heart rate and calories burnt

electricblue6
electricblue6 Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi

I have recently started using a heart rate monitor and have become quite disheartened by the number of calories burnt during a workout. I consider myself to be relatively fit. I am female, 37, 163cm tall and weigh 53kg. I run on average 45km a week and do other types of training in between including circuit type training and spin. My resting heart rate sits at around 45-55 bpm and during a workout I only seem to get it to a maximum of around 145-150 bpm. That said I am working intensively and sweat pouring off me. This morning I put on my husbands garmin hr monitor on whilst I done my spin class, it comes with a hr strap. I was quite shocked and disheartened to see that I had only burnt 220 calories for the entire spin class. I am interested in hearing anyone's thoughts on the accuracy of hr monitors especially with a low resting heart rate and in relatively fit people. I have never posted on the forums before but quite like reading peoples stories. The ironic part is I felt quite good doing my workouts prior to seeing that dam number! I would be grateful if someone could provide me with some feedback. Regards

Replies

  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
    Have you worked out an estimate of your VOC?
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
    You said yourself that you are relatively fit, that is why you do not burn more than 220 calories in your spin class. Nothing is 100% accurate but I would say your HRM is close.
  • kiwifruit
    kiwifruit Posts: 3
    if its a strap-type HR monitor, rinsing the strap after every use seems to help its accuracy. Also check the user settings on the watch, e.g. weight especially as this is part of the calculation of calories burnt
  • SOCOLOCO87
    SOCOLOCO87 Posts: 128 Member
    You said it was our husbands HRM so i figure it would be set to him as far as height weight male ex: unless you changed it. This could be the problem as well
  • electricblue6
    electricblue6 Posts: 6 Member
    No I changed the settings to my profile. Excuse my ignorane but what is a voc? Thanks for the feedback, dam it a side effect of being fit = less calories burnt!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    No I changed the settings to my profile. Excuse my ignorane but what is a voc? Thanks for the feedback, dam it a side effect of being fit = less calories burnt!

    That's not actually a side effect.

    The problem is HRMs are designed for averages, you are above average in fitness so it will be off for you. It doesn't recognize that your lower heart rate is due to fitness.

    Heart rate is not directly linked to calories burned. There is a relationship between heart rate and VO2 max that allows for an estimation. As already mentioned above, this assumes an "average" VO2 max, where as yours is likely higher, which throws off the estimation.

    I am not sure if you can adjust for VO2 max on Garmins. I know on some HRms you can, which will account for god fitness level and give you a more accurate reading.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
    You said yourself that you are relatively fit, that is why you do not burn more than 220 calories in your spin class. Nothing is 100% accurate but I would say your HRM is close.
    This is complete bullhocky. Your fitness level has nothing to do with calories burned. It's off because the hrm does not know her vo2max. It's the hrm that's way off more than likely. This myth about how out of shape people burn more calories needs to die. It's simply not true.
  • electricblue6
    electricblue6 Posts: 6 Member
    Awesome thanks for the feedback everyone!
  • jrniven
    jrniven Posts: 74 Member
    Sounds like that HRM is not working properly. Maybe it missed picking up your HR for a period of time.

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