tracking weight lifting on the inspire HR

[jpfo]

I have just got my first fitness tracker (a fitbit, clearly ) and have a quick question re tracking weight lifting on the Inspire HR:

When you do a work out on the "weights" setting, are you supposed to leave the timer running the whole time (i.e. even when resting between sets)?

The reason I ask is because I did my usual 130 minute workout and it logged over 1300 calories, which strikes me as a little high.

Looking around the internets, 1300 calories burned may not be unusual for a heavy session, but there is obviously a lot of variation in what is said out there, so just wondering if the community has any more insight on this.

I weigh around 100kgs (220 pounds) and am doing a Sheiko-based powerlifting program, which is intense heavy lifting doing low reps (5*2-3) of around 80% of 1RM with 3 minute breaks between sets, plus a bunch of higher rep (5*8-12) auxillary work with around 2 minutes between sets.

I couldn't find any information about whether during a weights session you are supposed to turn the timer off while resting, or if you are supposed to just leave it running the whole session. 

Thanks!

[LZeeW]

Hello @jpfo and welcome to the Help forums.  The Exercise app lets you pause then resume your workout.  Try that and see if it makes a difference.  Also, Fitbit recommends wearing your Inspire HR three finger's width away from the wrist bone during exercises like weight lifting.  It improves heart rate accuracy when doing an exercise that can have a lot of wrist movement.

[jpfo]

Thanks @LZeeW , great to be here and nice to meet you! 😊

I did know about the ability to pause and resume workouts, I was just wondering whether you are supposed to start and stop it during rest periods or if it is programmed such that you just run constantly during workouts.

I have been wearing it two fingers above my wrists and with a snug fit as per the instructions, heart rate seems to be accurate.

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

@jpfo the calorie burn is based on a combination of your basal metabolic rate (BMR) calories and current heartrate detected.  At 220 your BMR will probably be pretty high, although age and sex are also an important factors.

Many people are not aware that in most circumstances the overwhelming number of calories they burn are BMR calories - what just keeps you alive.

Given all that, I personally would not recommend pausing between sets in a weight lifting session.  You will obviously get a much more accurate overall view of how long your session was and it is unlikely to change your calorie calculation.  It might even make it less accurate, because of the way Fitbit calculates HR and calories.

The weight tracking program creates a time stamp and name label for the beginning and end of a session.  However it also triggers the program to sample the heartrate more frequently.  When you are not tracking exercise your Fitbit samples your heartrate approx every 5 seconds and averages over 5 minutes.  When exercise tracking is turned on it samples every 1 second and averages over 1 minute.

The pause is really, in my opinion, designed for runners who want to check their pace; this can obviously be thrown off if they cannot pause when they need to stop at red lights, etc.

However, there is not really any “supposed”.  Fitbit designs it with flexibility so that you can decide what works for you.

I hope this helps!

[jpfo]

Thanks @Julia_G, that was exactly the info i was looking for! My BMR is around 1900, so I guess going by that 1200-1300 for a hard 2hr session could be in the ballpark? 

Interesting to hear how the program works, judging by this then I will leave it going for the whole workout.

Thanks again! 

[Thesiupso]

Hey buddy,

I’m planning to purchase an Inspire HR myself and wanted to know a bit more about the calorie counting accuracy. Does yours still show circa 1000kcal burned in a 2 hour session? 

Thanks!

[jpfo]

Hey!

So these have been my last few sessions: 1hr 56m - 1044kCal | 1hr 29m - 793kCal | 1hr 15m - 681 kCal | 1hr 27m - 730kCal.

So I'd say roughly yeah, about 1000kCal over 2hrs. Not sure how accurate it is though, but seems about right.