HEART RATE MONITOR/ZUMBA

How long is the workout? Do you break a sweat doing it? Are you sure your setting with the HRM are correct? What HRM is it?
Usually I burn around 600 cals per hour doing Zumba. It was much more, when I started, but after months my body got used to it and I lost weight too (luckily), so I burn less cals now.
150 cals burned could be correct, if you do a short 20 min ab workout, if you do it longer and are really into it, then I bet you burn much more.

Does your heart rate monitor have a chest strap? Those seem to be the most reliable. It sure seems like you would burn more calories in Zumba. That's a tough class!

I personally have never tried Zumba, however I have a friend who just recently started it this week. This is what her exercise journal read:

Zumba at LOA. Heart rate monitor read 656 calories for the class (start up to cool down). Deducted calories for what would have been burned without the class.

you should check the instructions on your hrm. I go to zumba 3 times a week and I always burn close to 900 calories. It really helps if you know the routines, when I first started, I was only burning 500-something. do you zumba for an hour? at minimum you should be burning close to 10 calories per minute. do you have a hrm with the chest strap? is all your data entered correctly? Also, you should periodically glance down at your watch to make sure that your heart rate is not reading 0. if it does that, the leads are not reading your heart rate and thus not accurately counting your calories. when mine was giving me problems in the past, I had to rub a little vaseline on my chest to help the leads if my skin is too dry. Also, make sure to add water to the inside of the strap before you put it on and make sure it is reading as soon as you put it on. Usually my resting heart rate is about 65 so I make sure its reading a number and not a 0 before I get started. I hope this helps. Good luck!

I bought a HRM, too.....did an HOUR of cardio....and not light effort! It said I burned 157 cal's! I boxed it up & returned it. And, Zumba is from 500-1000 cals an hour depending on effort (my friend is an instructor & she told me this). I'd say your HRM is definitely wrong, too.

is that an hour? Mine was 500 in 45 minutes

return it....I recommend getting one with a strap...they are very accurate...I wear mine with Zumba and burn from 500-650 calories in an hour....

I take Zumba weekly and our instructor wears a heart monitor each class so we generally know how much we burn. Hers has always been somewhere around 650-850 calories for the hour class.

i have wii zumba and its just like the class i took, i love it .and im sweating big time to .i heard you can burn up to 800 cal an hour doing it.

I have a Polar F 6 with a chest strap...The chest strap is very important...also this unit does not cross talk with others in the gym. I have not tried it at Zumba, but today on the treadmill, I burned 626 calories. I have never had a workout yet under 500 and that is anywhere from 40-60 mins!

I got an HRM about 2-3 weeks ago, for 60 minutes of Zumba the lowest i've done is about 760(+) calories and the highest was 963 . Mine is the watch, I do check my HR after each routine (every 4-5minutes) so that it can be as accurate as possible.

How did that work out? Did it read many more calories with your new one? I just purchased a Polar FT4 today for Zumba. Can't wait to try it out and see what I'm burning.

I wear my HRM and in my last 40 minutes of Zumba I burned 350 calories ... I would be checking your HRM settings if I were you.

SO I went to my first Zumba Class yesterday but, I forgot to wear my fairly new HRM and I have no idea how to log it since it's not listed as a choice.....Arrrrgggh!!