Do you use a HRM?

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Rachiepie6
Rachiepie6 Posts: 423 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Just curious :)

Do you use a Heart Rate Monitor? If not, what do you do to get you calories.

I use a heart rate monitor, unfortunately I can't wear it for swimming OR netball (my two sports) so I use the MFP database and googled swimming calories because MFP didn't have what I needed.

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  • aa1440
    aa1440 Posts: 956 Member
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    I don't use one. I use MFP's calorie counters for my exercise. I run and use a stationary bike. I also use HIIT training with my bike.
  • stephm112
    stephm112 Posts: 297 Member
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    i dont just because it seems like more hassel than its worth. i know that the calories lost will not be exact, but they will be a rough estimate and thats good enough for me. i'm still losing weight and that's all that matters to me x
  • elissascotland
    elissascotland Posts: 256 Member
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    Yes, I do use a HRM.

    Both MFP and the gym machines overestimate my calorie burn by 35-50%.
  • lindzmt22
    lindzmt22 Posts: 335
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    Yes. Love my Polar FT4!!
  • matthewdill83
    matthewdill83 Posts: 48
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    I actually just purchased one.. I figured I was getting serious about my fitness, and rather than hope that the estimates the net and MFP gave me were correct, I would know exactly what my body was doing.. I have found that some exercises were pretty close, but most were not..

    It took a little getting use to with the strap, but now it isnt a big deal.. Its pretty quick and easy to put on once you do it a couple times..
  • dirtydirtydiana
    dirtydirtydiana Posts: 30
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    Both MFP and the gym machines overestimate my calorie burn by 35-50%.

    I use a Polar HRM and they're no hassle at all. It's better to get a closer estimate to how many calories I burn. Overestimates can really mess up things because then you'll wonder why you're not losing weight (or inches) when you're burning SO MANY calories. For instance, when I play squash for an hour, MFP says I burn about 800 calories, when my HRM tells me I only burn max 500, depending on intensity.

    http://www.polarusa.com/us-en/products
  • Diveryanfitness
    Diveryanfitness Posts: 24
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    I do. I use a Suunto M2 with a chest strap. I love it because MFP doesn't have the workouts that I do in their database (P90X) and since I've been using it I know what I burn, and also have come to learn just by how I feel what my heart rate is pushing so I "feel" when I'm getting close to my upper limit whereas before, I'd just go all out.

    I teach Scuba diving so on a whim, I decided to see how many calories I burn (average) while teaching class. Suunto also makes dive computers and the watch says 30m/100ft on the back so I was pretty sure that would survive. I wasn't sure about the chest strap, but I wear it in the shower. I wore the chest strap under a thin wetsuit and the watch on my wrist. Basically, I was underwater in depths up to 12 feet ~ 3.5 meters(?) for up to 20 minutes at a time, and was in teh water for 2.5 hours. It survived and it continues to work fine a month later. Under the wet suit, it was subject to little water movement as it was tight against my chest, but there is more pressure underwater, so my thinking is that if it can handle being underwater, sweat, and showers it SHOULD be able to handle swimming.

    Oh, and other than initially setting the date/time/your weight and fitness level all I do is clip the strap around my chest, put the watch on, hit a button and is checks for my heart rate, then hit the button again to start monitoring. No hassle at all!
  • longtimeterp
    longtimeterp Posts: 614 Member
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    i just bought one (polar ft6) a week ago and it has exponentially increased the efficiency of my exercise. i found out i was running too hard so not burning fat at all, and on the elliptical i wasn't even stressing myself. i think it's great. highly recommend one.
  • snookumss
    snookumss Posts: 1,451 Member
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    I ABSOLUTELY use a Heart Rate Monitor! I love my Polar FT4... my first HRM ever. It makes sure that I really know what I am burning and don't over-eat because I think I am working harder! I also do a LOT of strength training, but I mix cardio in with it randomly. This tells me what I truly burned and doesnt leave me to an Inaccurate guesstimate through mfp... how can mfp know how much more I burn from doing random cardio in my strength training... or know how hard I work sometimes! I don't go to the gym without it!
  • Fitnett
    Fitnett Posts: 8
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    I use Borg scale :)
  • thankyou4thevenom
    thankyou4thevenom Posts: 1,581 Member
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    Oh yes. MFP tells me I burn about twice as many calories as I do.
  • 0PhAtDaDdY
    0PhAtDaDdY Posts: 569 Member
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    Yes Polar FT7, love it...
  • Rachiepie6
    Rachiepie6 Posts: 423 Member
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    Glad to see it's not just me that burns way less than MFP says I "should". It just really sucks I can't wear it for netball coz you aren't allowed jewellery (watch) and swimming, well I have a non-waterproof one. So I researched how much I would burn and it seems reasonable compared to similar exertion in other activities.

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