Question about Polar FT7

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mkskippy24
mkskippy24 Posts: 45
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all!

SO, my Polar FT7 just arrived this am (YEA!!) and I just had a quick question for anyone here who might also use this particular model of HRM. I was wondering if you wear it ONLY for your workout..... or have you ever just worn it for a workout and a full day. I'm wondering if you can get a daily account of how many calories you burn (from wake up to bedtime) or if it's something that I should only use during my workout. I'm not quite understanding how it records yet, so I don't know if it has the ability to hold a entire day of information.

I'm so excited to get a better handle on how many calories I'm actually burning!! Shame today isn't a workout day.

Thanks Everyone :)

Replies

  • kimlausan
    kimlausan Posts: 39
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    I'm thinking about getting one of those. I'm interested in what others have to say about it.
  • mikeyml
    mikeyml Posts: 568 Member
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    I don't own one but it's my understanding that a HRM works best when you have an elevated HR, like from exercise. I don't know how accurate it would be if you wore it all day while, say, sitting at a desk or something like that. If anyone knows for sure then I'm very interested to find out.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Only during your workout will be accurate. As the cals burned is a calculation that uses HR as one of the inputs, if you are not working out and wearing it some of the calculation will be off as it is assuming you are working out. You can wear it all day but it will grossly overestimate your burn while you are not working out.
  • ewegner
    ewegner Posts: 48 Member
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    I used to wear mine for a whole day, every now and then to see exactly what I was burning on a given day - so I knew how many calories to eat and/or how much more I needed to workout to lose. However, I know it drains the battery a lot when you keep the monitor on ALL day, especially if you do it frequently. But it is a great idea to get a reading for a day's worth of calories. Remember, depending on the kind of day you have - it may be more or less every other day. I would wear it on a day you know your activity and schedule is going to be typical. Hope this helps! :) Enjoy it - I just ordered a new one too!
  • xnattiex
    xnattiex Posts: 143 Member
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    I have an FT7 but i have only used it while working out, although from the looks of it, i think it will keep on going all day if you wanted it to, but then i would say its only recording you BMR cals anyway. It's a great HRM though, I love mine :)
  • pchann
    pchann Posts: 84
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    I have considered the same thing. Wearing it for a few days to get an idea of my true baseline. I believe the readings will be accurate because it's a chest strap HRM and a good one at that. I wear it during my lifting routines now and its amazing how few calories traditional lifting burns. Be interesting to know caloric burn during other "life" activities.
  • HotMomma86
    HotMomma86 Posts: 75
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    I have the same one and I only use it while working out. I think that is the basic purpose of it. Plus, I heard the battery drains quickly if used like that or a lot. There is a thing called the BodyBugg that is for all day use. It is kind of pricey though, which is why I got a HRM instead.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I have considered the same thing. Wearing it for a few days to get an idea of my true baseline. I believe the readings will be accurate because it's a chest strap HRM and a good one at that. I wear it during my lifting routines now and its amazing how few calories traditional lifting burns. Be interesting to know caloric burn during other "life" activities.

    HR is only one component in the calculation the HRM uses to get cals burned, if you are not exercising it throws the calculation off and you burn would be quite a bit less than the HRM shows.
  • tracybarnhill
    tracybarnhill Posts: 124
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    I wear mine just to work out, and haven't even thought about wearing it throughout the day to see what I burn, but I have a sit down desk job soo.... I understand that it is best when your heart rate is elevated, but I wear it after my workout until my heart rate returns to almost normal, which can be about 15-20min after workout. So if you want to wear it to determine what your normal heart rate is, I say go for it, but might be disappointing on calorie burn depending on what you do throughout the day.. Hope that helps... just remember to change your HRM when you loose weight to your new weight...
  • susioryan
    susioryan Posts: 180
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    I use mine for workouts. As for the bodybugg- I had one for 2 years- paid the subscription, was obsessive with the calorie burn. Wore that damn thing on my upper arm with everything. Its not sustainable. It might be sustainable if you are BIGGEST LOSER winner and get paid promotionals. I find that MFP is sustainable as is a heart rate monitor. We have lives- MFP allows us to live it.
  • pchann
    pchann Posts: 84
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    I have considered the same thing. Wearing it for a few days to get an idea of my true baseline. I believe the readings will be accurate because it's a chest strap HRM and a good one at that. I wear it during my lifting routines now and its amazing how few calories traditional lifting burns. Be interesting to know caloric burn during other "life" activities.

    HR is only one component in the calculation the HRM uses to get cals burned, if you are not exercising it throws the calculation off and you burn would be quite a bit less than the HRM shows.

    Your completely wrong about the polar HRM and it's technology. Please read the Polar manual and how its sets base rates before you post inaccurate advice.
  • scagneti
    scagneti Posts: 707 Member
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    Out of curiousity, when I got my FT7, I wore it for an hour of sitting on the couch watching tv (not doing a single thing).

    It said I burned nearly 150 calories. That would mean that my 140+ pounds would burn 3600 calories over a 24 hour period doing nothing. Yeah, that's not happening.

    It works great for workouts, but it's not a Body Bugg.
  • pchann
    pchann Posts: 84
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    Did you calibrate it properly? Was your resting heartrate accurate? How long did you sit? What time of day was it? Was it right after a meal? If so what did the meal consist of? To take a single period of time with no other parameters is bad data.
  • scagneti
    scagneti Posts: 707 Member
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    Did you calibrate it properly? Was your resting heartrate accurate? How long did you sit? What time of day was it? Was it right after a meal? If so what did the meal consist of? To take a single period of time with no other parameters is bad data.

    God, really? I didn't say that I conducted a freaking study, I said what my experience was. It's pretty clear to anyone using the thing to work out that it works best as a indication of short term calories burnt at an elevated heart rate and not as a replacement if you're too cheap to pay the $8 monitoring fee for one of the many available items that are developed to check someone's resting heart rate.

    It was two hours after I ate dinner of grilled chicken, broccoli and whole grain pasta with olive oil. I put it on, did some jumping jacks to see if it would register the increased heart rate (it did) so then I reset the calories burnt to zero, waited a half an hour and sat for an hour until I turned it off and then I stood up and took it off. It was calibrated according to the instructions.

    You know what -- nevermind. Yes it's a FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC way to check your resting heart rate. And make sure that you eat back most of those thousands of calories it says that you burnt just breathing and sitting watching hockey.

    ETA - from the Polar website (here's the link in case you think that quoting something without providing evidence is bad form):
    http://www.polar.fi/en/products/get_active/fitness_crosstraining/FT7) Under Full Features and then Polar OwnCal it states, and I quote:

    "Polar OwnCal calculates the number of kilocalories expended during training. This feature allows you to follow the kilocalories expended during one training session and cumulative kilocalories expended during several training sessions."

    Did you notice the TRAINING part? Not, number of calories you burn sitting on your couch? It mentions training THREE TIMES. Perhaps you should have checked out the Polar site before suggesting Eric read the manual.
  • pchann
    pchann Posts: 84
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    First of all I don't think it's "pretty clear to anyone" that it's use is for short term training. So Polar doesn't intend it's product to be used by marathon runners...doubtfull don't you think. Also the quote from the Polar website is correct but please intimate some meaning there. Training. What is training? Is a person 400 lbs. "training" the same as an athlete? Or isn't the 400lb person to use the Polar? But I digress your probably right. Just get your resting rate by using some random algorithm standardized for everyone. After all we're all the same anyway.
  • yeowiepower
    yeowiepower Posts: 31 Member
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    just bought an FT7 and am really skeptical about the calories burned.... this is my first HRM and before i was pretty conservative with calorie outputs as i get info from gym equiptment (which seemed to understate calories burned) to enter into MFP....

    but walking for 50 minutes @5km or 3.5mph on a treadmill apparently i burned 486 kcal? noooo wayyyy i see that actually happening.. heartrate averaged 123 and maxed at 136.... treadmill said i had burned 108 calories...

    yes i am overweight, but on average ill eat my net calories to lose 1.5 pounds a week putting in understated numbers from the treadmill... if i start including the calories burned per the HRM i will be eating on average 300 less calories a day per week and should be dropping heaps more weight.

    i dunno, just seems to me that it is being a little overgenerous in terms of calorie output....

    i have calibrated it to my current weight, height, gender etc... but i am thinking i should enter a weight about 10% less than my actual weight to get a lower number...

    anyone else done the same?

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