Calorie counting...when to stop!

I stop my HRM right after my workout. If I'm doing a cardio machine (rowing, elliptical, crossramp, etc), I stop it right when I step off. If I'm doing a spin class, I keep recording through the cool-down when we are still on the bike and stop it when we get off the bike to stretch. I consider any "after burn" from my heart rate still being elevated to be a bonus!

HRMs aren't accurate calorie counters anyway. They are designed to monitor heart-rate for cardiovascular training zones and for medical applications.

Are HRMs perfect? No. But they're a lot more accurate than the read-outs on the machines at the gym or from the MFP database.

Also, if you don't have anything helpful or relevant to add to a thread, why bother posting?

Nothing is 100% accurate *sigh* with that said I stop my HRM as soon as I'm done working out. The afterburn calories are just throw aways for me.

HRMs aren't accurate calorie counters anyway. They are designed to monitor heart-rate for cardiovascular training zones and for medical applications.

Are HRMs perfect? No. But they're a lot more accurate than the read-outs on the machines at the gym or from the MFP database.

Also, if you don't have anything helpful or relevant to add to a thread, why bother posting?

I disagree that this isn't helpful or relevant. I see a lot of people on this site who may think these readings are accurate. Just my .02 cents.

HRMs aren't accurate calorie counters anyway. They are designed to monitor heart-rate for cardiovascular training zones and for medical applications.

Are HRMs perfect? No. But they're a lot more accurate than the read-outs on the machines at the gym or from the MFP database.

Also, if you don't have anything helpful or relevant to add to a thread, why bother posting?

I disagree that this isn't helpful or relevant. I see a lot of people on this site who may think these readings are accurate. Just my .02 cents.

HRT's are a much more REALISTIC approach to how your particular body is handling exercise. It doesn't matter if they're not 100% perfectly accurate! They're a heck of a lot more realistic than the calories burned numbers this site and others give us for the different exercises.
They help alleviate the worry of over-doing it (or under-doing it, for that matter), and help you be aware of the different zones you're in. They are a whole lot more realistic of actual (near enough!) calories burned when logging calories than the guestimates given for the general public.

When I think of the calories I was given permission to "eat back" due to exercise... it makes a bit upset/sad to realize why the lbs didn't move down by much the whole past month that I've been exercising and watching my food choices. The calories burned estimates by this site for the exercises I do proved to be more than twice the amount of calories I was actually burning! In other words: after 45 minutes of exercising on the treadmill... this site listed that I'd burned almost 600 calories. Yet my HRM says I only burned 186 calories. That's a huge discrepancy when I'm supposed to "eat up the exercise calories"! No wonder I hardly lost anything the whole month!

To answer the topic question... I stop my HRT after I've done my cool-down and stretching because I'm not truly finished with my workout untill then.

HRMs aren't accurate calorie counters anyway. They are designed to monitor heart-rate for cardiovascular training zones and for medical applications.

Are HRMs perfect? No. But they're a lot more accurate than the read-outs on the machines at the gym or from the MFP database.

Also, if you don't have anything helpful or relevant to add to a thread, why bother posting?

Um, I think what this poster has to say is extremely appropriate and helpful. Just like the OP's question. The trend here to blindly trust the readout of the HRM is worrying as it can induce very large errors. It is good to be aware that the HRM is a tool with strong and weak points, and that its calorie readout is a good "best guess" if, but only if, a number of conditions are fulfilled:

- You're measuring only during sustained aerobic activity. HRMs are bad for rest calorie consumption or calorie consumption during resistance training or stretching.
- You've correctly entered your age and current weight in the HRM.
- The formula that the HRM uses to estimate calories from the heart rate (+ input parameters) happens to fit with a) your specific metabolism and b) the type of activity you're doing. For example, jogging and walking at approx. 4.5 mph, which I can both do, burn approx. the same number of calories. But my subjective effort and heart rate is higher when jogging as my "walking fitness" is better. So the HRM will give me more calories burned for running. Oops.

As for the OP, the conclusion to draw for the warning about HRMs is that as soon as you stop your aerobic activity, the calorie burn pretty much stops at once (not much afterburn for these kinds of activities), but your heart rate might remain elevated for a while. So don't count that part. Also, for prolonged, low to moderate intensity exercise you probably want to subtract your resting calorie consumption (BMR divided by 12 for "per hour", and divide again by 60 for "per minute") as you'd be counting this twice otherwise.

For small amounts of exercise (of the kind I mostly get), I often use a calorie burn of 7 (for moderate) to 10 (for really strenuous) calories/minute instead of the HRM reading.