HR monitor vs treadmill--calorie burn

[disneymom1980]

Today I wore my heart rate monitor while I did my workout on the treadmill. The treadmill said I burned 665, but my heart rate monitor said almost 1200! Which one is more accurate? They are both programmed correctly for my weight and age.

 

[bumbershoot]

That must have been a long run!

I trust my HR monitor (lol...when it is working perfectly, that is). I've started keeping track of how far the Polar and Precor are from each other, and the longer my walk/jog is, the further apart they get. If I'm up in the high 700 range on the Polar monitor, the treadmill is telling me 400 something. I'm not sure I've ever hit much higher than 800, but I bet if I hit 1200 on my monitor it would be about the same as what you saw on the treadmill.

If you eat those calories or Points or however you're looking at it, even though I would trust my HR monitor, I probably wouldn't, probably *couldn't*, eat ALL of that. (of course with Points you're not eating all of the calories right back, it ends up being about half)

I do weight watchers, so this won't work for you if you do not.....what I would do, and this has gotten more accurate (I think) as I get into better shape and my resting and working pulse have come down a bit (though my pulse is higher than average and ALWAYS has been), is to put it through the "etools" tracker; jogging for x minutes, walking for y minutes, and see what that says. The more in shape I get, the better it matches up to my "wow that's high" HR monitor finding.

But that last paragraph is only useful if you do WW.


If you're upping your food intake to help make up for that big energy burn, maybe let your hunger today and tomorrow be your guide, but make really good choices so that you are making up for the energy being burned, not just taking in empty calories.

 

[disneymom1980]

It was 8 miles total. I'm not doing weight watchers, and I'm not monitoring calories burned to increase my intake. Mostly I'm just curious and trying to get into better shape

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I started following my HRM instead of my treadmill and the HRM was double what my TM said. I was eating back my calories (following My Fitness Pal) and ended up putting 6 pounds back on. The calorie discrepancy was the only change I made to my workout and diet routine, so I am erring on the side of caution and going back to what my treadmill said.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

This tool is pretty accurate: Calories Burned Calculator

 

[bumbershoot]

It was 8 miles total. I'm not doing weight watchers, and I'm not monitoring calories burned to increase my intake. Mostly I'm just curious and trying to get into better shape

With 8 miles I can see 1200 being closer to accurate than 600something. I've only hit the 7 mile marker yet and I was just under 800, and that's with my HR strap moving around and missing heartbeats. Also, I do Galloway so 1/3 if it is walking and I'm a slow jogger.

So glad to hear of another longer distance treadmiller.

 

[disneymom1980]

I am 100% treadmill at this point, but DD and I are signed up for the jingle jungle 5k at Disney in November. I like my treadmill....I turn my music on nice and loud in my headphone and turn closed captioning on the tv. Reading it and focusing on the music helps me not think about the time

 

[Raenstoirm]

Usually treadmills way over estimate and the HRM is the best option. In your case, something seems up with your HRM. Even when I am at LA Boxing (home of the 1000 calorie workout), I cant burn more than 800 in an hour and they kick your butt!

 

[Tinkerboy00]

Always go with HRM, its the best way to find out cal burns. Treadmills are never very accurate.

Awesome job on the run!!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Usually treadmills way over estimate and the HRM is the best option. In your case, something seems up with your HRM. Even when I am at LA Boxing (home of the 1000 calorie workout), I cant burn more than 800 in an hour and they kick your butt!

Actually, the HRM sounds like it could be pretty close - it depends on her weight. At my weight (183 lbs), I burn about 138 calories per mile run. The OP said that her HRM indicated 1200 calories burned in 8 miles - no mention of an hour time frame. For me, it would be 1107 calories in 8 miles. 1200 does not seem like a crazy number for that distance at all. 600 would mean that she weighs about 100 lbs.

 

[disneymom1980]

I weigh about 110, but the 8 miles was over a 100 minute period.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I weigh about 110, but the 8 miles was over a 100 minute period.

In that case, you would have burned just short of 700 calories.