First workout w/ HRM - high calorie burn; is it accurate?

stepher80
stepher80 Posts: 37 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just got the Sportline Duo 560 Heart Rate Monitor that comes with a chest strap and everything. I set all my information in it (age, weight, gender and height) and today I did my first workout with it. It has a formula that automatically figures out my max HR and all my different zones of heart rates.

So I did my workout which was a mixture of walking uphill (at the highest incline) for 5 minutes with some 3 lb dumb bells and then 5 minutes of running at 5mph, then 5 more minutes of incline and arm weights then 5 minutes of running at 5mph, and then (because I was up for 3 hours in the night with my youngest) I felt like I couldn't do much more so I walked another 14 minutes alternating between walking at an incline and doing arm exercises with my dumb bells, keeping the speed above 3mph. My treadmill (which doesn't ask for age, weight, height or gender) estimates that I burned 312 calories and my heart rate monitor says I burned 540. I knew my treadmill was inaccurate but I thought it would be estimating higher than it should and not lower. It doesn't take into consideration the change in incline (which I know changes calories burned) and the HRM on it doesn't work at all. So the only thing that changes how many calories it says you are burning is the speed. My heart rate monitor kept track of my heart rate really well. I spot checked my pulse several times to see if it was close to what my monitor was reading and it was always within 5 beets of whatever the monitor told me.

So is the 540 calories burned really a more accurate reading? If so, I've been way underestimating my previous workouts. I usually take whatever my treadmill says and cut 100-150 calories off that number and that's all I give myself for the workout. I'm not giving myself the 540 calories today. I gave myself the numbers MFP estimated for the things I did which ended up near what my treadmill said. I want to do a few more workouts and see how it reads them before accepting that high number of calories burned. I know it's just an estimate and nothing is perfectly exact but I'm hoping the HRM really is closer to the number of calories I burned because I have definitely felt like I've been working really hard lately.

Thanks for your input!

Replies

  • cinrn68
    cinrn68 Posts: 215 Member
    I have also found that my HRM is usually from from what my treadmill and what MFP tells me the numbers of cals burned are. I use the numbers from my HRM so that it's consistent. I don't usually eat back my calories anyways, unless I'm super starving, and I've had good, steady weightloss results. I guess you just need to decide what numbers you are going to use on a consistent basis and stick with it. Getting the HRM with the chest strap was for that purpose, right? I would go with those numbers.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    The most common causes of inaccuracy in HRM calorie estimates are:

    1. The quality of the algorithm programmed into the HRM to estimate calories burned. Polar has done more research in this area than almost everyone else combined. Suunto and later model Garmin license software that is the equal of Polar. For any other brand, the inherent accuracy of the software has to be suspect.

    2. Even with the best quality software, there is a wide range of "normal" when it comes to HR response to exercise. The HRMs automatically calculate max HR based on a prediction formula based on age. However, probably 1/3 of the population has a true max HR that is 20-30 beats above the calculated number. If the HRM perceives that you are working at a high percentage of your max HR, it also assumes that you are working at a high oxygen uptake and thus are burning more calories than you actually are. You may be working at 70% of your max, but the HRM thinks you are working at 95%-100% of max. That will significantly overestimate calories.

    Given your workout, 540 calories in 34 min in an overestimate.
  • stepher80
    stepher80 Posts: 37 Member
    Thanks for the input. I agree that I'm doing this for the consistency and I was never consistent before with which calorie burn I used (treadmill or MFP calculations). I'm just going to go with the ones on my HRM and then not eat back the calories. I usually try to underestimate my calories burned and only give myself 100-200 calories to eat back of each workout and it seems to be working right now as I've started finally breaking through my plateau.
  • MsEndomorph
    MsEndomorph Posts: 604 Member
    What was your average heart rate?

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