HRMs

I promise I'll stop pestering y'all eventually! haha :)

Anyways, I was just wondering if heart rate monitors were generally pretty accurate about calories burned? I bought a Polar F55 and have started using it. Tonight's gym trip was HIIT (about 35 mins with warmup and cool downs) and then an hour of 1on1 basketball, and it said I burned 1125 calories. Seems high to me, but then again I thought these were fairly accurate, especially the ones that account for your VO2max? 

If it is then I guess I know why I hit a plateau so early - I was way underestimating my calories out and therefore way undereating.. even when I upped to 1600!

I guess I should google first, post second..I'm too trigger happy! From what I've read, I'm correct in the assumption that HRMs are fairly accurate. I also found this article: http://www.trifuel.com/training/heart-rate-tr aining/can-a-heart-rate-monitor-really-tell-y ou-how-many-calories-youve-burnt in case anyone else happens across this thread and wonders the same thing I did. :) This is good news for me.. means I can and should be eating a lot more! hehe.

Eat up chick! Polar HRM's are pretty accurate. I mean, why would we have spent so much money on the dang things if they were pointless? :) I love my F6. You seem to be pretty active. I wish I had that much push in me to burn 1125 a day. Thats a load.

I find it odd that Ben didn't post a link to the actual study.  I would like to read it.

Edit: the link is here.  Suunto HRMs were used, not Polar, and the participants were well trained athletes.  The HRMs underestimated calories burned during exercise by 13%.  No study was done to determine how accurate they are for untrained individuals.  Too bad.

I've been thinking about investing in a good HRM, since it seems the burn calculators run so low.

Original Post by x17star17x:

Eat up chick! Polar HRM's are pretty accurate. I mean, why would we have spent so much money on the dang things if they were pointless? :) I love my F6. You seem to be pretty active. I wish I had that much push in me to burn 1125 a day. Thats a load.

The funny part is I didn't even realize how active I really was. When I'm playing basketball or other "fun" activities (vs. sitting on a machine I mean), I was always glad to be doing something, but I'd never guess I was burning as many calories as I did because I'm distracted and don't feel as spent as I do on a machine. I'd look it up on CC, but always talked myself out of it.. "well, sure, I played an hour.. but surely this means an intenser game... so I'll just put 30 minutes instead.." Makes me want to wear the HRM during my volleyball night too to see how much I burn then!

Original Post by sukibahsoun:

I've been thinking about investing in a good HRM, since it seems the burn calculators run so low.

I'd recommend it! It feels kind of freeing, to be honest.. I can do any activity I want and I'll know the results.. I don't have to guesstimate or be tied to a machine or doing something I think I can easily look up afterwards.. 

Plus it's a motivator since it tracks my progress.. kind of a mini competition with myself week after week to see how much effort I'm putting in and if I can top last week, etc etc.

The price wasn't too bad, either, IMO. I got my F55 from Amazon for $119.

When I have the money, I think I'm going to make the investment.  Right now, I've got 7 bucks to my name after bills. :)

I started looking into them when I got my hoola hoop, because I have no idea how much I'm burning when I use that thing.  I know it's not a huge amount, but after a couple hours of hooping while watching TV, I know it adds up.

right now all i use is the HRM's at the gym - which everyone says are terrible. I'd like to get one for myself, but ultimately, as I suspect with a few folks, these $100 are just too much.

Does anyone have experience with some good/accurate lower cost models they can point me in the direction of?

Original Post by trhawley:

I find it odd that Ben didn't post a link to the actual study.  I would like to read it.

Edit: the link is here.  Suunto HRMs were used, not Polar, and the participants were well trained athletes.  The HRMs underestimated calories burned during exercise by 13%.  No study was done to determine how accurate they are for untrained individuals.  Too bad.

Yeah that would be an interesting study.

UD