WTF is wrong with my HRM?

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Replies

  • osuzorba
    osuzorba Posts: 35 Member
    The calculations are done in the watch, so I doubt a new chest strap/transmitter will help you at all. Make sure your have all your information setup correctly in the watch. Does the watch still tell time correctly?

    As for the bad straps, the old style polar strap had little wires in them, after awhile they corrode through and break, so ultrasound gel wouldn't help with that issue.
  • osuzorba
    osuzorba Posts: 35 Member
    Maybe one of you can help me out since we're talking about it..

    I'm 67 inches tall and 152 pounds. My average heart rate is 160-ish while working out and my HRM says I burn about 450-500 calories in a 45 minute window. Does that sound right??

    I have an undiagnosed heart condition that is causing my heart rate to be higher than it should be. (Undiagnosed because the doctors have yet to figure it out!) If I get on the Stairmaster at the gym and put it at 40 steps per minute, my heart rate will be 176! Something is definitely wrong there... Yesterday I was doing single arm kettleball swings with a 20 lb ball 10 reps each arm and my heart rate was 180.

    Does anyone know anything about elevated heart rates due to a condition (and not the exercise) and its effect on calories burned?? My trainer and I think that I haven't been seeing the results I want (lower body fat) because my heart rate is too high and therefore out of the "fat burning" zone.

    Probably should start a different thread.

    But my wife has a similar issue. She routinely works out in the 190s, she has even busted 200 a few times. An easy cardio workout puts her in the high 170s. Basically she is always about 25 beats higher than what you'd think she should be at. We had her tested and her fat burn zone and anaerobic threshold were also about 25 beats higher than what you normally assume. But if you are using an HRM to track calories it is going to way over predict, and then if you eat all those calories back you don't have the deficit you thought you had.
  • kristarablue2
    kristarablue2 Posts: 386 Member
    If I can burn between 500 - 600 in an hour doing heavy, shirt drenching cardio, I consider that a win.
  • VoodooChummy
    VoodooChummy Posts: 53 Member
    I would think it's NOT the batteries in either the strap or the watch. If when you sync the watch it reads that it registered an average heart rate of 165bpm then both the strap transmitted properly and the watched received the transmission. The issue is in the calculations which SUUNTO uses one of the most complex and supposedly accurate algorithms around. I noticed major changes to calorie calculations with small changes in "Activity Class" especially. Also, if you have reached a new MAX Heart rate during a workout my Quest asks if you want to recalculate based on that new info. Screen Shots of your Movescount settings would possibly shed some light on the subject.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 499 Member
    I would think it's NOT the batteries in either the strap or the watch. If when you sync the watch it reads that it registered an average heart rate of 165bpm then both the strap transmitted properly and the watched received the transmission. The issue is in the calculations which SUUNTO uses one of the most complex and supposedly accurate algorithms around. I noticed major changes to calorie calculations with small changes in "Activity Class" especially. Also, if you have reached a new MAX Heart rate during a workout my Quest asks if you want to recalculate based on that new info. Screen Shots of your Movescount settings would possibly shed some light on the subject.

    Its good to hear from a fellow Suunto user.(not too many out there it seems)

    I checked my personal settings and there still correctly in there. My activity class is at 7.0 because i workout daily for over an hour. Sometimes i dont use my HRM when i exercise so when it asks to lower the activity class to 6.5 i decline. I really think something is wrong with it. I just put brand new batterys in both the watch and the chest strap and still getting thee random low calculations. I am about to film my HR monitor with a camcorder and time lapse the video for people doubting my "high calorie burns)
  • kimosabe1
    kimosabe1 Posts: 2,467 Member
    Tell me about it! I have a Polar Hrm that pisses me off & I can't figure out either!:sad: :mad:
  • ayalowich
    ayalowich Posts: 242 Member
    Running 8:30 pace you have a heart rate in the 160-175 range? I have no idea what you weigh, your age, max HR is etc.. but that is a very high HR. Your max declines as you age, so right now my max is probably 175 and most of my workouts are in the 135-145 range and I'm running 7:40 on average.

    And I tend to burn about 100 calories per mile or about 12-13 per minute. You are suggesting that for 45 minutes you have run say 5.3 miles and burning 750? I highly doubt it.
    actually for 45 min the 533 sounds much more reasonable vs. the 750. about 12cals/min vs 16.67cal/min. I can see if you are 230+lbs the 16 cals/min, but if you are much less than that the 533 sounds about right, may even be high, depending on your weight

    You did read the part about keeping heart rate between 160-175 bpm? This is constant, no breaks, if it starts to drop i pick up the pace. There is no way in hell that intense of a cardio workout would only burn 533 or less.



    Sorry, the person you are responding to is most likely correct. Especially if this is an interval-y type workout (Insanity and what not), HRMs notoriously over-estimated calorie burns.

    Heart rate and calorie burn only correlate well under very specific conditions.

    This is not interval. This is 7/mph treadmill running with 1% or higher incline. If the rate starts to drop i pick up pace or add hand weights, or swing arms to keep rate elevated. Again, 533 is way low for extreme cardio, and as i said, this is random, I get accurate calculations most of the time with the same workout/time.
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 499 Member
    Running 8:30 pace you have a heart rate in the 160-175 range? I have no idea what you weigh, your age, max HR is etc.. but that is a very high HR. Your max declines as you age, so right now my max is probably 175 and most of my workouts are in the 135-145 range and I'm running 7:40 on average.

    And I tend to burn about 100 calories per mile or about 12-13 per minute. You are suggesting that for 45 minutes you have run say 5.3 miles and burning 750? I highly doubt it.

    I am 145-150lb,male,34 yr old. my max hr is 184. According to EVERY online calculator at an average heart rate of 165 i should burn 742. Suunto calculations are very accurate, and on the low side. There are times i am going above 165 for more then 30 minutes of that 45 min workout. Peaks of 174. To get a calorie burn of 533 is absurd.
  • VoodooChummy
    VoodooChummy Posts: 53 Member
    Running 8:30 pace you have a heart rate in the 160-175 range? I have no idea what you weigh, your age, max HR is etc.. but that is a very high HR. Your max declines as you age, so right now my max is probably 175 and most of my workouts are in the 135-145 range and I'm running 7:40 on average.

    And I tend to burn about 100 calories per mile or about 12-13 per minute. You are suggesting that for 45 minutes you have run say 5.3 miles and burning 750? I highly doubt it.

    I am 145-150lb,male,34 yr old. my max hr is 184. According to EVERY online calculator at an average heart rate of 165 i should burn 742. Suunto calculations are very accurate, and on the low side. There are times i am going above 165 for more then 30 minutes of that 45 min workout. Peaks of 174. To get a calorie burn of 533 is absurd.

    I've seen calculations that would put your max heart rate at 186 and even one that estimates 193. I also exercise over an hour a day with a 7 Activity Class and my max heart rate is 182 at age 42. I'm also interested in your resting heart rate as SUUNTO uses that heavily into the calculations.

    None of these answer the question of randomness though. Can you screenshot the graphs of two workouts with different calorie results?

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