HRM disappointment!!

Options
alison2429
alison2429 Posts: 236 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi there
I just received my Polar FT7 HRM following advice from all my lovely MFPers.
The great news is that it was easy to set up and really comfortable to wear - don't even notice I am wearing either the watch or the chest strap.............................bad news...................the realistic amount of calories burned!
Here goes:
The free app on my phone that I have used since I started MFP says that my 1hour 2 min walk burned 325 cals. (I know what you are thinking 'you get what you pay for'. Lol.
My Polar says that I burned 201 cals.
GUTTED!!

I expected it to be lower but not that low!
Now here's a couple of questions for all you HRM experts out there.....
1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it?
2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly?
3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!!
4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was?

I am 187lbs, female and 5ft 11in.

Any comments or advice welcomed.
Thanks
x
«1

Replies

  • Onesnap
    Onesnap Posts: 2,819 Member
    Options
    yes, wet the chest strap on the grey markers!
  • Onesnap
    Onesnap Posts: 2,819 Member
    Options
    oh, and it must touch your skin. Under the bra. I put mine right below the sports bra.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    Options
    1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it? - Yes
    2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly? - Yes, under
    3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!! - Or work out harder - walk faster!
    4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was? Yes, that's a great reading.

    Good luck!
  • nickyevans
    nickyevans Posts: 216 Member
    Options
    I have Polar FT60, I go to Body Attack - an hour long high intensity aerobics class - and work my butt off, sweating buckets, dripping on the mat during the press ups and breathing hard... to burn 325 calories... I feel your pain!!
  • emmaleigh47
    emmaleigh47 Posts: 1,670 Member
    Options
    Yes wet the chest strap -- yes it must touch your skin...

    And unfortunately... yes the HRM burn is probably more accurate. If your heart rate is low you will have less of a burn ... you need to work to get your HR up ... I would try it running too though, because often walking doesnt get my HR up enough to register much!
  • shapestocome
    shapestocome Posts: 476 Member
    Options
    What did it say your high and average heart rate was on your walk?
  • alison2429
    alison2429 Posts: 236 Member
    Options
    Yes wet the chest strap -- yes it must touch your skin...

    And unfortunately... yes the HRM burn is probably more accurate. If your heart rate is low you will have less of a burn ... you need to work to get your HR up ... I would try it running too though, because often walking doesnt get my HR up enough to register much!

    Thanks Pal.
    I was thinking that and as I am going to running club tonight I will soon find out....................I will feed back later! have a great day Emma. x
  • alison2429
    alison2429 Posts: 236 Member
    Options
    What did it say your high and average heart rate was on your walk?

    Good question! How do I find that out - other than read the instructions!! haha
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    Options
    Hi there
    I just received my Polar FT7 HRM following advice from all my lovely MFPers.
    The great news is that it was easy to set up and really comfortable to wear - don't even notice I am wearing either the watch or the chest strap.............................bad news...................the realistic amount of calories burned!
    Here goes:
    The free app on my phone that I have used since I started MFP says that my 1hour 2 min walk burned 325 cals. (I know what you are thinking 'you get what you pay for'. Lol.
    My Polar says that I burned 201 cals.
    GUTTED!!

    I expected it to be lower but not that low!
    Now here's a couple of questions for all you HRM experts out there.....
    1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it?
    2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly?
    3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!!
    4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was?

    I am 187lbs, female and 5ft 11in.

    Any comments or advice welcomed.
    Thanks
    x

    The amount you should enter into MFP will be even lower as your HRM counts total calories burned therefore is double counting the calories burned at rest during that time period, if you enter the full 201 into MFP. What you should do is back out maintenance calories during that time. You can get maintenance calories from your goals tab. Look at the top right for calories burned from normal daily activity.

    If you maintenance calories are 2200 you can get cals burned durning the day per minute by taking the 2200/24hours/60minutes. So when not working out you would burn 1.53 cals/minute. So during that 1 hour and 2 minutes you would have burned 95 calories (1.53*62) So the amount you should enter into MFP would be 106 (201-95) This gives you the extra calories burned due to working out as you would have burned 95 if you didn't go for the walk. This may be disappointing but will help you reach your goal.
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
    Options
    1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it? - Yes. Mine doesn't read unless I do this and it's a good practice to get into.

    2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly? I wear mine just below my sports bra. I find the added pressure of my bra does affect my reading, but your polar might be a higher quality and better ready than my HRM.

    3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!! If you want to burn more, than yes. If you feel good about the quality of exercise you're getting, then keep with it. Totally up to you. Try a 4:1 walk/jog ratio if you want to burn a little more. The 1 min jogging intervals will increase you HR and you'll be burning more during both the jog and the walking portions of your exercise. Do this for 45 mins and you'll get a sweet burn for sure! And you'll feel amazing having done something you would not otherwise have tried/thought yourself capable of.

    4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was? My HR is usually between 51 and 60 BMP when I'm at rest, depending on what I'm doing/my mood/my food and drink intake, etc. 55 does not seem too low to me at all if you exercise regularly.

    Erickirb gave great advice on the maintenance cals too. I do the same - I subtract my maintenance cals from my HRM read to accurately log my exercise calories.

    Yesterday I ran for 38 mins and my HRM read a burn of 474 calories. My maintenance cals are 1690.

    Thus, 1690 / 24 / 60 = 1.17

    1.17 * 38 = 44.6

    474 - 44.6 = 429.4 additional calories burned

    That is what I logged under exercise. I hope that helps!
    -Meag
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
    Options
    BTW - I know you're a runner, Alison. Just general advice for anyone wondering the same thing :bigsmile:
  • Mairgheal
    Mairgheal Posts: 385 Member
    Options
    I don't use a HRM, but a GPS tracker for my walking (where you input your own profile as well) and there's a huuuuge difference between the calories burned on that compared to on MFP, I reckon MFP definitely overestimates this particular exercise.
  • alison2429
    alison2429 Posts: 236 Member
    Options
    1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it? - Yes. Mine doesn't read unless I do this and it's a good practice to get into.

    2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly? I wear mine just below my sports bra. I find the added pressure of my bra does affect my reading, but your polar might be a higher quality and better ready than my HRM.

    3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!! If you want to burn more, than yes. If you feel good about the quality of exercise you're getting, then keep with it. Totally up to you. Try a 4:1 walk/jog ratio if you want to burn a little more. The 1 min jogging intervals will increase you HR and you'll be burning more during both the jog and the walking portions of your exercise. Do this for 45 mins and you'll get a sweet burn for sure! And you'll feel amazing having done something you would not otherwise have tried/thought yourself capable of.

    4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was? My HR is usually between 51 and 60 BMP when I'm at rest, depending on what I'm doing/my mood/my food and drink intake, etc. 55 does not seem too low to me at all if you exercise regularly.

    Erickirb gave great advice on the maintenance cals too. I do the same - I subtract my maintenance cals from my HRM read to accurately log my exercise calories.

    Yesterday I ran for 38 mins and my HRM read a burn of 474 calories. My maintenance cals are 1690.

    Thus, 1690 / 24 / 60 = 1.17

    1.17 * 38 = 44.6

    474 - 44.6 = 429.4 additional calories burned

    That is what I logged under exercise. I hope that helps!
    -Meag

    Thanks so much for all that. Can I just check then - if my maintenance cals are 1900 and I walked for 62 mins I would do the following calculation:
    1900 / 24 / 60 = 1.32
    1.32 x 62 = 81.84
    201 - 81.84 = 119.16 calories burned.
    Is that correct??
    My head hurts now!!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    Options
    1. Should I wet the electrode areas of the strap every time before I use it? - Yes. Mine doesn't read unless I do this and it's a good practice to get into.

    2. Should I wear the strap under my bra strap - I wonder if it wasn't registering properly? I wear mine just below my sports bra. I find the added pressure of my bra does affect my reading, but your polar might be a higher quality and better ready than my HRM.

    3. Should I just 'man up' and do more exercise?!! If you want to burn more, than yes. If you feel good about the quality of exercise you're getting, then keep with it. Totally up to you. Try a 4:1 walk/jog ratio if you want to burn a little more. The 1 min jogging intervals will increase you HR and you'll be burning more during both the jog and the walking portions of your exercise. Do this for 45 mins and you'll get a sweet burn for sure! And you'll feel amazing having done something you would not otherwise have tried/thought yourself capable of.

    4. Could I assume that as my heart rate was quite low (resting 55) that I am fitter than I thought I was? My HR is usually between 51 and 60 BMP when I'm at rest, depending on what I'm doing/my mood/my food and drink intake, etc. 55 does not seem too low to me at all if you exercise regularly.

    Erickirb gave great advice on the maintenance cals too. I do the same - I subtract my maintenance cals from my HRM read to accurately log my exercise calories.

    Yesterday I ran for 38 mins and my HRM read a burn of 474 calories. My maintenance cals are 1690.

    Thus, 1690 / 24 / 60 = 1.17

    1.17 * 38 = 44.6

    474 - 44.6 = 429.4 additional calories burned

    That is what I logged under exercise. I hope that helps!
    -Meag

    Thanks so much for all that. Can I just check then - if my maintenance cals are 1900 and I walked for 62 mins I would do the following calculation:
    1900 / 24 / 60 = 1.32
    1.32 x 62 = 81.84
    201 - 81.84 = 119.16 calories burned.
    Is that correct??
    My head hurts now!!

    That would be correct.
  • writtenINthestars
    writtenINthestars Posts: 1,933 Member
    Options
    Thanks for the explanation, erickirb. I was just reading another thread and someone was talking jibberish but essentially trying to explain the same thing you did...thank God I came across your post because that makes clear and obvious sense!

    Hmmm I will have to start remembering this when figuring out my exercise cals....dang that's a lot of cals subtracted for me... :frown: (for now)
  • meagalayne
    meagalayne Posts: 3,382 Member
    Options
    LOL@ Dontgiveup82 - Was it me? :tongue:
  • shapestocome
    shapestocome Posts: 476 Member
    Options
    What did it say your high and average heart rate was on your walk?

    Good question! How do I find that out - other than read the instructions!! haha


    Do you know how to get into your "File" to check your past exercise? If so, you go into there and then click the bottom right hand button twice. That will tell you max and ave heart rate for that session.
  • Nigel99
    Nigel99 Posts: 498 Member
    Options
    I had the opposite findings when I started using my HRM. I found that I was burning a lot more than what MFP (or my Kinect games) was listing for calories.
  • shagsywagsy
    shagsywagsy Posts: 9
    Options
    I used my new HRM yesterday for the first time. A 52 minute swim burned 368 calories according to the HRM and 803 according to myfitnesspal... no wonder my weight loss has been slow, I've been over-eating!!! At least now I have an accurate count!
  • sheilamo
    sheilamo Posts: 115 Member
    Options
    I've been using one since I started here. I never understood everyone posting all these HUGE numbers for calories burned doing "housework" or stuff like that.

    I feel that my numbers are absolutely more realistic. I also set a goal for myself before I start the workout. Like how many calories are you looking to burn that day and then do whatever kind of movement you need to do to get there (sometimes my walk turns into job/walk, etc.)

    It works! Nothing is inflated!

Categories