Addicted to my heart rate monitor - even when weight training

[vhenley164]

Over the past year and a half I have got really into my fitness and lost a whole bunch of weight. Having discovered weight training about 6 months ago I am totally in love and hate doing cardio so mainly just weight train now. Problem is I can't seem to let go of my heart rate monitor that I wear religiously at the gym to tell me how many calories I have burnt.

Sometimes I find it a great incentive to keep working but sometimes I think that the obsession with burning more and more are going to start effecting my ability to see any gains due to a deficit. I even wear it to my weekly yoga class which I think may a bit mad.

What are your thoughts? Does anyone else wear a hear rate monitor or is it completely unnecessary?

[kimm4]

I've been doing this for 3 decades and have never used any of those gadgets. I don't know how many calories I burn in a day and I could care less. The mirror and progress pics tell me I everything I need to know.

[illiniStrive]

I looked into / considered purchasing a fitbit, but honestly only for the sleep tracking. I have a suspicion my sleep quality has been total sht since starting grad and it'd be nice to have some visual proof. But for $100...? Eh, can't make myself do it.

[AsheTuff]

W/e ever works for ya! I used to wear mine too; legs days were my favourite because I could easily burn 500 calories in an hour

Lol, just curious, how many calories do you usually burn in yoga? I've always wondered.

[rockangel]

I looked into / considered purchasing a fitbit, but honestly only for the sleep tracking. I have a suspicion my sleep quality has been total sht since starting grad and it'd be nice to have some visual proof. But for $100...? Eh, can't make myself do it.

I use a 2dolla app to track my sleep using my iphone. I have been using it for several months and can tell when i have a bad night and why or why i have good nights and wake up refreshed. Its been interesting and not bad for an app.

I also considered getting a fit bit since one of the clients in my spin class uses one and she said it counts the leg movements and tells you how many "steps" you did during the class. I have also considered getting a HRM to see what happens when i teach (curious) but im with you, just cant justify spending the amount on it to appease my curiosity.

I have bodybugg and i dont use it anymore, lol!

For the OP, Kimm is right, mirrors and pics will tell you a better progress story and you may want to start weaning yourself from this obsession. it doesnt sound healthy to be addicted to knowing how many cals you burned and it may cause you more issues than it helps.
I dont think its necessary at all to use one, especially if it is going to be a point of fixation that you may or may not let guide your emotions or day (example is if you get mad you only burned a certain amount or do extra work until you reach a certain level, i dont consider that a good thing)

[igsm1969]

I used to swear by my Polar HR transmitter that works with my iPhone until the battery went dead and I did not do anything about it. It is good to know what training zones you are in (the caloric count is questionable). But I found myself relying too heavily on the heart rate readings that I was restricting myself rather than listening to my body. Lately I have been able to be more intense and take recovery times when my body says so and not when my heart rate does. Still, it is good to do intervals based on heart rate (recovery based on it too), but haha, I feel free without my monitor. Oh, I will probably go get a new battery and start using it a bit, but I agree with what a kinesiology instructor I had said, that it is more important to go by rate of perceived exertion than to be tethered down by these things....another instructor whose wife works for Polar totally disagrees, haha!

Over the past year and a half I have got really into my fitness and lost a whole bunch of weight. Having discovered weight training about 6 months ago I am totally in love and hate doing cardio so mainly just weight train now. Problem is I can't seem to let go of my heart rate monitor that I wear religiously at the gym to tell me how many calories I have burnt.

Sometimes I find it a great incentive to keep working but sometimes I think that the obsession with burning more and more are going to start effecting my ability to see any gains due to a deficit. I even wear it to my weekly yoga class which I think may a bit mad.

What are your thoughts? Does anyone else wear a hear rate monitor or is it completely unnecessary?

[moter98]

You do know that HRM's way over report calories burned during weight training right? They are calibrated for aerobic exercise, not anaerobic, two totally different things. That being said, I do use mine for weight training as well, but only for heart rate zones and I disregard the calorie burn. I bought the Fitbit One last year and used it for an entire year. I found it helpful in the beginning to figure out cutting, bulking and maintenance calories. Past that point, I found it became too much of an obsession and I was spending way too much time on how many steps taken, calories burned, calories to go for the day, etc. I finally brought myself to part from it and could not be happier. It got to be so much work micromanaging everything. I'm finding I have no problem keeping to my goals without it, and I dare say it's been easier without it because I am less stressed out overall.

[discdoggie]

a heart rate monitor is for cardio activity only. Any other burn it reads is likely highly inaccurate.

[Pinskers]

My Polar was actually read a little low with my weight training, though it gave me a good baseline (only reason I know it was low was that after factoring in everything to get my TDEE to start a bulk, I didn't gain anything). After that initial baseline, I kind of stopped wearing it because it was a pain to remember to bring the strap, wet it, and put it on each time I went to the gym. Now it's just a really fancy watch.

[RebeccafromLA]

I wear mine all the time for cardio and for weight training. I guess I don't **have** to wear it, but I'm just curious how many calories I burn. That helps me determine how much more/less I need to eat. I don't want to lose any weight, so this gives me a general idea of how much more I need to eat on heavy training days. So don't feel weird -- I'm the same way about my Polar. Except I don't wear it when I do yoga

[EPolis13]

If you set up your diet to factor in your current activity level, then you really don't even need to know how many cals you're burning, to be honest. Not losing? Eat less. Not gaining when trying to? Eat more. Ppl get trapped by their HR monitors. I'd ditch it.

[vhenley164]

Thank you for all the opinions - everyone seems to have a different take. I think I will start to wean myself off of it and listen to my body more. I may feel a bit lost for the first couple of workouts but I don't really think it is necessary in the long term :-)

[nattyoneill758]

I just wear the watch now so as I can keep an eye on the time between sets!!! Make sure I'm not getting lazy!

I got annoyed with putting the HRM on, the band thing and the little clip on thing. Then I found if I wore one of my big sports bra/top that sat over it it would only work for about 10 mins then give me a heart rate of 0 - now I know I'm not that lazy!!!!

[leelameema]

I've been doing this for 3 decades and have never used any of those gadgets. I don't know how many calories I burn in a day and I could care less. The mirror and progress pics tell me I everything I need to know.

Exactly