HRM and Runtastic Workouts give different Calorie burns?

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kenuk1
kenuk1 Posts: 64 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
HI, I use Runtastic Pro with a Wahoo Blue Hr, all linked to MFP, I'm fairly happy with my set up and have on and off logged here for some time.

Started to really exercise this last week ready for hols and am on day 6 of Insanity, but, I started logging on Runtastic as Aerobics, then noticed there was a workout called "other" so I logged as that, this is when I noticed that my calorie burn seemed to be slower than when the workout was set to aerobic.

I have noticed once before but dismissed the fact that when I logged a run on a treadmill as "treadmill" I got a set reading, but when I logged as a general workout, the same run came out way higher.

So, has anyone else noticed their calorie burn is different if you log a different workout, even though you're doing the same? Does that even make sense?

My thought was that no matter what I log exercise as, the HRM should simply work and the calculations would be done based on the weights etc I put into my profile...

Any help appreciated, cheers!

Replies

  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    The calculations are only as good as the formula. Each activity has a different relationship between heart rate and caloric burn ... walking has a different formula from running, those both differ from swimming, etc. For activities such as running, walking, swimming, and cycling there is enough scientific testing for reasonably close calculations based on ht/wt/gender/age/pulse. When you randomly pick an event type, the app uses that formula to calculate a burn. "Other" and "aerobic" may or may not have their basis on testing of persons conducting a similar workout to Insanity or Jazzercise or hopscotch ... so it just does its background math based on the data it has and cannot determine if it is using the right formula for your activity.
  • kenuk1
    kenuk1 Posts: 64 Member
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    Thank-you, therefore this explains what I'm noticing is actual as opposed to my imagination, in this case, how to log Insanity?
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    I don't do Insanity so I've never had to worry about how to log it.

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