 reps.

    Set ends.

    Now evaluate: 200lbs was too heavy, drop to 185lbs and try again. Lifter does 11 reps -- set ends. Evaluate: correct weight.
  • Alphastate
    Alphastate Posts: 295 Member
    If you go to muscle failure, take that as the set. No real need to stop and start a set. If you are more focused on getting to the desired reps, lower the weight so that the last two to three reps are tough enough but accomplishable.
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    I liked doing pyramids though admitedly I started lifting in the early '80's and times change. Having said that this is what a pyramid routine looks like:

    Bench: 5 sets of 8-12, 6-8, 4-6, 6-8, 8-12 reps.
    Set one: 135lbs 12 reps (12th rep should not be to fail as this is warm up set).
    Set two: 165lbs 6-8 reps (6th, 7th or 8th rep should be to fail, if not then weight is too light)
    Set three: 185lbs (4-6 reps (ditto above)
    set four: 165lbs (ditto)
    set five: 135lbs (ditto first set but now cool down).

    of course those weights are just a fictitious number for example (in my case when I last was lifting my 3rd set on a heavy day was 325-335lbs or on a light day 305ish. But that was long ago.

    You set is complete when you do the last rep that you can do (fail is when your spotter must help you set the bar back on the rack or at a point you KNOW you cannot do another rep). Doesn't matter if the target was 12 and you did only 4. The set is over. Move on.

    Always look at the weight and adjust it to fit your ability and once you have the weight right you can increase it as the sets get easier.
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    on the other hand doing 5 sets of 10-12 reps may actually involve LOWERING the weight each set in order to be able to push to the last rep (12) on each set. But this isn't something I did very often because I was never happy and wanted to lift more so I pretty much ALWAYS went up in weight in the 2nd and 3rd sets.
  • erikkmcvay
    erikkmcvay Posts: 238 Member
    If you go to muscle failure, take that as the set. No real need to stop and start a set. If you are more focused on getting to the desired reps, lower the weight so that the last two to three reps are tough enough but accomplishable.

    This :)
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
    Both are wrong. The adrenaline of weight lifting raises your heart rate and throws off the HRM though, so the MFP one is at least closer to right.
  • norahwynn
    norahwynn Posts: 862 Member
    I bought a HRM last week (Polar FT7), and I love it. One thing I noticed is that when I used it the first time, I compared the numbers from the HRM to entering my workout through MFP and there was only a difference of 34 calories. My HRM had the highest number.

    I feel a bit more comfortable with my past workouts now, because I was always questioning how accurate MFP was. It seems pretty accurate...at least for me!

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