HRM overestimating calories burned?

Hi all... 

I got the Polar F11 HRM for christmas and have worn it twice now. I have added my stats and performed the fitness test. 

 I have found the calories burned are a lot higher than I had previously estimated using online tools. This surprised me as all other threads I had read about HRMs generally said the cals burned were lower and more realistic than online tools or machine counters.

 I am 26, 5 8 and 135 pounds. I am reasonably fit. For a 45 min spin class I got a reading of 550cals.  I was fairly comfortable throughout the class and only really pushed myself towards my limit for one or two songs. The other time I wore it I did a circuit - 1 min each of sit ups, push ups, shuttle run and burpees followed by a 1 km run (average 4.45 min per km). I did this 3 times. For this I had a reading of 580 cals.  I definitely worked harder in the circuit than spin but again this seems very high.

Before getting the HRM I had estimated about 350 for the circuit and 400 for spin.

So finally to my question/s!

I know everyone is different, but does the number of calories it is recording seem too high to you? Or could the HRM be correct and I have been underestimating the cals I burn (I would love this to be the case but unlikely!)

Or

Have I missed something in the set up which could be obscuring the readings (I have checked my weight etc and they are all correct). I have not set up the OwnZone feature but it doesn't seem that this would change the reading? 

Anyone else experienced this?

I am on a low cal eating plan - about 1300 cals - and am eating back the cals I work off on top of that so I am wanting to get this right (2430 cals to eat in a day seems too much to me to lose weight!).

Thanks in advance :)

hey

u know what im in exactly the same position as you!!!

im eating 1300 + exercise and have been wondering if ive 'set up' my polar f11 wrong too.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated people! please

Haha, I'm another one!  Ok here is where my confusion lies:  Running(cardio) vs. Weight lifting.  I usually have a fairly consistant HR(~150-160) while running but when weight lifting, my HR will spike drastically(~175) while performing the reps and then go back down(~130) as I recover.

So my HRM has been telling me I've been burning the same amount of calories running as weight lifting.

BUT during weight lifting, if I am not moving between reps, just resting how can I burn the same as actually moving/running?

Are you burning calories by just having an elevated heart rate and NOT moving?  This doesn't make much sense to me though because what about stress/caffeine?

I'm beginning to think that my Polar F11 is not as reliable as I had hoped! 

Maybe we should assume its overestimating by a 100-200 calories, depending on time?

P.S. I did in fact setup the OwnZone, it doesn't seem to prevent the high calorie readings...

double post

Well, I am another experiencing the same situation with the Polar F11. I performed the Own Zone Fitness test, and was given the rating of "Elite" (this was a surprise, though I consider myself fit, working out 4-5x/week at or above my target heart rate) After doing some reading on the Polar website (which is really good, btw), it seemed to me that the more fit you are, the more efficiently you burn calories. This was my assumption as to why I would burn significantly more calories when using my ownzone settings, vs the standard age/weight calculation that the other watches use. 

I would love for someone with more knowledge on this subject to confirm or deny this, as I would also love to know if I am burning at the rate described.

Another question to those having these readings. How much time are you spending during these workouts in your Light, Moderate and Hard zones? In my case, I spend the majority of time in my Hard Zone (30-35 minutes of a 60 minute workout) which I also attributed to the high calories burned.

I am new to this forum, but maybe we can get the trainer or someone with more knowledge to post. 

 

Yes that's one thing I forgot to mention, I also was given the rating of Elite when I did the fitness test.  I have been exercising every day for about 9 weeks (I was semi active before this) for an hour or two (over 2 sessions) and work myself "moderately hard" (for me!). But I would def not consider myself Elite!! (But it's a nice compliment!)

stacylynne - It is my understanding that you are more efficient at exercising because you are fit for your age/weight and therefore need to use less calories to do the same workout as an 'average' person with your stats. Well I guess your body is being efficent in burning cals - unfortunately that means less! Someone might like to confirm I'm correct on that though...

I will try and set up the OwnZone tomorrow and will post my zones to compare...

taranehneh - not too sure about the weight lifting... I guess it is sort of like intervals though so it is possible you could be burning a similar amount?! 

Any experts out there?! Or anyone using the F11 that can give an idea of what kind of readings they are getting for what activities? 

I've used my F11 for over 2 years now and depending on many factors I can have fluctuations of over 100 cals burned for the "same exercise" on any given day.  I don't use the ownzone feature  I just go by the zones it automatically sets.   I did the fitness test on the recumbent bike at the gym and it had my VO2 exactly what the F11 said.  Make sure when you do the fitness test its before you've eaten or drank coffee (that's hard fr me) I do it first thing Monday mornings.  I find my VO2 will fluctuate depending on what I ate over teh weekend, stress in my life, how much sleep I've had and other things. 

Depending on your test results your cal burn is going to be different.  When I was working out doing some sort of cardio daily it would be all I could do to burn 400 cals a workout session, now since taking some time off I am burning over 600 for the same classes. 

I had also heard that the polar HRM overestimate women's cal burns by 20% but I don't know if that's true I've never actually seen the article just "heard" it on a similar forum once years ago. 

Personally I'd trust a HRM like the F11 than any website or generic gym machine that doesn't let you put your personal infomation in.

Also what you "perceive" as a moderate workout may actually be intense - I know some times when I am in cardi class I feel like I can go on for ever, but look at the HRM and be at 90% zone then there are other times I feel like I can't do another 10 seconds and only be @ 75%

Also if you are doing a spin class and pushing yourself kind of like HIIT you'll do some afterburn of cals.