Calories Burned ?

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:06 pm

I treated myself to a heart rate monitor yesterday and tried it for the first time today. Its a Polar F4 for anyone interested.
Anyway something is puzzling me. I rowed 2 sets of 5000m today. In both cases the pm2 monitor told me I had burned about 320 calories and in both cases the heart rate monitor said 185 calories.
Which do I believe (if either?)

jlemon · Post by **jlemon** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:05 pm

I would trust the C2 PM, since it is measuring the power needed to move the flywheel, and displays that in terms of watts (or calories).

The Polar monitor is using statistical tables based on your HR, age, etc, to estimate calories burned.

Mike Channin · Post by **Mike Channin** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:21 am

I agree with Jonathan - the C2 figure is more closely related to the work actually done.

Also, the C2 figure includes a component to represent your background metabolism. (There's something somewhere on the C2 site to this effect). Obviously the BMR representation is an estimate only.

Finally, don't put too much stock in even the C2 figure, as the body becomes more efficient as you row more and more, hence you'll actually use slightly less calories when you're better trained for the same piece. Use it as an indicator only...

PSims · Post by **PSims** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:08 pm

Stan,

As Mike says, it's only an estimate - your body also burns calories through heat loss etc etc. Ignore the cals on the Polar, just use HR.

I also have a polar and use the HR interface from C2.
But when anyone else with a monitor comes anywhere close, the C2 one doesn't work - so I've just about give up with it.

But in October, we will both have polars, so we can check as we go along.

What's the max you've hit so far (mine is 195).

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:45 pm

Not done anything really fast yet. I had the max settings wrong yesterday (maybe I should read the manual

) so it just said I had gone over max heart rate without telling me what it was. It wont be anywhere near your 195. Unfortunately I am still on the beta blockers and one of the effects is slowing the heart rate - I suspect they reduce my short distance speeds but little or no effect for long distances. The maximum heart rate during the 30k today was 138 with an average of 131. Resting pulse is 52.