Polar Loop and Calories

fpuckett2383
fpuckett2383 Posts: 49 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello! I have just purchased the polar loop and I am totally lost! I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (I got it yesterday) but I wanted to know if some of the more experienced veterans could tell me how I should calculate my calories based around it. Knowing how many calories I should have is always difficult and I know this sounds dumb but how can I use this tool to better help determine what I should be doing? I am not entirely clear yet how it all works, but I'm doing a lot of research- any help is greatly appreciated! Please don't mean at my ignorance, I am trying to learn!

Replies

  • numsquat
    numsquat Posts: 133
    Actually have the Garmin Vivofit but researched both well and they are very similar. So my first question is do you have all your personal info inputted? And second, did you get the HRM strap?
  • Eric_DeCastro
    Eric_DeCastro Posts: 767 Member
    I have the polar loop too but I think to extract any useful info from it you need the HRM strap. I use a polar FT7 which doesn't talk to my loop so my loop is a bracelet that just tells me how many steps I took which I don't look at anyway.
  • verdejt
    verdejt Posts: 24 Member
    Steps can be converted into meaningful miles just take your height in Feet and inches and convert it to decimal and then multiply that by .141 and multiply that by the number of steps taken and divide by 5281 and that will equate your steps to miles. Currently only the IOS app does the conversion for you. Hopefully they come out with the Android app as promised.
  • fpuckett2383
    fpuckett2383 Posts: 49 Member
    I don't have the hrm :(
  • numsquat
    numsquat Posts: 133
    I don't have the hrm :(

    If/when you can afford one I would suggest getting one as it makes the Loop (and the Vivofit) a much better tool than a step tracker.

    Right now your Loop will give you your daily BMR and the extra calories you burn from walking (your steps) among other data. What you don't have is your calories burned doing workouts (this is where the HRM comes in). You can use the Loop as a replacement for TDEE calories. Use the daily calories burned and eat 500 less for each pound you want to loose each week. When exercising, use a calculator (like the exercise calculators on MFP though I would only count 70% max of the calories here) to count exercise calories and add then to your daily total. Even with my Vivofit I use a simple spreadsheet to track all of this and keep it in my Dropbox and update it from MFP for calories in and Vivofit (and in your case exercise calories) for calories out. If you had the HRM strap you wouldn't need to worry about the exercise calories.

    I've been very satisfied with the calorie tracking if the Vivofit and having used Polar products/software in the past and from reviews, you should get similar results from the Loop.

Categories