heart rate monitor to determine calories

So I borrowed my boyfriend's heart rate monitor at first to see how accurate the machines are at the gym at telling me how many calories I'm buring.  But I decided to try wearing it all day today to see how many calories I burn in a day. 

First, are heart rate monitors accurate at telling me how many calories I'm burning?

Second, it is 7:45 pm and I have only burned 900 calories since this morning when I put it on.  Am I really only supposed to eat 900 calories, that is way too low.  According to this site I should eat 1700.

Any advice is appreciated!

I'm no expert but I have been told that they are not designed to measure calories burned during the day... they are pretty much for work outs only. I could be wrong but it is what I've heard alot.

Also does the monitor haave settings? Mine has male/female age/wieght settings on it and if I were to lend it to someone else with my settings on it it would be very incorrect. Is it set up for your boyfriend?

I don't know if they are totally accurate I just use mine as a scource of motivation and a bit of entertainment. Mostly I tell how hard I have worked by how I feel - then it is backed up by the HRM. The motivation comes with mine having a week long recording and I just say to myself that I want to put however many hours/ work outs in each week and at the end of the week I can remember if I managed my goal without having to write it down.

The machines at the gym are averages only without holding hand sensors... even then they aren't perfect. They don't take alot of things into account - like a treadmill if you are holding the bar or swinging arms etc... HRM are more accurate but probably not perfect... they are fun though!

We deleted his settings and programmed in mine so it should be providing the accurate amount.

I was hoping to be able to use this regularly to have a more accurate idea of how many calories I burn throughout the day and how successful my workouts are.  Some people use pedometers to get motivated and I was hoping to use this. 

Are the calories right?  Either it is way off, or I need to find a way to burn calories in class, haha!

A heart rate monitor absolutely will NOT tell you how many calories you are burning when you are not exercising.

Original Post by trhawley:

A heart rate monitor absolutely will NOT tell you how many calories you are burning when you are not exercising.

You'll need a BodyBugg for that!

Does a bodybugg measure heart rate as well?  Or would I need a heart rate monitor as well?  And would they interfere with each other?

Also, if I get the watch for the bodybugg- do I need the subscription becasue that was the thing turning me off from the bodybugg.  It can get expensive

That's the bad thing about bodybugg, it get's expensive. But there really is no other way to tell how many calories you burnt during the day unless you just use the tools on the site. I personally, even though Ive had friends that have had one, I think they are just not worth the money, but other posters are right, an actual heart rate monitor will not tell you calories burned throughout the day

I tried using a HRM to measure normal non-exercise calories. It seemed to be accurate when I was walking about but not for sitting in the office.

I used a combination of this site, the HRM and various other calculators online to get an idea of how many calories I need a day.

Ultimately if you can find a calorie intake where you neither lose or gain weight, so that you 'break even' - that will be you daily calorie burn.