calori es burned

worlass
worlass Posts: 21
in Health and Weight Loss
I have just got myself a heart rate monitor, a watch type. I have been wearing it every day for the past 4 days. Even after walking the dog for an hour and working for 6 hours (on my feet) by the end of the day it shows I had only burned 1550 calories, yet for my age etcmy BMR shows it should be 1470 I thought I 2would have burnned way more than that. Any ideas???
PS acording to the exercise list on here walking the dog at 3mph for 60mins is 296 yet my HRM shows 375??

Replies

  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    PS acording to the exercise list on here walking the dog at 3mph for 60mins is 296 yet my HRM shows 375??

    Yeah that's about right. You're supposed to subtract your baseline calorie burn which is 1.3 calories per minute of exercise. 375-78=297 which is right there.

    Also, I tried wearing my HRM for several hours yesterday to estimate my calorie burn. Though as I was scrolling through the stats, I saw that my max HR was 200 which is impossible; I have never reached that during any exercise yet alone sitting around the house ... When you're moving about your day, the strap has a higher chance to move and sometimes when your watch is too close or too far away from your strap, the HR will bounce around also.
  • kvcarden
    kvcarden Posts: 175
    ghanie, why are we suppose to subtract our baseline calorie burn...I have never heard this before and am interested in the reason behind it, thanks.
  • worlass
    worlass Posts: 21
    this is a watch type and is on pretty tight so no chance of it moving around. Also am interested in why deducting from calories burned?
  • erikazj
    erikazj Posts: 2,365 Member
    You need to subtract your baseline calories from those calculated whilst exercising, as these are the calories you would have burned anyway sitting doing nothing. These sitting doing nothing calories are already calculated in to your calorie allowances, and you wouldn't want to eat them twice (if you are in the habit of eating all your exercise calories).

    Erika
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    You need to subtract your baseline calories from those calculated whilst exercising, as these are the calories you would have burned anyway sitting doing nothing. These sitting doing nothing calories are already calculated in to your calorie allowances, and you wouldn't want to eat them twice (if you are in the habit of eating all your exercise calories).

    Erika

    Yeah, that's about right. For a more technical explanation, send SHBoss1673 a message .. he's the encyclopedia around here and where I heard about it first. He actually suggests 80 calories per hour but I'm always working out odd minutes so I did the math and came up with 1.3 calories per minute.
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,550 Member
    Basically, you want to know how much MORE you burned by exercising.
  • kvcarden
    kvcarden Posts: 175
    Thanks ladies for the break down, it definitely makes sense now!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    You need to subtract your baseline calories from those calculated whilst exercising, as these are the calories you would have burned anyway sitting doing nothing. These sitting doing nothing calories are already calculated in to your calorie allowances, and you wouldn't want to eat them twice (if you are in the habit of eating all your exercise calories).

    Erika

    Yeah, that's about right. For a more technical explanation, send SHBoss1673 a message .. he's the encyclopedia around here and where I heard about it first. He actually suggests 80 calories per hour but I'm always working out odd minutes so I did the math and came up with 1.3 calories per minute.

    Bahhh. Ghanie, you should be able to answer this one! :tongue:

    Basically the watch isn't smart enough to know how many calories you should burn from ONLY exercise, as opposed to exercise plus what you would have burned anyway.

    Normally for people during a regular day the range is between 90 cals/hour to about 140 cals per hour.
    it's a little bit of a convoluted calculation to get the exact amount, so usually I say just subtract about 110 calories or so per each hour of working out, you may be off by 10 or 20, but in the grand scheme of things, that's very very few calories to worry about. Hint, the bigger and younger you are, the higher up the scale you probably are, so a big 25 year old man would probably be closer to 140 cals, and a small 45 year old woman would probably be closer to 90.


    Be wary though, as polars and timex HRMs don't calculate the RHR difference, but I have heard of others that do, check with your manufacturer to make sure if it's not a Polar or Timex.
  • hiddensecant
    hiddensecant Posts: 2,446 Member
    But ... but ... but ... we like hearing from you :bigsmile:.
  • worlass
    worlass Posts: 21
    so if I wear the hrm and not exercise but just rest all day should it not show my bmr at the end of the day. never mind the exercise thing, there seems to be a difference in bmr on the hrm and what my bmr should be. wearing the hrm and just doing a regular day, working, driving etc I would expect it to show more than my bmr
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    so if I wear the hrm and not exercise but just rest all day should it not show my bmr at the end of the day. never mind the exercise thing, there seems to be a difference in bmr on the hrm and what my bmr should be. wearing the hrm and just doing a regular day, working, driving etc I would expect it to show more than my bmr

    no, it would show you your maintenance calories, which is different. BMR is how many calories your body needs to run just your essential systems, not your every day metabolism. Maintenance calories is how many calories your body burns during a normal day, not including exercise.

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