fitbit or polar?
Replies
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I have yet to find an HRM that can be used for swimming.
I've been using a Garmin HRM-Swim for this, with a Fenix 3. It works very well. Here's an example:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1313275034
As you can see (from the HR data and the pace and the stroke rate) I treated the first half as a workout and the second half as "it's a beautiful day and I'm not ready to go home yet."0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »i only wear the hr strap whilst I'm in the gym though so normal everyday circumstances wouldn't apply would they? although are you saying that my hr strap doesn't know I'm in the gym or something?
what would your advice be then, ignore both?
How does it know you're in the gym? It's a heart rate monitor, not a GPS-based phone app.
And, in the gym, are you running on a treadmill, or checking your texts and watching that hot girl walk by? Maybe she winked at you and that caused your heart rate to jump up for a moment. Your HRM has no idea what's going on.
Have you noticed that for any kind of exercise, some people go all out, and other people half-*kitten* it? With HR you can take a better guess which is which, but it sure doesn't spell it out. So if you had a lot of coffee and you're not working very hard, your HRM can easily be fooled.
You're not lifting weights for calories. Ignore them.
i bought a fitbit on the advice of the doctors who told me to buy one to keep an eye on my calorie expenditure in the gym and she said they were pretty accurate, guess that's £100 down the drain0 -
callumwalker1995 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »i only wear the hr strap whilst I'm in the gym though so normal everyday circumstances wouldn't apply would they? although are you saying that my hr strap doesn't know I'm in the gym or something?
what would your advice be then, ignore both?
How does it know you're in the gym? It's a heart rate monitor, not a GPS-based phone app.
And, in the gym, are you running on a treadmill, or checking your texts and watching that hot girl walk by? Maybe she winked at you and that caused your heart rate to jump up for a moment. Your HRM has no idea what's going on.
Have you noticed that for any kind of exercise, some people go all out, and other people half-*kitten* it? With HR you can take a better guess which is which, but it sure doesn't spell it out. So if you had a lot of coffee and you're not working very hard, your HRM can easily be fooled.
You're not lifting weights for calories. Ignore them.
i bought a fitbit on the advice of the doctors who told me to buy one to keep an eye on my calorie expenditure in the gym and she said they were pretty accurate, guess that's £100 down the drain
In my opinion......
Not at all. You didn't throw good money after bad. Activity Trackers do have their place. I Had a Garmin VivoFit, then went to Mistfit [Complete mistake], then got a VivoSmart HR, and moved to a VivoActive HR.
Fact .....
Weight Loss comes from spending more calories than you eat. Running, Swimming, Cycling, Stair Stepping machines, lifting weights all burn calories.
as far as the theory behind it......
So does walking through the day. You burn roughly 100 calories per mile walked. It takes roughly 200 steps to walk one mile. Given the stride is between 2.1-2.5 feet. And if your daily goal through fitbit is 10,000 steps, and you hit that goal you basically walked roughly 5 miles. If my math is correct. So you burned roughly 500 calories just walking around. When you go for a run, go for a cycling adventure, when you go out for " cardio exercises" you're going to burn more calories in the same amount of time frame.
So no. activity Trackers are a waste of cash. They can help, and they do help.
and to say "in the gym" did she reference lifting or cardio.0 -
callumwalker1995 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »i only wear the hr strap whilst I'm in the gym though so normal everyday circumstances wouldn't apply would they? although are you saying that my hr strap doesn't know I'm in the gym or something?
what would your advice be then, ignore both?
How does it know you're in the gym? It's a heart rate monitor, not a GPS-based phone app.
And, in the gym, are you running on a treadmill, or checking your texts and watching that hot girl walk by? Maybe she winked at you and that caused your heart rate to jump up for a moment. Your HRM has no idea what's going on.
Have you noticed that for any kind of exercise, some people go all out, and other people half-*kitten* it? With HR you can take a better guess which is which, but it sure doesn't spell it out. So if you had a lot of coffee and you're not working very hard, your HRM can easily be fooled.
You're not lifting weights for calories. Ignore them.
i bought a fitbit on the advice of the doctors who told me to buy one to keep an eye on my calorie expenditure in the gym and she said they were pretty accurate, guess that's £100 down the drain
In my opinion......
Not at all. You didn't throw good money after bad. Activity Trackers do have their place. I Had a Garmin VivoFit, then went to Mistfit [Complete mistake], then got a VivoSmart HR, and moved to a VivoActive HR.
Fact .....
Weight Loss comes from spending more calories than you eat. Running, Swimming, Cycling, Stair Stepping machines, lifting weights all burn calories.
as far as the theory behind it......
So does walking through the day. You burn roughly 100 calories per mile walked. It takes roughly 200 steps to walk one mile. Given the stride is between 2.1-2.5 feet. And if your daily goal through fitbit is 10,000 steps, and you hit that goal you basically walked roughly 5 miles. If my math is correct. So you burned roughly 500 calories just walking around. When you go for a run, go for a cycling adventure, when you go out for " cardio exercises" you're going to burn more calories in the same amount of time frame.
So no. activity Trackers are a waste of cash. They can help, and they do help.
and to say "in the gym" did she reference lifting or cardio.
both, i just wanted to know how many calories i was burning to see how much food i needed to maintain and then put on weight0 -
Cardio is a little easier to get you in the ball park. Once again it's all a guesstimate to begin with. Just "Lifting" is much harder to nail down the caloric burn due to the nature of the exercise.
As @NorthCascades mentioned. A HRM is just that Heart Rate Monitor. It doesn't know if you're running, cycling or jacked up on Mountain Dew.0 -
I keep seeing estimates of 250 to 300 kCal per hour for weight lifting. You have to take that (or anything) with a big grain of salt, because there are so many "it depends."
If you're doing this to decide how much to eat (maybe you're "gaintaining" to build muscle but limit fat gain?), here's what you can do:
* Weigh yourself every morning, after you do your business, before you eat or drink anything. Log this.
* Also log everything you eat, including calories.
* Also log all the exercise you do, with calories.
Over time, if any of these is wrong, you'll have everything you need to figure it out. Maybe the way you lift, it's more like 1,000 kCal per hour, but you're assuming 250. You'll lose weight, and how quickly it happens tells you (about) how much to adjust your estimate. That's still not perfect because you don't know if the error is in what you burn or what you eat, but, still, that gets you closer. Sadly that's also a lot slower and less responsive than having a device to figure it out for you.0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I keep seeing estimates of 250 to 300 kCal per hour for weight lifting. You have to take that (or anything) with a big grain of salt, because there are so many "it depends."
If you're doing this to decide how much to eat (maybe you're "gaintaining" to build muscle but limit fat gain?), here's what you can do:
* Weigh yourself every morning, after you do your business, before you eat or drink anything. Log this.
* Also log everything you eat, including calories.
* Also log all the exercise you do, with calories.
Over time, if any of these is wrong, you'll have everything you need to figure it out. Maybe the way you lift, it's more like 1,000 kCal per hour, but you're assuming 250. You'll lose weight, and how quickly it happens tells you (about) how much to adjust your estimate. That's still not perfect because you don't know if the error is in what you burn or what you eat, but, still, that gets you closer. Sadly that's also a lot slower and less responsive than having a device to figure it out for you.
yeah that's pretty good advice, i weigh myself every morning and ive put 1.4 pounds on since sunday so would you recommend cutting back on the calories as this is weight gain too quickly? before i started 3800 calories i was on about 3600 but i wasn't gaining anything0 -
1.4 pounds could be water weight. If you eat, or did eat, a meal with a lot of sodium it's going to retain water. And while it doesn't add to muscle mass, or body fat it will make the scale go up.0
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1.4 pounds could be water weight. If you eat, or did eat, a meal with a lot of sodium it's going to retain water. And while it doesn't add to muscle mass, or body fat it will make the scale go up.
nothing unusually high in sodium, usually hit around 3000mg per day and hasve done for about 2 months so it has to be fat from the increase in cals0 -
BasicGreatGuy wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »BasicGreatGuy wrote: »As a general rule, the heart rate monitor strap is going to be a lot more accurate.
i thought that too but the difference between the two was startling, almost double
Sometimes, the heart rate monitor strap can show large spikes in the rate early on, depending on whether or not the wrap had good contact with the skin etc.
I make a point to wet down my strap before I run. That usually takes care of any abnormal readings early on.
I use Electro-Gel, you can find it on Amazon, usually in a 2 pack. 2 tubes has lasted me over a year and going strong. 2 pea sized dabs on the back of the strap and perfect connection all the time.0 -
Spliner1969 wrote: »BasicGreatGuy wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »BasicGreatGuy wrote: »As a general rule, the heart rate monitor strap is going to be a lot more accurate.
i thought that too but the difference between the two was startling, almost double
Sometimes, the heart rate monitor strap can show large spikes in the rate early on, depending on whether or not the wrap had good contact with the skin etc.
I make a point to wet down my strap before I run. That usually takes care of any abnormal readings early on.
I use Electro-Gel, you can find it on Amazon, usually in a 2 pack. 2 tubes has lasted me over a year and going strong. 2 pea sized dabs on the back of the strap and perfect connection all the time.
Aloe Vera works just as well, and is much cheaper.0 -
callumwalker1995 wrote: »yeah that's pretty good advice, i weigh myself every morning and ive put 1.4 pounds on since sunday so would you recommend cutting back on the calories as this is weight gain too quickly? before i started 3800 calories i was on about 3600 but i wasn't gaining anything
So let's start out by saying I'm not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or more qualified than anybody else. I make computer software for a living, it deals with breast cancer and helping hospitals comply with regulations around it - I have no special insight into this. I've lost a bunch of weight, and I've spent the last several months lifting and trying to build muscle, to gain size. I can share my thoughts with you but please keep in mind I'm just some idiot on the internet.
That said, I don't think you can add 1.4 pounds of fat in less than a week. I could be wrong. I feel like water retention, food in your digestive system, etc, are more likely.
How much protein are you getting?3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »yeah that's pretty good advice, i weigh myself every morning and ive put 1.4 pounds on since sunday so would you recommend cutting back on the calories as this is weight gain too quickly? before i started 3800 calories i was on about 3600 but i wasn't gaining anything
So let's start out by saying I'm not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or more qualified than anybody else. I make computer software for a living, it deals with breast cancer and helping hospitals comply with regulations around it - I have no special insight into this. I've lost a bunch of weight, and I've spent the last several months lifting and trying to build muscle, to gain size. I can share my thoughts with you but please keep in mind I'm just some idiot on the internet.
That said, I don't think you can add 1.4 pounds of fat in less than a week. I could be wrong. I feel like water retention, food in your digestive system, etc, are more likely.
How much protein are you getting?
220g0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »callumwalker1995 wrote: »yeah that's pretty good advice, i weigh myself every morning and ive put 1.4 pounds on since sunday so would you recommend cutting back on the calories as this is weight gain too quickly? before i started 3800 calories i was on about 3600 but i wasn't gaining anything
So let's start out by saying I'm not a doctor, or a nutritionist, or more qualified than anybody else. I make computer software for a living, it deals with breast cancer and helping hospitals comply with regulations around it - I have no special insight into this. I've lost a bunch of weight, and I've spent the last several months lifting and trying to build muscle, to gain size. I can share my thoughts with you but please keep in mind I'm just some idiot on the internet.
That said, I don't think you can add 1.4 pounds of fat in less than a week. I could be wrong. I feel like water retention, food in your digestive system, etc, are more likely.
How much protein are you getting?
220g why?0 -
I've been lifting heavy and getting what feels like an insanely high amount of protein for the past several months, with a "slight" (unmeasured) calorie surplus. My goal is to build size - vanity. It's working. I've been gaining a little bit of fat too, but it's surprisingly minimal. I've read that's what you should expect when you're lifting progressively heavier and eating lots of protein, but I've read a lot of things and it's hard to know what to believe. Put all of that together and I don't think you should worry yet.0
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NorthCascades wrote: »I've been lifting heavy and getting what feels like an insanely high amount of protein for the past several months, with a "slight" (unmeasured) calorie surplus. My goal is to build size - vanity. It's working. I've been gaining a little bit of fat too, but it's surprisingly minimal. I've read that's what you should expect when you're lifting progressively heavier and eating lots of protein, but I've read a lot of things and it's hard to know what to believe. Put all of that together and I don't think you should worry yet.
what is your advice then just carry on blking?
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callumwalker1995 wrote: »1.4 pounds could be water weight. If you eat, or did eat, a meal with a lot of sodium it's going to retain water. And while it doesn't add to muscle mass, or body fat it will make the scale go up.
nothing unusually high in sodium, usually hit around 3000mg per day and hasve done for about 2 months so it has to be fat from the increase in cals
As with many things affecting your HR, many things can affect your weight, particularly if you're weight every day and noticing fluctuations within 2lbs either way. An increase as you describe is more likely to be water weight, or even undigested food in your gut.
It might be worth stepping back to think about your objectives and taking a more holistic view. With no exercise calories in our diary it's difficult to establish how that relates to your intake.
For resistance training, just use an estimate. As upthread bout 250-300 cals per hour is a reasonable estimate. The energy you expend is a function of the mass you move, and the distance you move it. So if you're lifting your own bodyweight in a bench press, you've moved it less than a metre each rep.
CV work is easier to predict, but different approaches to measurement will be more appropriate to different things. For walking or running the distance you cover is more useful than anything else, so your FitBit will help, although much less accurate for running. For cycling a power meter will give you the most accurate measure. If your gym has Wattbikes they're accurate. Similarly Concept2 or WaterRowers will have a pretty accurate figure for energy expended.
An HRM can help, but as soon as you start varying intensity then the accuracy of any estimation is unknown.0 -
i thought all my problems would be solved buying one of these to know my caloric expenditure, i guess not. my polar said i burned 550 more calories than my fitbit did today purely because my hr was consistently above 100 whilst the fitbit said it was around 700
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