Heart rate monitor and doing nothing

homer2084
homer2084 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I got a heart rate monitor a while back as the consensus seemed to be that it was the most efficient way to track cals burned.

Thought id try it for an hour whilst I sit doing nothing thinking it would let me know how close the BMR value of around 2000 was (I have a desk job)

With it on and sitting doing nothing for an hour its saying i've used 300 cals. Surely that cant be right. What am I missing ?

Replies

  • ukaryote
    ukaryote Posts: 874 Member
    It probably is not 300 calories per hour. An adult human uses about 2000 calories per 24 hours to just live. An HRM can estimate calories burned, more or less accurately. If you search for HRMs, you will find only a few rather expensive models are rather more accurate.

    Just living, moving air in and out of you lungs, pumping blood, and maintaining the turnover of cells requires energy. We are warm-blooded animals, which requires a certain number of calories to maintain body temperature over ambient temperature.

    You may need to adjust the setting on your device for your particular self.
  • gregpack
    gregpack Posts: 426 Member
    Well, if you weigh 400 lbs and have a resting heart rate of 100 that may be technically correct, or close to it anyway.

    If that doesn't apply to you, then check the weight setting on the HR monitor, Also, verify that the HRM is tracking your heart rate accurately by taking your pulse and comparing it to what the display says.
  • homer2084
    homer2084 Posts: 2 Member
    Well I weigh more like 160lbs. But if 300/hr is correct then by sitting doing nothing I would burn 3600 cals in 1/2 a day. Which is why I figured it clearly cant be right and I must be missing something.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    HRM's are not meant to be used while being sedentary or to be worn all day, only during steady cardio exercise. The calorie burn on them are not accurate when you do. If you want something to wear all day look into an activity tracker like Fitbit, Jawbone or Bodymedia.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    A HRM is only accurate at tracking calories burned during cardio, and even that is an estimate. Any other time it's not going to give a proper reading.

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