Is it me, or my HRM, or only me pretending?

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babareeba
babareeba Posts: 74 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Since I got my HRM (Garmin Forerunner 110, I think the good one), I noticed that actually I burn far less than I thought.

But not THAT less:

Yesterday I did almost two full hours of very heavy exercises (1 hour of workout with all of the squats, side and walking lounges with weights, 30 pushups and back pushups, etc + 1 hour of cardio interval training), I was socking wet, didn't give my self rest, I mean it was REALLY hard workout for a day, and I got ONLY 422 burned calories for that???

My highest HR was 148, average is 100. But, only 422 cals for two hours?!

Few days ago I was running for an hour, with highest HR 154, average was 120, and got only 234 cals... What is wrong with me? Am I just pretending that I workout hard?

or it is just my HRM?

I see people are burning up to 800 for one hour, geez, I should do 4 heavy hours for that...

What do you think? can you see anything from these data about my HR?
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Replies

  • JMarigold
    JMarigold Posts: 232 Member
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    Only thing I can think is that for running at least that heart rate seems low.

    However, for the the heart rates it is recording the burns seem close to accurate. Do you wet the band before you put it on?
  • SuperSexyDork
    SuperSexyDork Posts: 1,669 Member
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    How much you burn also depends on what you weigh. The more a person weighs the more calories they burn doing the exact same exercise as a much smaller person. People that you see burning 800 calories in an hour are probably much larger than you.
  • NotGoddess
    NotGoddess Posts: 1,198 Member
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    It's the sad side effect of getting fit-as you weight less and are in better condition, you aren't going to burn as many calories. Do check that your strap is properly wet and connected with your skin, but those numbers don't sound that off for your weight.
  • JMarigold
    JMarigold Posts: 232 Member
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    ^^^^I honestly don't know if that accounts for it though.

    I don't use a Garmin so hard to say.
  • Pickles11
    Pickles11 Posts: 310 Member
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    An avg hr of 100 during hard exercise seems low, but to be honest, there are just some people out there (like myself) who just burn less.

    My husband can run for 30 minutes and burn over 500 calories, while I am more like 200-230 for a 30 min hard run.

    It sucks, but if you do burn less than you thought, at least you know now and can adjust your calories accordingly. It's what has helped me lose weight.
  • jennatha
    jennatha Posts: 20
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    I have te polar ft4.... I have heard people say that when their batteries get low they have funny calorie burns. I notice that I barely burn anything lifting weights. In order for me to get a really high burn I have to use the elliptical or be in a Zumba class. Good luck... I hope it's something simple and you can work it out:)
  • juliekaiser1988
    juliekaiser1988 Posts: 604 Member
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    I have two things to say to the OP.

    One: some people that are burning mega calories are extremely overweight and therefore it burns at a much higher rate. Some people log that they burn 800+ calories doing Zumba. According BOTH my Fitbit and my HRM, I only burn around 325. But I only weigh 135.5

    Two: Most people are full of *kitten* when they say they burned these incredible numbers and are only fooling themselves. They overestimate or rely upon the treadmill only to tell them what they've burned, which is notoriously WRONG.
  • babareeba
    babareeba Posts: 74 Member
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    thank you all.

    I started all of this fit-journey a year ago because of my high blood pressure and high cholesterol. when i found out that had high blood pressure, my rest pulse was 100 at that time and everybody around me were worried about that.

    maybe i'm not pushing myself hard enough, because when I see my pulse over 150, it scares me, so I keep holding it below that during running, or stop doing push-ups than, or... you know what i mean.

    and, yes, i'm quite fit now, never thought of it as a side effect :laugh:
  • glittermouse
    glittermouse Posts: 590 Member
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    How much you burn also depends on what you weigh. The more a person weighs the more calories they burn doing the exact same exercise as a much smaller person. People that you see burning 800 calories in an hour are probably much larger than you.

    QFT

    Don't be discouraged. As others are saying, the bigger you are, the more calories you burn doing EVERYTHING. I burn close to 100 calories brushing my teeth. (I'm kidding of course, just a bit of self-deprecating humor).
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    Do you have a natural abnormally low heart rate? Or are you on medication that reduces your heart rate? That could explain it. Your calorie burns seem plausible given the heart rate figures, but the heart rate figures sound very low for the activity as you describe it. For example, you mentioned averaging 100 doing vigorous exercise with no break. 100 is nothing, some people have resting heart rates around 100. For me, just walking quickly is an easy 120-130. Doing very vigorous cardio I average in the 160s, peaking in the 180s. I burn typically around 600 in 30 minutes at that rate for example. If you're doing interval training and reaching only upper 140s there is something wrong.

    Either you have a low heart rate for some reason or you're not working as hard as you think you are. Or your HRM isn't picking up your heart rate correctly. That's my guess. Unfortunately in the former case the HRM isn't going to be very accurate.

    Just curious, what is your resting heart rate?
  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,616 Member
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    this Sounds low, even taking into account all the comments about fitness levels and weight.

    is the chest strap well fitted? the monitor bit isn't maybe losing contact with the skin, slipping over your bra, etc?
  • Trail_Addict
    Trail_Addict Posts: 1,350 Member
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    Like others said, you're missing a few data points - weight, age, resting HR, fitness level.

    I'm 38, 180lbs, RHR of 43bpm, above average runner - Ran a trail race today with an AHR of 155, and burned 850 calories in 53 minutes (According to BOTH my Garmin and my Polar FT7).

    When I'm in the gym, lifting, I keep an AHR above 120, but only burn about 350- 400 cals/ hr. If you weigh significantly less than I do, and are only holding a AHR of 100 in the gym, then your numbers may not be too far off.

    Assuming you have a normal, healthy heart, and no medical conditions, I would simply track the same workout week after week, and see if the numbers are consistent across the board.

    I know I can burn 1000 cals/ hr when running, because I consistently see those numbers on 2 separate devices on every run. So I would just see if your next workout says the same thing. If it's drastically different, and you put in the same effort and time (AHR), then your device may need some attention. Good luck.
  • BLy82
    BLy82 Posts: 33 Member
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    You usually aren't going to burn a ton of calories during a weight lifting workout. On the other hand, weight lifting will typically burn extra calories over time because your body has a lot of work to do later repairing all of the muscle damage you just created.

    If you're scared of pushing your heart rate above 150, try paying more attention to how you feel when you're at that point. Is your body genuinely telling you that it needs to back off, or is it just the number freaking you out?

    Even if the heart rate charts say you shouldn't go above 150 or so, if you get up there and you feel fine, chances are very very high that you ARE fine. The charts just give the predicted numbers for an average person of a given age. Some people have hearts that naturally tend to run much more slowly, while other people have hearts that can go way faster than the formula would predict. That's why it's so important to pay attention to how you actually feel during a workout and treat the standard numbers as a starting point rather than letting them be the boss of you.
  • babareeba
    babareeba Posts: 74 Member
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    Do you have a natural abnormally low heart rate?

    No. I am at the risk group for hight blood pressure (145/90) Not taking for it any medications yet. But do taking medications for high cholesterol. Maybe that?

    Just curious, what is your resting heart rate?

    It was 100, a year ago, I mention that in my upper comment. Now it's 60-65.

    I am 45, 172 cm (5'6), 58 kg (130 lbs) and i'm feet, but not THAT feet, far from that :-)
  • babareeba
    babareeba Posts: 74 Member
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    this Sounds low, even taking into account all the comments about fitness levels and weight.

    is the chest strap well fitted? the monitor bit isn't maybe losing contact with the skin, slipping over your bra, etc?

    I think that I am putting it by the book. It catches the pulse normally, showing my rest pulse around 60-65, and than goes higher during work out...

    but, I've never seen that it went over 158, never ever. even when i was out of breath or totally exhausted...
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    120 is really low for a running level heart rate. That's where mine sits during a brisk walk at around 4mph or so. 154 is about where my heart rate sits when I'm settled into my regular pace for longer run (around 6-6.15mph), with spikes into the low 160's. Mine used to average around 162 with spikes into 170 when I first started running, but it's dropped slowly over time.

    So maybe what you're thinking is a hard workout since you've been worried about your heart rate due to your previous issues, is a lighter workout than you think.

    And for the strength training, an HRM isn't really going to give you a totally accurate burn, they aren't really designed to capture calories burned for that kind of workout, anything from that should be taken as just a rough guess. :)
  • AprilLynnS
    AprilLynnS Posts: 2
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    I have the Polar FT4 as well and love it! I do notice when my battery is low my HR is all over the place and so are my calories.. thats a good sign to change and check the battery!
  • AprilLynnS
    AprilLynnS Posts: 2
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    Thats crazy because if I run for even 5 minutes my Polar FT4 will jump up to like 160.. when I run my 2 miles a night I see it jump to 194!!! Which it tells me is 'out of my zone'.. have you considered trying a different HRM to see if it gives you the same results?
  • babareeba
    babareeba Posts: 74 Member
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    There is also no point in doing workouts that long.You're just eating away at your muscles, if you don't consume enough calories, and I doubt you do a workout like this infrequently. You probably do it often.

    this is just my saturday routine, cause I have time and really enjoy it. during week i do it for 45 min, no time for more.
  • surferfreak07
    surferfreak07 Posts: 221 Member
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    Hi, I don't know if this well help but here's a topic I used to program my HRM when I got it,

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/548645-setup-polar-hrm-for-more-accurate-calorie-burn-for-known-bmr

    I know it's for the Polar but it maybe worth trying it out with yours to check your stats are correct. It makes sense because all HRM's are porgrammed based on the average person of your height, weight, age and gender.

    Good luck!

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