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HRM / Endomondo inaccurate on only one exercise activity?

pippaw21
pippaw21 Posts: 22 Member
edited March 1 in Fitness and Exercise
hi all,

I just bought a Polar H7 HRM and used it today with Endomondo, and compared the data for calories burned with that produced by my gym's equipment (with both picking up the Polar H7 heart rate). I logged each activity as a separate workout, so was able to see that the combo of the HRM and Endomondo had the same results as the gym for all but one activity - the stationary bike (both upright and reclining). The HRM/Endomondo estimate for calories burned was approx. 1.5 times that of my gym equipment...

Is there any particular reason why the combo of the HRM with Endomondo would be the same for other equipment but not when I'm using stationary bikes? I know that HRMs can be off a little, but because it's so accurate (compared to the gym estimates) for other equipment, I'm wondering if there's an easy fix. FWIW, I logged it under 'indoor cycling' on Endomondo, and MFP has interpreted that as Spinning, so I don't know if I picked the wrong activity and that's related to it...?

Replies

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    What do you need to fix? I would just pick the estimate I felt most comfortable with, probably my HRM.

    Spinning is actually a trademarked brand name for a cycling class. Who knows what MFP uses, but cycling classes overall are probably a lot harder than what most people do on a stationary bike of their own accord.
  • pippaw21
    pippaw21 Posts: 22 Member
    I have to sync my HRM with an app to pick up the data - the H7 doesn't come with a watch. So basically I've synced the HRM with two sources - 1) my gym equipment, 2) Endomondo - and whilst they produce the same calorie burn estimate for all other activities, they differ significantly on calories burned for any form of cycling.

    I trust the gym estimate more and would use this, but I am moving to a new gym where the equipment does not produce this data for me, hence buying an HRM.

    I figure there has to be a way to fix this, since both my gym equipment and Endomondo are connected to my HRM, and since they are producing the same estimates for all other activities bar this one.

    Re: spinning being a cycling class/more calories than a stationary bike - I mentioned the spinning/indoor cycling thing for that very reason - I don't know how Endomondo calculates calories when synced with a HRM, so I'm not sure if the category of exercise makes any difference, and I hoped someone might be able to answer that.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    Oh man, I don't know. I have a Polar HRM with a watch and my treadmill also reads it, but they always read the same from it. Are you sure both the gym equipment and Endomondo are reading from the H7 strap? If the new gym equipment won't read from it, you might be struck using Endomondo's estimates. As long as you're not aiming for a tiny deficit and eating back everything it says, it shouldn't matter much.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    I know that HRMs can be off a little...

    There's an understatement - they can be off by a lot. It's pretty common to see people using them on completely inappropriate exercises and getting numbers 4 times larger than they should be.
  • Kevalicious99
    Kevalicious99 Posts: 1,131 Member
    I used my Polar FT4 while walking .. about 3 hours. Says I burned about 2000 calories.

    Well .. sorry Polar, that is just insane. Sure I am a relatively fast walker but my actual calorie burn was probably about 40% of that.

    I just do not trust these things (HRM's) for calorie burns .. but use them for the HR monitoring part of the devices as really that is what they can do accurately. The calorie part is just some fancy math calculation .. which in my opinion can be very very out.
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