Which calorie burn number is "correct"?

Specifics. 41 year old male, 195 lbs., 5' 11". Resting heart rate 90.

I just purchased a Polar heart rate monitor. My treadmill workout tonight consisted of 15 minutes of warm up at 3.0 mph, then 45 minutes @ 3.5, and two cool down periods of 5 minutes each at 3.0 mph and 2.5 mph.

The treadmill is equipped with a Polar receiver the treadmill and wristband were consistent regarding heart rate.

Now the interesting numbers.

Using the Activity locator here on CC, the calculated Calorie burn was 370. The  treadmill Calorie burn was 465. And finally the Polaris wrist monitor Calorie burn was 730. My average heart rate was 127 BPM, with a 135 BPM max.

My vitals are properly set both here at CC and on the Polar wrist monitor.

Which of these numbers is the most "correct", 370? 465? or 730?

Go with the heart rate monitor number because it is using your height, weight and heart rate to calculate how many calories you've burned.  The treadmill is probably the least reliable and the CC calculator is likely in the middle.

The HRM number seems to be rather high (730?). Basically it works out to about 10 calories a minute. I have a higher resting heart rate than the average person with my vitals (other than wieght). Does this mean I burn more calories sitting and watching TV than someone with a resting heart rate of say 60?

I'm not sure if it's too high or not, but I often have the same problem.  I have a timex heart rate monitor, and it routinely has me burning 1000+ calories during a hard workout (1:45 of treadmill and heavy weights).  I usually round it down a bit, as estimate my burn is closer to 800-900.

I don't have a high resting heart rate, so I'm not sure what to say about that.

They are all just estimates, but I think that you could go with the polar for now and see how it works out.  At most average it down a bit -- maybe to 650 or 700.   If your estimating your caloir burn to lose weight the scales will give you the truth after a while.  Either the 730 is right and you'll lose, or if it's wrong you won't.

Did you go through Polar OwnIndex test? What was the VO2Max estimate it gave you? It's a very important factor in Polar's calculations. The higher it is, the more calories you burn.

730 seems a bit high. Given how high your resting HR is, it's not very likely that with the avg of 127 you burn so much.  You burn more calories going from 60 to 127 than going from 90 to 127.

Also, is the resting HR of 90 set in Polar User Settings or did you just mention it because you know it? What's your Max HR according to Polar (also in User Settings)?

How was your perceive level of exertion: low, moderate, intense, etc?

Edit: If you are new to HRM, I think this is a good article to read.

Original Post by maha-kisa:

(1)

Did you go through Polar OwnIndex test? What was the VO2Max estimate it gave you? It's a very important factor in Polar's calculations. The higher it is, the more calories you burn.

(2)

Also, is the resting HR of 90 set in Polar User Settings or did you just mention it because you know it? What's your Max HR according to Polar (also in User Settings)?

(1) No, I have not done the Polar OwnIndex test. I've heard of this but it is no mentioned in the guide (Polar F4) and I don't think that it has a setting for this. Though I would expect my VO2Max to be rather low. I'm a smoker in the process of quitting.

(2) I just mentioned this to give an idea of my current conditioning (not so good)

Oh, OK. I forgot that earlier versions don't have OwnIndex test.  I guess this also means they are less accurate.

What are the user settings it uses? If it's just height-weight-age without resting HR, max HR, and V02Max, than it's probably a good idea to trust CC number more than those of Polar F4.

A heart rate monitor without "OwnIndex"  or some other equivalent can be just as accurate as one with that feature, the difference is that the user has to know how to use it.  The most important thing to know is your maximum heart rate.  A HRM that asks you to input your age is going to use a formula to calculate MHR and will use this number to do all the other calculations.  This will make all the calculations wrong for most people. For example, since I am 50 and my MHR is 190 I have to tell my HRM that I am 30 so that it will recognize the appropriate training zone and give me the most accurate estimate of calories burn.

The article I linked above gives you methods for determining your maximum heart rate.

trhawley, are you suggesting that VO2Max has no affect on calories burned?

Original Post by maha-kisa:

trhawley, are you suggesting that VO2Max has no affect on calories burned?

 

 No?  I'm suggesting that Heart Rate Monitors don't monitor VO2Max, they monitor your heart rate.  Zone training is designed around the the fact that there is a direct correlation between VO2 consumption and heart rate meaning that max heart rate and VO2max occur simultaneously.  Also 80% VO2max = 80% heart rate, and so on.  Since heart rate is very easy to monitor and VO2 consumption requires laboratory equipment to monitor we use heart rate not VO2 to develop our training programs.  To state the obvious, that is why athletes use heart rate monitors.

I believe that heart rate monitors that use the programs like OwnIndex can do a pretty good job of estimating vo2max/MHR but age based formulas are totally inaccurate and since your max is the basis of all zone training it is important to know it.  And using an incorrect values corrupts calories estimates which is the topic of this post. 

So to restate my above post, if your heart rate monitor relies on age to determine training zones then you need to test yourself to find your true max and program your HRM accordingly so you can get the best estimate of your calories burned from your HRM.

I routinely burn 10 cals/minute during exercise. I'm almost 50 and female, but I weigh about the same as you. I'm in a lot better shape (resting heart rate = 48), so my speed is higher than yours, but my average heart rate is roughly the same.

I know my HRM is right b/c of the rate at which I lose when I'm doing everything right--if I know how much I'm taking in and my total daily burn (sedentary + logging workouts based on what my HRM tells me), then I can see if I'm losing as expected, and I do.

Trust your HRM unless you find you have good reason not to. Remember that calories is about energy--the energy it takes to move a body your size over a given distance, with a given heart rate (that changes constantly, but the HrM handles that).