HRM and calorie counter

MFP uses a broad average calculation, I would trust something that is hooked to me, getting my readings.

The HRMs with the chest straps are accurate for calculating cardio once you have subtracted out your RMR cals. They are not very accurate for strength training though, but still better than a rough guess.
The ones WITHOUT the chest strap are not accurate at ALL unless you are constantly rechecking your HR.

If you touch it when you start your walk, for example, then don't touch it again...you would be using your STARTING HR for the WHOLE walk, which would be far off since your HR surely incrreased once you got going harder. SO it would read very low. Conversely, if you touched it when you were going hard, then slowed down, it would keep counting at the higher rate, giving you an inflated number. That's why you have to touch those every time you think your HR may have changed, like up or down a hill, picking up or decreasing your speed, etc. Like every minute really.

The chest strap reads every beat of your heart and adjusts second by second for a real-time accurate burn. You just have to subract out what you would have burned sitting on your butt if you intend to eat back your exercise calories so you don't eat them twice.
1 calorie per minute is a good rough estimate since most people tend to be between .9 and 1.2 that I have seen. So if you walk for 30 minutes and it says 160 cals, then you would log and eat back 130 of them.

Any other questions?:flowerforyou:

MFP can only guess based on height and weight what your burned calories will be. The HRM actually measures it based on your height, weight, and heart rate. I would trust the HRM above MFP... just curious, what was the difference in measurements?

i just got my HRM today its the Polar FT4 and I gotta say its pretty accurate to what the MFP its gives me peace of mind to know that my calories loss is right like for bike riding its pretty much the same...I did 30mins today my HRM says 316 calories burned and MFP says 308, which is pretty darn close hehehe

Now the only difference was in Dancing I did Zumba 20min Express my HRM says 215 calories burned, but MFP when put under Dancing (general) says only 155, but oh well its still ok...but i would def recommend sticking with HRM just so you know for sure and feel more at peace knowing the true calories burned

Robin52077,
Is there a specific HR chest monitor you've preferred. I've had my doubts about my watch HRM and would like to invest in something more reliable.
I've heard good things about POLAR...any thoughts?
Also, I got a bit confused with the subtraction notation on your explanation. I get eating back the calories burned, but subtracting from the calories burned? Didn't get it.

Thanks.

I have 2 Polars, the F4 and the FT7, both are great, and the chest strap is so comfortable you forget it's there. Sometimes I leave it on for a few hours if I am preoccupied and don't get in the shower right away!:laugh:

About the resting calorie subtraction...think of it this way....you are already eating based on the calories your body burns just existing, relaxing on the couch or whatever, which is "about" 1 cal per minute. You are eating based on that number. Now you choose to get up and jog for 30 minutes. If you had sat on the couch you would have burned 30 calories doing it. Jogging you burned 150 calories during that 30 minutes. The difference in the 2 is what you burned ABOVE and BEYOND what you would have burned just hanging out. Therefore, if you are eating your exercise calories, which you should, then you don't want to eat that 30 TWICE, because it was already figured in to your day, you only want to eat back any EXTRA you burned by getting extra active.
Make sense?

HRMs don't figure out "additional" calories burned, the number contains your resting calories also, which is why if you put it on and take a nap, you WILL have a number on there when you wake up, since your heart is still beating and your body is still functioning. (those numbers won't be accurate though, as HRMs are only designed to function in an elevated HR state)

BMR divided is a good basic rough estimate. There is no way to get exact with it. Which is why I say 1 cal per minute. It's never an exact science. You don't know if your BMR on a chart is accurate for YOU, HRMs are up to 10% off at any given time, most people measure their food wrong, etc.
But subtracting 1 cal per minute is a decent rough estimate.

I'm stuck! Had my Polar F6 for a few days and I'm gutted. Workouts that brag huge calorie burns hardly do anything. Going to to a Shred tomorrow for curiosity. Do you all have your's set on light, mod or hard? Good job I've never eaten back all cals.

I have the F6 and yes to all. Just frustrating when most people I read are getting big numbers and I'm finding it difficult breaking triple figures. By the time resting cals taken off I wouldn't have burned much at all. I know I work out daily for over a year but not super fit or anything. Wondering if it could be faulty.

Thankyou, I figured it out. The setting automatic was on moderate, I changed it to light and its gave me a higher calorie burn. Still not seeing same numbers on here but much better than they were. It was disheartening doing a 50 min Turbo Jam workout, giving it my all for 130 cals. Now I'm clocking nearly 300 so I am happy with that.