Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Do you use a heart rate monitor during your workouts and do you trust the calories burned info it provides? I have a Polar RS300x, about which I have read good reviews as far as accuracy. I typically do 1.5 hour workout comprised of weight training and 10-15 minutes on a rope climbing simulator for my cardio. As my name suggests I'm a paraplegic so leg work is not part of my routine.

Four weeks ago I was getting readings in the mid 1200's.Today was my first workout day in two weeks and it says 1640 for today. These readings have always seemed high to me but I'm looking for opinions. I should note that I leave the monitor running for an hour after my workout. I do this not as a cheat but to monitor the post workout benefits.

flag	asked Apr 7 2012 at 22:23 Paleoplegic 175●1●7

JeJ · Answer 1 · 2012-04-07 22:30:51Z UTC

Seeing as you can't add your weight, height, age, gender, and body composition into watches, I think the short answer is "not entirely". It's a ball park figure that tends to over estimate, so take it with a grain of salt. I remember my couch telling us to assume that there is 10% error in calorie readings (20-50% for treadmills, elliptical etc).

Also, I have a heart condition so my resting heart rate is faster than your average person, so I don't know if I didn't program those watches right, but mine always seemed like it waaay overestimated for me. That is another thing that might be a confounding variable for some people.

miked · Answer 2 · 2012-04-08 00:23:31Z UTC

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No, those things are just pure guesses. I'd trust the ones on the machines (Elipticals, Rowers, etc) more because they measure the work done and then account for the (average) efficiency of the human body of turning food into work (i.e., they usually multiply by 8). But those heart-rate monitors only are counting your heart rate and somehow turning that into calories burnt? I put no faith in that number.

answered Apr 8 2012 at 0:23

miked
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	Really? My coach was kind of a crazy guy, but he always said that those elliptical/treadmill etc were absolutely the least accurate because of some study that found they were usually 20-50% inaccurate. He would make us do the same workout on different ergs (same stroke rate, same splits) then compare, and most machines had an upward bias. Maybe they are just all bad news... – JeJ Apr 8 2012 at 0:26
	Well, calories (of work done) is easy to measure, it's just force X distance. The hard part is turning work done into calories burnt by the body to do that work. The general formula is that the body is 12.5% efficient at turning food into work, so I assume that those machines just multiply the work done by 8 (at least if I was the engineer designing it, that's what I'd do). As you get more efficient at something, then that measurement will be more and more wrong. An Olympic rower will burn many fewer calories than I would for the same distance rowed since they're much more efficient at it. – miked Apr 8 2012 at 1:06
	I disagree, the machines are the least accurate, especially if you aren't able to enter your height, weight and gender. Also, as miked stated, your body will become more efficient at certain activities if trained for a prolonged period of time. I run marathon (I know, I know...) and burn FAR less calories doing so than the average body. Neverthless, I use a Garmin with HR monitor while running and trust the numbers on that - calories are all a rough estimate anyways, so I'd rather take the best estimates on everything and know it'll all "even out" in the end. – Sarah-Mae Jul 1 at 21:22

peter · Answer 3 · 2012-04-08 05:37:06Z UTC

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This in no way answers the question, but I found this online and it looks pretty detailed and takes in to account your whole day.

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

answered Apr 8 2012 at 5:37

peter
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only1 · Answer 4 · 2012-04-22 11:01:55Z UTC

A lot of the polar watches now allow you to input age, height, weight, gender etc - which makes them more accurate. not sure they do one that accounts for you % lean muscle mass though - this would add to the accuracy of the readings a great deal.

Eric · Answer 5 · 2012-06-03 17:52:11Z UTC

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I think your reading are a bit high. I would record at the end of the workout and also at an hour after.

answered Jun 3 at 17:52

Eric
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Diane · Answer 6 · 2012-09-18 00:39:45Z UTC

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I wouldn't put any stock into the calories that any machine tells you you burned. All you are seeing is some algorithm some programmer put in there. It's not actually THE calories that YOU burned.

answered Sep 18 at 0:39

Diane
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CD · Answer 7 · 2012-09-18 01:45:38Z UTC

I have a garmin GPS plus Heart Rate Monitor. You input your age, height, weight, and V02 Max into the watch, and it is supposed to have a very accurate calorie measure. So I put it to the test:

Calories by Distance and Duration http://postimage.org/image/o9w5f5vq9. As you can see the calories and distance are almost a perfect match (r2 = .98). Calories by Intensity and Max Heart Rate http://postimage.org/image/imzshot7l. While more of the Track workouts (or HIIT) are on the upper level of max heart rate, there is no correlation to calorie burn. This is based on 305's calculation, not actual calories -- i.e. the advanced calorie calculation is essentially just a measure of distance.

booyainyoface · Answer 8 · 2012-09-18 06:35:23Z UTC

the polars are pretty accurate for steady state cardio... not HIIT or weight training as those are anaerobic and our calories burned are different than when having an elevated HR in an aerobic state.

you can put in your resting hr, bodyfat, vo2max, gender, age, weight, height... i think even more than that too.

the HRM will be WAY more accurate than a machine at the gym- the elliptical that tells me i burned 300 calories in 30 minutes when i didn't sweat... haha, my HRM says more like 120 which sounds correct seeing i didn't work as hard as i do on the stepmill.

also the polars or any brand with the chest strap will be a lot more accurate than the kind that just goes on your wrist.

Lee Hamrick · Answer 9 · 2013-03-19 17:27:05Z UTC

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Do these monitors take into count body temp and outside temp? You can burn a lot of calories sitting on your butt if it's cold enough outside.

answered Mar 19 at 17:27

Lee Hamrick
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ManderMoo · Answer 10 · 2013-05-01 02:37:38Z UTC

I didn't look up your model of HRM (because I am lazy), but I think my Polar FT4 or 7 (can't remember) is extremely accurate. The watch does have inputs for age, height, and weight. It is important to have one with a chest strap for the best accuracy. If you have a chest strap, it is possible that your battery is low. I have gotten extreme readings when my battery was low before. Replaced the battery and no issues :-)

Heart rate monitor calories

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