HRM and calories used in exercise

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aronao
aronao Posts: 112 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been using a good HRM (Polar) to measure calorie use during exercise - I do cardio classes and some Pump too. But people on here have suggested the HRM may be overestimating calorie burn. Does anyone have any thoughts or info on the reliability of HRM calculation of estimated calories used in a workout?

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  • lawlorka
    lawlorka Posts: 484 Member
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    I find my HRM (Polar FT4) to be quite accurate (I'm going by what it tells me I burn and what I've been losing which matches up). The only thing to remember is that it gives you a gross burn - as in it includes what you would have burned anyway by sitting at home, so you should subtract that from your total so that you don't accidentally eat back calories that have already been accounted for.

    In my cardio workouts I want my burn to be 500calories, so I usually work until my HRM says 600 so that I know my BMR is taken into account.
  • lady_in_weighting
    lady_in_weighting Posts: 196 Member
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    I find my HRM (Polar FT4) to be quite accurate (I'm going by what it tells me I burn and what I've been losing which matches up). The only thing to remember is that it gives you a gross burn - as in it includes what you would have burned anyway by sitting at home, so you should subtract that from your total so that you don't accidentally eat back calories that have already been accounted for.

    In my cardio workouts I want my burn to be 500calories, so I usually work until my HRM says 600 so that I know my BMR is taken into account.

    How do you calculate how many caolries you would burn at your resting heart rate without sitting for an hour with your HRM on?
  • lawlorka
    lawlorka Posts: 484 Member
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    A HRM won't give an accurate calorie burn if you just sit with it on for an hour at rest...they aren't designed for that.

    I used the Scooby Calculator to estimate my BMR and divided it by 24 to give an hourly BMR rate.

    Its obviously just an estimate but its as accurate as I can get.
  • lady_in_weighting
    lady_in_weighting Posts: 196 Member
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    Ah, I see. Clever thinking.

    Thanks for that! :)

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