We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Polar Heart Rate Monitors - accurate?

Ashleysh22
Ashleysh22 Posts: 204 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm confused. I got a really lovely heart rate monitor from a friend recently. And I know that the heart rate recorded is pretty damn close. As in - I take my heart rate manually, periodically throughout the exercise and it always yields the exact same number as the HRM.

However - the calories calculated seem to be off.

I believe the equation, for a female, to calculate calories burned is as follows: calories burned = (0.074 x age in years - 0.05741 x weight in pounds + 0.4472 x average heart rate - 20.4022) x time elapsed / 4.184.

so if I do a 38 minute workout, am 110 pounds and 25 years old, and have an AVG HR of 160:

According to that above equation, I should have burned 424 calories.
But, despite having input my age, and weight into the Polar FT4, it tells me that 38 minutes at an AVG HR of 160, I only burned 326.

That seems like a rather large discrepancy - any thoughts?

Replies

  • WAM777
    WAM777 Posts: 15 Member
    This sounds like a very good question. I hope someone comes along that has an answer.
  • dport7
    dport7 Posts: 123 Member
    Thats interesting, I have the FT7. I can only go by what it tells me. i know it has artificial intelligence that is to help program it to monitor your body, maybe it is still acclimating to your body, just a thought.
This discussion has been closed.