can it be right?

Mistraal1981
Mistraal1981 Posts: 453 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi, I got my shiny new hrm today and I broke it in by doing an hour on my home elliptical at Max resistance. I had sweat pouring off me! The sweat V came halfway down my chest and I had the hrm check my pulse as soon as I had finished the hour. It told me I had burned 180 calories. Really? That little? Does that sound right? Although I realise mfp overestimates calories burned I am struggling to accept it was so little! I was killing myself there!

I'm 32, female, 145lbs, 27% bf.

Would love to know how from more experienced people if they reckon that calorie assessment sounds about right or way off.

Replies

  • mallen404
    mallen404 Posts: 266 Member
    I am close to the same weight and body fat.. when I do an hour of competitive soccer ( sweat dripping) I log about 600-800 calories burnt..

    what type of HRM are you using.. ? did you set everything up properly?
  • koootenay
    koootenay Posts: 126 Member
    Did it pick up your heart rate the whole time? Sometimes, like when I sit down and slouch, my HRM can't read my heart rate. It could then be giving an off reading.

    -good luck! : )
  • estatitra
    estatitra Posts: 80 Member
    Don't worry, it is not broken, just wash the chest strap. Make sure the chest strap is tucked in the sports bra, and it is not moving around a lot. It happened to me too. I ran a 10k and it told me that i burnt only 400 cal. Really?? But then I realized chest strap wasn't tight enough and it was missing heart readings sometimes.
    In general HRMs can only give you an ESTIMATE of calories burnt and they are not always accurate. There are lots of articles online about this, check them out.
  • Mistraal1981
    Mistraal1981 Posts: 453 Member
    I bought a no-name brand watch style hrm. (I realise the cheapness may be the issue, but I didn't think it would be massively off like I think this one is, but maybe I am just terrible at estimating calories burned, I am fairly new to this.) I did go over the setup twice so pretty sure I got that right. As for the calorie reading, you put your finger on a sensor when you finish your workout, it calculates your pulse and turns that into estimated calories burned.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    That's low...something is off...maybe it wasn't reading the whole time or your settings aren't right. People don't burn nearly what they think they burn, but I'm pretty sure you burned more than 3 calories per minute...hell, I burn 1.25 calories per minute just being alive.
  • Mistraal1981
    Mistraal1981 Posts: 453 Member
    OK, I feel a bit better now! :) was quite sad at that prospect of so much sweat and effort being so low in burning calories.
  • NH_Norma
    NH_Norma Posts: 332 Member
    I bought a no-name brand watch style hrm. (I realise the cheapness may be the issue, but I didn't think it would be massively off like I think this one is, but maybe I am just terrible at estimating calories burned, I am fairly new to this.) I did go over the setup twice so pretty sure I got that right. As for the calorie reading, you put your finger on a sensor when you finish your workout, it calculates your pulse and turns that into estimated calories burned.
    But is it reading your pulse the entire time, or just a beginning and end reading? I've never heard of having to take it at the end before getting your calorie count. Mine has a constant readout and keeps me going! Last night, I could have stopped at 350 but decided to go for 400. When I looked again, it was 420 something so I decided to go for 500, and when I got to 510, I went to 600. Almost 2x the burn, just because I had the constant display. :)

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