polar ft7 does it really work?

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cheychey10
cheychey10 Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
polar ft7 does it really work? I have one and it tells me I burn a lot of calories and I wouldn't think I burn that many .

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  • tapirfrog
    tapirfrog Posts: 616 Member
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    I like mine a lot and its reported burns are quite close to what MFP reports, so now I have two data points to track against.

    However, it only works if you've entered your information precisely: height, weight, age, sex. If you slip up on any of those things (and it's easy to do, with all the buttons) then your calories will be off. Go back and check to see what you;ve entered.
  • cheychey10
    cheychey10 Posts: 4 Member
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    tapirfrog wrote: »
    I like mine a lot and its reported burns are quite close to what MFP reports, so now I have two data points to track against.

    However, it only works if you've entered your information precisely: height, weight, age, sex. If you slip up on any of those things (and it's easy to do, with all the buttons) then your calories will be off. Go back and check to see what you;ve entered.

    It's all in right but it's says I burn a 1000 or more in like a few hrs of I leave it on
  • 530roman
    530roman Posts: 1,819 Member
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    Can you give an example of what kind of exercise, for how long, and what your average HR was during said exercise? Mine (FT7) matches pretty closely to some other calculations but you should probably still be careful with eating exercise calories back. A lot of members here will tell you that they only eat back about half of their exercise calories, which is probably pretty safe to start. You could always reassess after a few weeks and adjust your intake accordingly.
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
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    cheychey10 wrote: »
    tapirfrog wrote: »
    I like mine a lot and its reported burns are quite close to what MFP reports, so now I have two data points to track against.

    However, it only works if you've entered your information precisely: height, weight, age, sex. If you slip up on any of those things (and it's easy to do, with all the buttons) then your calories will be off. Go back and check to see what you;ve entered.

    It's all in right but it's says I burn a 1000 or more in like a few hrs of I leave it on

    You burn calories simply by existing . . . I don't know if it's 1,000 or not but you do so if you're leaving it on, it's going to keep recording your daily burn.

    For example, if you burn 250 in a workout but leave it on you all day you might get a burn reading of like 1,500 depending on your stats. I don't know if this is the answer to yours, but just a suggestion
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    It is a heart rate monitor. It works for monitoring heart rate for training purposes. It estimates calorie burns just like a machine would or MFP does, but has an extra qualifier of heart rate. It is still an estimation and may not be accurate for all. It is also only even remotely accurate for steady state cardio (running, cycling, elliptical). It is pointless to use for calorie estimations for anything other than steady state cardio.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    It works to measure heart beat. The heart beat can be converted into calories burned for steady state cardio using known equations. These equations are NOT valid for everyday activity, weight lifting, or HIIT. So if you just left it on for a couple of hours and went about your day, no, the calories given for that are NOT accurate.
  • jillianedwards
    jillianedwards Posts: 67 Member
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    I love mine!
  • trina1049
    trina1049 Posts: 593 Member
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    Heart Rate Monitors are for steady state cardio and my FT7 works great. However, they're not for leaving on all day like a Fitbit. I use my FT7 during cardio class workouts.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    cheychey10 wrote: »
    tapirfrog wrote: »
    I like mine a lot and its reported burns are quite close to what MFP reports, so now I have two data points to track against.

    However, it only works if you've entered your information precisely: height, weight, age, sex. If you slip up on any of those things (and it's easy to do, with all the buttons) then your calories will be off. Go back and check to see what you;ve entered.

    It's all in right but it's says I burn a 1000 or more in like a few hrs of I leave it on

    HRMs aren't designed to stay on while you go about your day, hence the inflated number.

  • Skye_NS
    Skye_NS Posts: 214 Member
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    If you're looking for something to estimate your daily burn then I would suggest looking into an activity tracker, like Fitbit, and save the FT7 for your cardio workouts.
  • pink00007
    pink00007 Posts: 50 Member
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    Skye_NS wrote: »
    If you're looking for something to estimate your daily burn then I would suggest looking into an activity tracker, like Fitbit, and save the FT7 for your cardio workouts.

    Thanks for that. I have a fitbit and just ordered the FT7 for cardio.
  • WatchJoshLift
    WatchJoshLift Posts: 520 Member
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    Only if you have batteries in it. :smiley:
  • scrapjen
    scrapjen Posts: 387 Member
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    I'm not sure how you leave it on ... mine is OFF the second my workout is over. It's tight, and usually damp. I just get the stats for the workout itself. I do like to compare it's estimates to my Fitbit. I'm intrigued by the new Fitbit Charge HR though ... it IS one you leave on all day. I'm wondering how accurate it's estimates are?

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