Which device?

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happening5
happening5 Posts: 63 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I walk a lot and now i'm adding Zumba to the mix. I'm looking for a device to keep an accurate calorie count.
When I use Map my walk app on the phone it will say i've lost 1041 calories but if I log the same amount of time and speed in Fitness pal it gives me 841. I always err on the side of caution and go with the lower count and the weight loss is great but i'm really wanting a more accurate count. I was thinking fit bit but even it has so many models. How do you choose?

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  • cwrig
    cwrig Posts: 190 Member
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    None of the "activity monitor" type devices will give you an accurate calorie count for misc exercise like zumba. They are all basically pedometers which count your bounces via an accelerometer.

    They track walking fairly well because walking is a very easy thing to capture with an accelerometer. Each step causes one bounce which they translate into x calories per step. But other exercise are much harder to capture accurately. With Dance you could burn a lot of energy without shaking the device much; Or the opposite you could be shaking your wrist a lot and barely burning energy at all.

    Perhaps a heart monitor would be a bit more accurate, but even that is still a calculation.
  • happening5
    happening5 Posts: 63 Member
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    I've seen a woman in zumba with some sort of calorie counting heart rate monitor watch looking thing. Wonder what it was.
  • Sofaa1
    Sofaa1 Posts: 19
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    Well I have a Polar ft4 heart rate monitor, and I like it very much, but I think with all of these sort of pulse watches you have to be careful because you cant count 100% on them to tell you the exact amount you have burned. What I would do is fx if my heart rate monitor said I had burned 600 then I would subtract 1/3, so I would count on having actually burned around 400 calories :)
  • GamecockFan14
    GamecockFan14 Posts: 154 Member
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    I use a fitbit. I love it and you can link it to MFP.
  • GamecockFan14
    GamecockFan14 Posts: 154 Member
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    P.S you should put your new picture up here to show off your new, smokin' bod!! :)
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
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    fitbit's a lot more approximate when it comes to calorie burn. get a heart rate monitor, and the more info you have to input, the closer it can come with burn.
  • chelledawg14
    chelledawg14 Posts: 509 Member
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    I wear my Polar HRM when I do zumba (2 or 3 days a week). I walk to zumba using the HRM, stopping it before I take the class, then use it for the class, then start another session for the walk home. I also wear a Fitbit One 24/7. I use MapMyRun on my phone for getting my miles walked, but I never use that for calories burned - it's always shoes 60-100 calories higher than the HRM.
  • HardyGirl4Ever
    HardyGirl4Ever Posts: 1,017 Member
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    I have a fitbit, and I love it! I've been told that they're pretty accurate. But I've been wondering for a while, how do you get a calorie reading from your HRM? Mine just give the heart rate and beeps slowly if I'm too low, and quickly if I'm too high... Is there something I'm missing? Sorry OP for bombarding your post with my questions!!
  • cwrig
    cwrig Posts: 190 Member
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    I have a fitbit, and I love it! I've been told that they're pretty accurate. But I've been wondering for a while, how do you get a calorie reading from your HRM? Mine just give the heart rate and beeps slowly if I'm too low, and quickly if I'm too high... Is there something I'm missing? Sorry OP for bombarding your post with my questions!!

    Most heart rate monitors connect to an app or other device which does the calorie calculation based on your age, gender, weight and heartrate. The heart rate monitor itself typically just feeds the app the heartrate it is detecting. Its up to the app to convert the info into calorie burn calculation.

    For things other than walking (which is very predictable) HRM is generally more accurate data source for calorie calculations than a pedometer (fitbit) that just detects if it is shaking up and down. But its still a calculation.
  • happening5
    happening5 Posts: 63 Member
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    P.S you should put your new picture up here to show off your new, smokin' bod!! :)

    Whatever! lol i'm 0.7 pounds away from loosing a Chloe.
  • happening5
    happening5 Posts: 63 Member
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    I wear my Polar HRM when I do zumba (2 or 3 days a week). I walk to zumba using the HRM, stopping it before I take the class, then use it for the class, then start another session for the walk home. I also wear a Fitbit One 24/7. I use MapMyRun on my phone for getting my miles walked, but I never use that for calories burned - it's always shoes 60-100 calories higher than the HRM.

    I think that is what the other lady had. So does the polar keep calories track too? Thank you for confessing you walk to Zumba! I've been considering doing that too but my friends think i'm insane.

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