Skip to content
  • Register
    • We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

    Question about calories burned during recovery

    Posts: 225 Member
    edited February 5 in Fitness and Exercise
    Hi!

    I'm currently doing cardio training (circuit training kinda but mostly cardio). I have a HRM and burn about 200 calories for 30 minutes of high intensity workouts (about 80% of my MHR most of the time) but I was wondering if it is accurate as I'm having recovery periods (ex: squats) in between my cardio intervals...

    Thanks

    Welcome!

    It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.
    Sign In
    Register

    Replies

    • Posts: 432 Member
      I'm no expert but I don't see why it wouldn't be accurate when you are doing squats inbetween the cardio, it goes off your heart rate, your heart rate would change during squats and it would adjust the calories burned accordingly.
    • Posts: 677 Member
      You're still burning. Plus, squats really keep my heart rate up anyway.
    • Posts: 8,934 Member
      Hi!

      I'm currently doing cardio training (circuit training kinda but mostly cardio). I have a HRM and burn about 200 calories for 30 minutes of high intensity workouts (about 80% of my MHR most of the time) but I was wondering if it is accurate as I'm having recovery periods (ex: squats) in between my cardio intervals...

      Thanks

      It's probably not accurate at all for the type of workout you are doing. HRMs are designed to measure heart rate during steady state cardio activities like running or biking and then to extrapolate a calorie burn based on your personal data entered. For other types of training including circuit training, they would be pretty useless as that is not what they were designed to do and with body weight or strength training like the squats, even less so.
    • Posts: 225 Member
      How could I measure calories burned then?
    • Posts: 647 Member
      show previous quotes

      It's probably not accurate at all for the type of workout you are doing. HRMs are designed to measure heart rate during steady state cardio activities like running or biking and then to extrapolate a calorie burn based on your personal data entered. For other types of training including circuit training, they would be pretty useless as that is not what they were designed to do and with body weight or strength training like the squats, even less so.

      What mmapags said. However, 200 burned in 30 minutes doesn't seem too high. Probably just assume it's between 150 and 200. There is no way to be 100% sure what the number is anyway.
    • Posts: 8,934 Member
      IMHO, it is just not that critical to have accurate calorie burns. There is no real way to get them exact. The database here is a good/ bad a source as any. I don't measure my burns at all. I think it leads to an unhealthy way of "earning back" calories to eat. I set my activity level appropriately, mine is moderately active, I set my deficit conservatively at TDEE - 20% and the rest takes care of itself and I lose slowly and consistently at 3 to 4 lbs per month when in deficit.

      Honestly, there is no 100% accurate way to measure burns and it's useless to worry about. I don't agree with the whole design of that on this site. It only matters if your deficit is set too aggressively and you are at risk of not getting adequate nutrition.
    • Posts: 10,413 Member
      It's probably not accurate at all for the type of workout you are doing. HRMs are designed to measure heart rate during steady state cardio activities like running or biking and then to extrapolate a calorie burn based on your personal data entered. For other types of training including circuit training, they would be pretty useless as that is not what they were designed to do and with body weight or strength training like the squats, even less so.
      Agreed.


      IMHO, it is just not that critical to have accurate calorie burns. There is no real way to get them exact. The database here is a good/ bad a source as any. I don't measure my burns at all. I think it leads to an unhealthy way of "earning back" calories to eat. I set my activity level appropriately, mine is moderately active, I set my deficit conservatively at TDEE - 20% and the rest takes care of itself and I lose slowly and consistently at 3 to 4 lbs per month when in deficit.

      Honestly, there is no 100% accurate way to measure burns and it's useless to worry about. I don't agree with the whole design of that on this site. It only matters if your deficit is set too aggressively and you are at risk of not getting adequate nutrition.
      Also agreed.


      If you really want to get a feel for calorie burns, pick 1 method of estimating them (HRM, MFP, whatever) and use it consistently for a month or so. The compare your actual weight changes to your expected. If they aren't fairly close, tweak as necessary. You can use this method to figure out a reasonable accurate TDEE which you can base your calorie needs off of moving forward.
    • Posts: 3,265 Member
      I think it's "accurate enough" LOL.
    • Posts: 1,046 Member
      Your HRM will not be AS accurate for circuit training as it will be for a 3 mile jog, 30 minutes on the elliptical, etc. But it will still probably be MORE accurate than MFP or most general online calculators. I wouldn't stress over it to be honest. If you're really worried about it, just eat back 3/4 of your exercise calories instead of all of them to be on the safe side.
    • Posts: 1,821 Member
      I think this has been said, but heart rate monitors don't measure calories burned, they only measure your heart rate. The calculation for calories burned comes from an equation they use once your HR, weight, gender, height, and weight are entered.

      And what's missing here? The activity. So that means it's making an assumption about the kind of activity you are doing while your heart rate is up. The assumption is for steady state cardio unless maybe the device or program has options to change that. It *may* work reasonably well for sprint intervals, but not for squats or anything else.

      For example though, high heart rate running on flats, or same high heart rate running up stairs... you're doing more work going up the stairs = burning more calories... but the HRM doesn't know that.

      Also, I'm not sure you're using "recovery" correctly. Typically recovery refers to the rest period after a workout is completed, but I might be mistaken within the context of HIIT. Just found it confusing when reading this.
    This discussion has been closed.

    Welcome!

    It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.
    Sign In
    Register

    Quick Links

    Categories