Polar HRM Users

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Winning4EJ
Winning4EJ Posts: 47 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Is anyone still using a Polar heart rate monitor to measure calories burned?

I use a polar ft4 still, nice, reliable and simple and seems to be very accurate. In the age of fitbits etc just curious and also willing to add some more pals for motivation and accountability.

Goal Lose 25lbs
Height 5'7
Current Weight 171

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  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 878 Member
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    When I was actively losing weight I used a Polar HRM as ONE way to estimate my calories burned. I had other sources as well (my RunKeeper app also gives an estimate of calories burned) as well as I'd just use Google to try to find a calculator to estimate calories burned based on HR for whatever activity I was doing (usually hiking or running).

    It's important to note that HRM are not necessarily accurate for calories burned for many reasons but - I used the above 3 methods to get 3 estimates of how many calories I burned and typically would manually put in a number somewhere in between them when logging my workout in MFP. I lost weight at my expected/intended rate (and was also fairly accurate with my calorie consumption logging) so I assume I was more/less accurate enough.

    I will say that I found that my Polar HRM would be a much higher estimate of calories burned for more intense workouts (if my running or hiking route had more elevation changes or my pace was faster). So seemed to me at least based on my own data that for more moderate/intense cardio my HRM was the highest (and possible too high) estimate of calories burned.

    I'm sure this can be very different depending on the person so see what you think works for you - but using multiple sources and choosing to use either an average of all of them or a median number seems reasonable...?

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