HRM Calories Burned Help!!

MikeRuz456
MikeRuz456 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello All,

I have a Polar Heart Rate monitor FT7 and I have no problems at all just one question. I was wondering how accurate heart rate monitors are at calculating your calories burned during exercise. I have configured the settings to my specific preferences (gender, weight, age, ect) but some of the calories burned just seem wayyy too high in my opinion.

P90X Chest & Back - 986 calories burned / avg hr 148
Insanity - 911 calories burned / avg hr 164
Treadmill walking 3.3 mph at 7 incline for 60 minutes - 600 calories burned / avg hr 123

Im new to using heart rate monitors so these numbers could be within normal limits and was wondering what all your opinions with heart rate monitors are. I feel perfectly fine, I'm not at a risk for over training so should I report the numbers as they seem or scale them back??

Replies

  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Most HRMs do not account for the calories you would have burned if you weren't exercising so to get a more conservative figure, deduct your BMR cals for the duration you were exercising.

    E.g. I burn around 70 cals per hr so if an HRM gave a reading of 500 cals for an hour's exercise, I'd log 430.
  • MikeRuz456
    MikeRuz456 Posts: 8 Member
    That actually does make sense, thank you! I calculated my BMR to be 82 calories an hour so if I deduct say 100 per exercise then I should be good?
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Yes, That should give more realistic calorie burns.

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