Hi, I posted a topic a while back saying that my HRM was giving me an unrealistically HIGH calorie burn (like 300 for a gentle 20 min walk). I re-did the fitness test and it changed my fitness category to the lowest possible but now my calories burnt seem really LOW. I just did the exercise bike for 10 min and the HRM says i burnt 64 calories, but if i put it in on here using Bicycling - 10-11.9 Mph, Leisure, Slow, Light Effort it says i burnt 119- almost double. Considering I am quite unfit and 267lbs I'd assume I'd burn more around the 119 than 64.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to adjust the HRM, or whether i should just go with what it says?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Maybe you're doing the fitness test wrong? I don't do that with my F6, I put in my weight and all that stuff and then under settings, I choose automatic, and then select the activity level for what I'm doing. It always seems to be on the money, it's lower than what the treadmill says, but I figure those overestimate by a lot.
What model HRM do you have? My polar F11 has me at 31 which isn't very good and my calorie count burns are very low now vs when I was "elite" I could burn cals like no ones business.
Its very important when you do the fitness test that you haven't eaten or smoked or exercised for 2 hours before hand. Its best to sit or lay down very quiet and still for the 5 minutes. Just relax and breath normal. Also try to do the test at the same time of the day each time. For the first month test weekly then go to once a month.
Never trust a machine or website for cal burn- use the HRM calculations since it knows your body best.
Original Post by dbackerfan:
What model HRM do you have? My polar F11 has me at 31 which isn't very good and my calorie count burns are very low now vs when I was "elite" I could burn cals like no ones business.
Its very important when you do the fitness test that you haven't eaten or smoked or exercised for 2 hours before hand. Its best to sit or lay down very quiet and still for the 5 minutes. Just relax and breath normal. Also try to do the test at the same time of the day each time. For the first month test weekly then go to once a month.
Never trust a machine or website for cal burn- use the HRM calculations since it knows your body best.
hey dbackerfan: I've also got the F11. The first time i did the test it put my v02 as 36, the second time i did it, it gave me 16! I probably had eaten within 2 hours. I might try it a third time and see what happens.
My resting heart rate is usually around 80 (when i do the test) but when im just wandering around the house or whatever its a lot higher - maybe around 100-110?
I really wanna get this cal burn thing figured because the damn HRM was so expensive!
Also, maybe i'm doing something wrong? I didnt think the manual was very clear at explaining things at all. When you input your user settings theres an option to select activity. I selected low because i dont exercise. Is that right?
Original Post by singing_girl:
When you input your user settings theres an option to select activity. I selected low because i dont exercise. Is that right?
I believe this setting doesn't make a difference, it's mainly used to generate a program for you. The things that matter are you age, height, weight, resting heart rate, max heart rate, and OwnIndex (Vo2Max estimate). The latter is determined by a "Test", all the others are entered in "User settings". You can overwrite the OwnIndex too, but it's not recommended.
Edit: The default MaxHeartRate is calculated by that silly formula 220-age. That doesn't work for me, I had to manually add 5 or so to it.
the monitor bases your calories burned on the vo2max, so you definitely want to try to get as accurate a number as possible. it's bad enough that the (overpriced) watch's calculation is an estimate as it is; work w/it to try to get it as un-zaney as possible (i'm not disrespecting your f11, i have one too).
try to do the fitness test in the morning when you wake up and are all relaxed. once you're up and about, as you've noticed yourself, your heart rate increases a lot and your vo2max'll be off. i agree that 64 calories in 10 minutes at your weight seems wrong.
Original Post by caloriecountingme:
the monitor bases your calories burned on the vo2max, so you definitely want to try to get as accurate a number as possible. it's bad enough that the (overpriced) watch's calculation is an estimate as it is; work w/it to try to get it as un-zaney as possible (i'm not disrespecting your f11, i have one too).
try to do the fitness test in the morning when you wake up and are all relaxed. once you're up and about, as you've noticed yourself, your heart rate increases a lot and your vo2max'll be off. i agree that 64 calories in 10 minutes at your weight seems wrong.
Thanks, caloriecountingme! I will definitely give the v02 max a go in the morning. I'll be interested to see what it says!
good to hear, singing_girl. let us know what happens and if you learn anything new. and when all's frustrating, the important thing to keep in mind is that you're engaging in such fun, healthy activity. keep it up.
bump bumpedy bump.
Ok, i did the fitness test again first thing in the morning, and it gave me 20 (previously had been 16).
On the exercise bike today calorie burn still seemed pretty low. I got an average of 426 calories/hour (though i only did 15 min = 106cal burnt).
Should i just take it as this IS what i burn, and that CC's guesstimates in the activity database are completely off?
Can anyone else tell me what they weigh/age/workout intensity and how much their polar tells them they burn each session so i can gauge if mine seems right or not?!
HRM's are sometimes a bit tricky. They might say you burnt x calories but what some of them don't say is you would have burnt Y calories just stitting around doing nothing and so the extra calories you burnt was x-y. I'm not sure how the Polar HRM's work... I have a Mio brand HRM and it seems pretty accurate for what it does. I think CC's numbers are the excersise burnt calories if you are set at sedentary.
I would compare CC's numbers with your HRM's and see what the difference is. CC's shouldn't be too far off. Also I would up the exercise to 30min instead of 15. It's been stated many places you don't burn fat (I assume you want to lose fat?) until after about 20 or so minutes of exercise. So keep on peddling or walking or running or whatever and try to keep the heart rate up there so you can burn more calories and ultimately more fat.
It's also possible your bicycling slower than 10mph. In that case your HRM would be more accurate than CC's numbers. Also, if you didn't bike at a steady 10mph or faster then your hrm would have a lower calorie burn than CC would.
