HRM v. MFP

DamianaKitten
DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I know most people say that MFP greatly overestimates calories burned during cardio. However, using my HRM it stated I burned 841 calories. When I plugged speed and time into MFP it pulled 200something. Which would be more valid? I assume MFP assumes decent shape for the activity. I am very out of shape, so would that be why my HRM tracks me so much higher? Or, is it that my target HR may not be input properly? I'm using the default settings of my watch right now, so perhaps they need to be tweaked? Lower is set to 30, upper is set to 240, my average was 140ish (it's already gone from my watch <_<) and my peak was 156. I'm 5'6", weight about 240, BF% approx 48 via army measurements.

Edit because I have typos....

Replies

  • bjcp60
    bjcp60 Posts: 5
    Hi there!
    I used a HRM (polar) for the past two years. I was very meticulous with my diet (using a kitchen scale for everythin hah) but I never lost the weight I was supposed to. So I did some research, and I read somewhere that the HRM can overestimate your calorie burn by 25%, so what I did was if my HRM showed that I burned 500 calories, I'd do this: (500x.75) = 375 calories, and thats what I logged. When I started doing that, I started to lose the weight I was expecting from my math (cals in, cals out).
    Also I just got a Bodymedia armband and I absolutely loveeeee it. When my HRM showed I burned 600 calories in a bodycombat class, my armband shows 380, which is close to my x.75 math. Just an idea:)
  • Thimbelinda
    Thimbelinda Posts: 34 Member
    If there is that big of a difference, maybe your HRM is not working properly. My husband's had a problem and giving him insanely high numbers, but it was recording his heart rate over 200 when he was actually in the 150's.
  • daniellabella986
    daniellabella986 Posts: 325 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    I've been losing weight using the MFP measurements, however since my target calorie count is pretty low (1310) I'm concerned that I'm seriously underestimating my calories burned if there's such a big difference. I took my HR by hand when I first put the HRM on, but perhaps I should stop mid exercise and double check it.
  • Laura732
    Laura732 Posts: 244 Member
    If your heart rate monitor is set up properly, it should give you a more accurate reading than MFP. Most HRM's have settings somewhere for Age, Sex, and weight. So, the first place to check is the Owners Manual for your HRM. Luckily, if you've lost it, most manufacturers put manuals on their websites. Check your watch for those values in the settings screens.

    Hope this helps!
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.

    See, and I do eat back all of my calories that I burn. I don't want to under fuel my body, so if I burn 800+ during the day in exercise, and only eat 1300, that puts me at a huge deficit for my body's daily nutritional needs for basic survival. I'm sure I would lose weight faster if I didn't eat my calories back, but that method seems unsafe for me.
  • daniellabella986
    daniellabella986 Posts: 325 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.

    See, and I do eat back all of my calories that I burn. I don't want to under fuel my body, so if I burn 800+ during the day in exercise, and only eat 1300, that puts me at a huge deficit for my body's daily nutritional needs for basic survival. I'm sure I would lose weight faster if I didn't eat my calories back, but that method seems unsafe for me.

    Don't eat back what you burn! You'll take away any deficit and your metabolism won't hum like it should. It's not unsafe - DO feed your body on days you work out but don't overdo it. Especially on rest days, stay at your minimum or a tiny bit above. When you work out, if your minimum is 1300, I would say go up to 1400 for the day (my trainer recommended this to me and it's been working so far...). It's whatever you're comfortable with and obviously if you're truly hungry you need to eat, but don't sabotage all the hard work you did just because MFP says you have so many calories that you earned from working out. You need the burned calorie deficit at the end of the week to total at least 3500 in order to lose a pound so if you're eating it back, the scale won't budge. But don't go by the scale 100% - measure yourself and see your body changing, not just the number. Good luck!
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Not all HRMs are made alike - what brand/model do you use? Does it have a chest strap? Do you have it set up with all your personal stats correctly (height, weight, age, gender)? What exercise were you doing and for how long?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I'm gonna say something is wrong with HRM or something else is going on to be getting readings of 256 BPM...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that is far more BPM than your max HR. Are you wetting your strap?
  • KinoM
    KinoM Posts: 359 Member
    OP, your HRM equipment is malfunctioning. There is absolutely no way you could be hitting such a high rate, given that a conservative MaxHR formula is 220 minus your age. See here for a discussion on the matter: https://www.dailymile.com/forums/fitness/questions/4735-max-heart-rate
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.

    See, and I do eat back all of my calories that I burn. I don't want to under fuel my body, so if I burn 800+ during the day in exercise, and only eat 1300, that puts me at a huge deficit for my body's daily nutritional needs for basic survival. I'm sure I would lose weight faster if I didn't eat my calories back, but that method seems unsafe for me.

    Don't eat back what you burn! You'll take away any deficit and your metabolism won't hum like it should. It's not unsafe - DO feed your body on days you work out but don't overdo it. Especially on rest days, stay at your minimum or a tiny bit above. When you work out, if your minimum is 1300, I would say go up to 1400 for the day (my trainer recommended this to me and it's been working so far...). It's whatever you're comfortable with and obviously if you're truly hungry you need to eat, but don't sabotage all the hard work you did just because MFP says you have so many calories that you earned from working out. You need the burned calorie deficit at the end of the week to total at least 3500 in order to lose a pound so if you're eating it back, the scale won't budge. But don't go by the scale 100% - measure yourself and see your body changing, not just the number. Good luck!

    your deficit is built into your calorie goal...if you're following the MFP method, you calorie GOAL is already a massive deficit from a maintenance number that does not include exercise. Perhaps before you hand out advice on how to use a particular tool you should learn how to properly use said tool....
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.

    See, and I do eat back all of my calories that I burn. I don't want to under fuel my body, so if I burn 800+ during the day in exercise, and only eat 1300, that puts me at a huge deficit for my body's daily nutritional needs for basic survival. I'm sure I would lose weight faster if I didn't eat my calories back, but that method seems unsafe for me.

    Don't eat back what you burn! You'll take away any deficit and your metabolism won't hum like it should. It's not unsafe - DO feed your body on days you work out but don't overdo it. Especially on rest days, stay at your minimum or a tiny bit above. When you work out, if your minimum is 1300, I would say go up to 1400 for the day (my trainer recommended this to me and it's been working so far...). It's whatever you're comfortable with and obviously if you're truly hungry you need to eat, but don't sabotage all the hard work you did just because MFP says you have so many calories that you earned from working out. You need the burned calorie deficit at the end of the week to total at least 3500 in order to lose a pound so if you're eating it back, the scale won't budge. But don't go by the scale 100% - measure yourself and see your body changing, not just the number. Good luck!

    Sorry, wrong answer re: eating back calories. If you follow MFP the way it's set up, you are supposed to eat back exercise calories (at least 50-70% to make up for overestimates) as there's already a deficit built in to your daily goal based on how many pounds per week you set your goal at and your activity level. FYI, trainers aren't usually well educated on the nutrition side of things so be wary of any dietary advice they give. I've eaten pretty much every exercise calorie burn (per my Polar HRM) through this whole process and as you can see by my ticker, it works just fine.

    I'll agree with this response on the scale thing though. Definitely take body measurements and progress pics because "the scale lies" as they say.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    I use my HRM but honestly, I never worry too much about the actual number that i burned because I don't go over my calories and eat back what I worked off. Even if I have a heavy workout day for 2 hours, the max I'll eat is about 1350 cals. As long as you're not trying to overeat and eat back what you burned, don't worry so much about what the number is - as long as you ARE working out and doing something, weight will creep off.

    See, and I do eat back all of my calories that I burn. I don't want to under fuel my body, so if I burn 800+ during the day in exercise, and only eat 1300, that puts me at a huge deficit for my body's daily nutritional needs for basic survival. I'm sure I would lose weight faster if I didn't eat my calories back, but that method seems unsafe for me.

    Don't eat back what you burn! You'll take away any deficit and your metabolism won't hum like it should. It's not unsafe - DO feed your body on days you work out but don't overdo it. Especially on rest days, stay at your minimum or a tiny bit above. When you work out, if your minimum is 1300, I would say go up to 1400 for the day (my trainer recommended this to me and it's been working so far...). It's whatever you're comfortable with and obviously if you're truly hungry you need to eat, but don't sabotage all the hard work you did just because MFP says you have so many calories that you earned from working out. You need the burned calorie deficit at the end of the week to total at least 3500 in order to lose a pound so if you're eating it back, the scale won't budge. But don't go by the scale 100% - measure yourself and see your body changing, not just the number. Good luck!

    The body has a hard time surviving on less than 1200 calories per day. To maintain my weight it's around 2000 calories/day. Over that, I think. ANY deficit to my maintenance calorie consumption rate, will cause weight loss. If you NEED 1200 calories to survive, and only eat 1200 calories, and burn 600, your body is attempting to LIVE on 600 calories per day. I'm not sure why you think that's safe.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    Not all HRMs are made alike - what brand/model do you use? Does it have a chest strap? Do you have it set up with all your personal stats correctly (height, weight, age, gender)? What exercise were you doing and for how long?

    It's a Timex personal trainer, with a chest strap. It doesn't allow for height/age/gender, but I've used a couple different calculators to try and determine my min/max for fat burn, which is what I'm after. It does allow for weight measurements, and encourages you to use outside sources to determine your min/max and all that. I've adjusted the tracking portions of the watch and will see what it gives me tomorrow. :) I was walking, 2 miles, 30 minutes. I really am quite out of shape. O.o
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    I'm gonna say something is wrong with HRM or something else is going on to be getting readings of 256 BPM...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that is far more BPM than your max HR. Are you wetting your strap?

    It gave me a max reading @ 156BPM, average was around 145BPM. I did wet the strap. I'll double check it's reading v. my own readings tomorrow when I go out again to make sure it's registering properly.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    Ahh!! 256 was a typo!! I'm so sorry. I'll edit the post. It should have said 156.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Not all HRMs are made alike - what brand/model do you use? Does it have a chest strap? Do you have it set up with all your personal stats correctly (height, weight, age, gender)? What exercise were you doing and for how long?

    It's a Timex personal trainer, with a chest strap. It doesn't allow for height/age/gender, but I've used a couple different calculators to try and determine my min/max for fat burn, which is what I'm after. It does allow for weight measurements, and encourages you to use outside sources to determine your min/max and all that. I've adjusted the tracking portions of the watch and will see what it gives me tomorrow. :) I was walking, 2 miles, 30 minutes. I really am quite out of shape. O.o

    Try again but it sounds to me like it won't be very accurate without all your personal data. I wouldn't say you're that far out of shape...if you did 2 miles in 30 minutes, that's 4 miles an hour which is a pretty brisk pace. And in that case, I'd say the MFP numbers weren't too far off. The average burn for walking is about 100 calorie per hour (less if you're smaller and/or in fantastic shape, it would be less). Don't worry so much about the fat burning zone either - that's a bit of a myth. While it can be good to burn fat by doing lower intensity steady state cardio (aka LISS), you'll burn way more calories in less time doing higher intensity workouts so in the end, it comes out about the same.

    good article:

    http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/The-Truth-About-The-Fat-Burning-Zone.htm
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member

    I'll agree with this response on the scale thing though. Definitely take body measurements and progress pics because "the scale lies" as they say.

    I just started this journey, and get weight/tape done every two weeks by Army standards since that's what I need to get to. That's why there's some "ish" on my weight right now. I will be updating bi-weekly on my measurements and weight, and post photos in my group on FB so we can all track ourselves. ^_^
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    Not all HRMs are made alike - what brand/model do you use? Does it have a chest strap? Do you have it set up with all your personal stats correctly (height, weight, age, gender)? What exercise were you doing and for how long?

    It's a Timex personal trainer, with a chest strap. It doesn't allow for height/age/gender, but I've used a couple different calculators to try and determine my min/max for fat burn, which is what I'm after. It does allow for weight measurements, and encourages you to use outside sources to determine your min/max and all that. I've adjusted the tracking portions of the watch and will see what it gives me tomorrow. :) I was walking, 2 miles, 30 minutes. I really am quite out of shape. O.o

    Try again but it sounds to me like it won't be very accurate without all your personal data. I wouldn't say you're that far out of shape...if you did 2 miles in 30 minutes, that's 4 miles an hour which is a pretty brisk pace. And in that case, I'd say the MFP numbers weren't too far off. The average burn for walking is about 100 calorie per hour (less if you're smaller and/or in fantastic shape, it would be less). Don't worry so much about the fat burning zone either - that's a bit of a myth. While it can be good to burn fat by doing lower intensity steady state cardio (aka LISS), you'll burn way more calories in less time doing higher intensity workouts so in the end, it comes out about the same.

    good article:

    http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/The-Truth-About-The-Fat-Burning-Zone.htm

    The only reason I walked that pace was because of my husband. When left to my own devices I prefer a slower pace, and 4mph was exhausting and left me quite out of breath. I'll use the HRM again tomorrow and see what it says. According to this calculator ( http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx ), I should have burned 474.
    Thanks for the advice. :)
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    So, it does track my HR correctly, however, the calorie burn estimates are off my more than 70% based on some web calculations I've been doing. So... I'm going to return it.

    What brands of HRM do you all suggest?
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Polar FT4 and FT7 are pretty common around here. I have the FT4 and it works great. Eat back most/all of my earned calories and still lose at a decent rate (considering how close I am to go and that I'm not always great about staying in calories). Garmin's supposed to be a good brand as well.

    There are several threads already on here about HRM recommendations so I'd recommend using the search function to see multiple responses. And check out the Polar website - they have a nifty compare feature if you're trying to decide between a few different models.

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