Heart Rate Monitor Vs. Pedometer!

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clemanski2013
clemanski2013 Posts: 7
in Fitness and Exercise
Today, I wore my heart rate monitor to work as well as downloaded a pedometer app (Runtastic) to my phone. I work at a job where I am mostly standing or walking all day.

My heart rate monitor polar FT4 counted 1051 calories over 8 hours.

My pedometer which was on my cell phone calculated about 3,500 steps and in MFP counted it at 8 calories...

What. The. Hell.

Its such a huge discrepancy. I am confused. What should I do?

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  • mc_hudd
    mc_hudd Posts: 47
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    I don't completely understand how MFP would only calculate 8 calories for 3500 steps! I have a Fitbit Zip &, according to it, I burn more than that just being alive for an hour! ???? I would definitely go by what the HRM says, but I'm not an expert at any of this stuff either.
  • janjanorama
    janjanorama Posts: 19 Member
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    I wouldn't bother with the HRM while you're at work. A HRM is meant to measure steady state cardio exercise. You would have burned a good chunk of that 1051 anyway by just being alive for 8 hours.

    For example I am 30, 5'8 and weigh 189 lbs. My body needs roughly 1600-1700 calories a day just to keep me alive Ie if I was lying down in a room with my eyes closed. If I wore my HRM for that time it would tell me I'd burned maybe that amount of calories, but that wouldn't be a deficit.
    Likewise I could sit at my desk with it on and it woudl tell me I had burned calories, which wouldn't be a lie, but once your heart is beating and you are breathing you're burning calories.

    When you set up mfp it asks you what kind of lifestyle you lead: sedentary, active etc you have to take you job into account here and the resulting calorie requirement MFP gives you will take that into account.

    Activities you do in the normal course of your day shouldn't be added in as cals earned, as if you do it every day its just your baseline. Now if you walked or cycled to work, that counts as exercise and the cals for that are counted as additional earned.

    FYI i used to believe that every reading from my HRM (polar ft7) was gospel, and I ate all the calories it told me I earned, I was stuck at the same weight for a long time. No I still wear it to be sure my heart is working to the level I want during exercise, and on active days I just eat an extra 300-400 cals. THAT'S IT, Unless I'm starving. since I've taken this attitude, I've gotten back on track with losing consistently

    Save the batteries in your hrm for full on exercise!
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    C) neither of these choices.

    HRM is worrhless for tracking what you are doing at work. Phone based pedometer is inaccurate. Get a real pedometer type device so that you can get a better idea of your daily activity levels.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    C) neither of these choices.

    HRM is worrhless for tracking what you are doing at work. Phone based pedometer is inaccurate. Get a real pedometer type device so that you can get a better idea of your daily activity levels.

    QFT.

    As already mentioned HRM calorie estimations are based on moderate intensity steady state cardio. It is not accurate for low intensity activity. You will (and did) get an overinflated burn.

    I assume your step counter synced with MFP? If so the reason you only got 8 calories is most of those steps are already factored in to your daily activity level. It is likely you were slightly higher than expected, so it adjusted with the 8 calories. That doesn't mean you only burned 8 calories, but MPF had already accounted for the rest.

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