Excessive calorie burn from driving

cam891
cam891 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I've been driving for just over an hour in narrow roads and heavy traffic so i've been concentrating quite a lot and my heart rate was raised.

When driving my heart rate normally increased over my resting heart rate but this time it was between 100-125. I usually burn just under/over 100 calories when driving but according to my fitbit hr, I've burnt 558 calories!

I have noticed that when I occasionally drive Mon-Fri my weight loss is slightly higher.

I've posted a screenshot of my fitbit heart rate panel. Does anyone else experience a hr or calorie burn like this or is a) my heart rate way too high or b) could there be something wrong with my device.

Thanks!

itv1161883pp.jpg

Replies

  • amyr271
    amyr271 Posts: 343 Member
    I'm more interested about what happened at the start, did you die for a second?!
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Sometimes people over think things like this. I do not count or even worry about calories from driving.
  • cam891
    cam891 Posts: 5 Member
    amyr271 wrote: »
    I'm more interested about what happened at the start, did you die for a second?!

    :D Haha! Fortunately not, I was in the shower when it flat lined.
  • TommyC1234
    TommyC1234 Posts: 24 Member
    I wish you burnt calories driving, I would find it hard to believe you burnt 600 while driving. I do about 3000 miles a month so it would be perfect!
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    and that is the problem with wearable HR monitors

    the fitbit HR function is only of use during STEADY STATE CARDIO which driving isn't

    HR elevation <> calorie burn

    I hear there's some new HR monitors that are more supposed to be more useful outside the steady state field but have yet to see that
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    TomCraven1 wrote: »
    I wish you burnt calories driving, I would find it hard to believe you burnt 600 while driving. I do about 3000 miles a month so it would be perfect!

    I got a brand new car with 20 miles on it in November. I've put 6000 since ! And I thought I drove a lot but you take the cake !! Lol

    If driving really burnt all those calories then I would be stick thin. Lol !

    Don't get caught up in the small stuff op . count your intentional workouts as exercise and don't worry about the daily life stuff that burns calories . that is already accounted for in your calorie goal. Even if you listed yourself as sedentary, that still accounts for things like driving,walking to the car, walking to bathroom, showering and so on. It would be double dipping if you counted such activity.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Don't confuse heart rate with calorie burn - you can't measure energy in heart beats.

    For cardio you can make a correlation between HR and estimated oxygen uptake and therefore energy expenditure but that doesn't extend to everyday life.

    Elevated HR from stress of driving doesn't mean you are burning a load of calories. You are still just sitting down (unless you are driving Fred Flintstone's car of course...).
  • vansnyder
    vansnyder Posts: 20 Member
    I don't know, I think anything that brings your hr up that much for that long has to burn a little extra. As Tom said he drives a lot, but then he probably knows his route and it has become mundane, no big pulse changes. But if you are driving treachurous road conditions over a period of time it will burn extra calories. Unfortunately you can't plan that in or to keep that excitement up you would have to eventually be racing icy roads down mountains because you would need more and more stimulus. I had a 24 hour trip a couple years ago where I flew to boston and bought a truck and drove it back to Indiana non stop. I didn't eat well either but still dropped several pounds in 24 hours.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    vansnyder wrote: »
    I don't know, I think anything that brings your hr up that much for that long has to burn a little extra. As Tom said he drives a lot, but then he probably knows his route and it has become mundane, no big pulse changes. But if you are driving treachurous road conditions over a period of time it will burn extra calories. Unfortunately you can't plan that in or to keep that excitement up you would have to eventually be racing icy roads down mountains because you would need more and more stimulus. I had a 24 hour trip a couple years ago where I flew to boston and bought a truck and drove it back to Indiana non stop. I didn't eat well either but still dropped several pounds in 24 hours.

    If you dropped several pounds in 24 hours, this was a change in water weight. It wasn't calorie burns leading to fat loss.

    And while it seems like common sense that anything that brings your heart rate up that much has to burn calories, it isn't accurate. There are some good explanations above in this thread -- you should check them out.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    this can't be real …

    I mean you are going to try and count calories from "intense driving," are you kidding me? you are sitting down the whole time you are driving….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    some perspective - you did not burn 588 calories while sitting down operating a car ….typically you would need about a four mile run to burn that amount of calories and no way you were exerting yourself that much while sitting down ..
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    vansnyder wrote: »
    I don't know, I think anything that brings your hr up that much for that long has to burn a little extra. As Tom said he drives a lot, but then he probably knows his route and it has become mundane, no big pulse changes. But if you are driving treachurous road conditions over a period of time it will burn extra calories. Unfortunately you can't plan that in or to keep that excitement up you would have to eventually be racing icy roads down mountains because you would need more and more stimulus. I had a 24 hour trip a couple years ago where I flew to boston and bought a truck and drove it back to Indiana non stop. I didn't eat well either but still dropped several pounds in 24 hours.

    that's not how it works - sorry

    you burn calories by expending energy

    a HR to calorie conversion is based on, well basically look-up tables, where data was collected on Oxygen uptake during steady state cardio under lab conditions .. then a correlation was made under these conditions to the Heart Rate measured and a guestimate for the average person was created .. that's basically what underpins it in laymans terms

    not HR spikes but VO2
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    OP, I have never had this issue with my Charge HR but I have seen other people report it. You might want to check out the Fitbit group here or the forums on the Fitbit website for more information. I have heard that some people log "driving" as an activity for the time they are driving -- this will override any excessive calorie burn that is registered for this time.
  • cavanaughb
    cavanaughb Posts: 2 Member
    edited January 2016
    If your FitBit HR is set to On or Auto, consider switching it to Off and sync before driving. Just be sure to turn HR back on when you resume normal activities.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited January 2016
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    this can't be real …

    I mean you are going to try and count calories from "intense driving," are you kidding me? you are sitting down the whole time you are driving….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yup. Calorie burn while driving would only count if you were Fred Flintstone. ;)
  • vansnyder
    vansnyder Posts: 20 Member
    You guys may have a good point. I guess we all get weird ideas from things we have heard in the past and make assumptions. I know I heard stories of people that were in intense pain and or had infections in their body for a long period of time and so they required more calorie intake then others that were sedentary. I guess I hear stuff like that enough and start believing just increasing hr and reving up the system to a more alert state can consume more calories. Thanks for the updates, and I didnt mean to sound misleading.
  • MelaniaTrump
    MelaniaTrump Posts: 2,694 Member
    Stress can be bad for your health.
  • Mjones23456
    Mjones23456 Posts: 57 Member
    The heart rate is definitely stress induced and the calorie burn is probably correct. I went through a very stressful time over a period of a month or so and found the same readings you are having. Unfortunately I was eating a lot of comfort food and not exercising but I still lost 5 lbs. Go figure! :)
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    I have seen overweight school bus drivers and driving a bunch hormonal maniacs to school is pretty darn stressful. Ask me how I know?
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    When I was severely tachycardic from anaemia my resting heart rate was over 100 and would race to 140-160 while doing nothing. I guess I burnt tons of calories for those 6 months ;) ( in fact I gained a bit but I was severely underweight because of my disease at the time)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Mjones23456 wrote: »
    The heart rate is definitely stress induced and the calorie burn is probably correct. I went through a very stressful time over a period of a month or so and found the same readings you are having. Unfortunately I was eating a lot of comfort food and not exercising but I still lost 5 lbs. Go figure! :)

    yes to first part
    absolute no to second part
    the calorie burn is not correct, sorry - please read up thread to see why

    you would have been eating fewer calories than you burned during your stress weight loss .. stress can make it more difficult to lose to be honest, but that's not a given
  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member
    Mjones23456 wrote: »
    The heart rate is definitely stress induced and the calorie burn is probably correct. I went through a very stressful time over a period of a month or so and found the same readings you are having. Unfortunately I was eating a lot of comfort food and not exercising but I still lost 5 lbs. Go figure! :)

    The more accurate explanation here is that you ate less than you burned, comfort food or otherwise, as many do when stressed. If stress and anxiety upped calorie burn, my TDEE would be about 8,000. ;)
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
    There is some research that shows that world chess champions generate as much metabolic stress as running when they're using just their mind to play chess.

    That said, you're probably not the Bobbie Fisher of the carpool lane, and even if you were, determining it via simple heart rate wouldn't work.
    Perhaps it is time to look into taking some more pleasant backroads on your commute to save your ticker work that isn't burning calories, and your mind stress it doesn't need.?
  • vansnyder
    vansnyder Posts: 20 Member
    As far as the school bus drivers go, there is that old saying, you can't outrun a bad diet. So even if they were burning more while under stress of driving, heck they could have been pulling a rikshaw with the kids in it, if they ate bad enough the rest of the day they would still gain weight, and I think that is part of the problem, if we are stressed some of us fall back on fattening foods.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    Perhaps @heybales would have some insight into calorie burns with increased heart rate in the absence of exercise. From what I understand, it is not a direct correlation, and confuses HRM's into thinking you are working out when you are not. In other words, it's wrong.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    Don't worry, it's just water weight.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    To be fair to both sides: Yes, you do burn more calories driving than just sitting stationary on your couch. You're using your arms, turning in your seat to look around, using your legs to press pedals. Things you don't do on the couch.

    However, the difference in caloric burn is SO MINIMAL that it almost doesn't warrant notice at all.

    The thing you need, specifically for fitbit is called "Drivebit" it's a third-party app but essentially you turn it on when you get in the car and it tells your fitbit not to log anything other than what you would burn sitting on the couch, so it stops counting pot holes as steps and stress as exercise. Then you press the button again when you get out of the car.

    I got rid of drivebit because I almost never drive and it's always short and local and I ALWAYS forget to shut drivebit off so I miss out on all those steps in the grocery store, but if you drive often and can commit to using it, it will stop this from happening.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    blankiefinder wrote: »
    Perhaps @heybales would have some insight into calorie burns with increased heart rate in the absence of exercise. From what I understand, it is not a direct correlation, and confuses HRM's into thinking you are working out when you are not. In other words, it's wrong.

    I'm not sure after the Fitbit's last upgrade where it tries to guess the exercise being done - but it used to be that high HR without corresponding step increase didn't stay in workout mode using HR for calorie burn.
    Even if you hit the button to start a workout it might drop out if steps didn't go up enough or sustained long enough.

    Now, high HR driving a bus, and bumps causing light steps - might be enough to keep it in HR-based calorie burn mode - and inaccurate do so.

    So while the brain does burn more driving, and hopefully more a bus with kids - as above - it's minimal, but worthy if a long time like all day professional drivers.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    this can't be real …

    I mean you are going to try and count calories from "intense driving," are you kidding me? you are sitting down the whole time you are driving….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yup. Calorie burn while driving would only count if you were Fred Flintstone. ;)

    or an old style Formula 1 driver pre power steering and the like

    9d35227a36d030d47e0c1b3a63f7e203.jpg

    Personally my HR is about at its lowest when driving.

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