HRM Dilemma

I finally got a new battery into my heart rate monitor (HRM). The watch has shown a low battery for quite some time, so instead of going out and getting it changed I just chose to not use it to track calories burned.

I have been working out a lot lately. And by using My Fitness Pal I have been eating back the calories that I burn. It's a method that encourages you to eat more to weigh less. So, when you burn calories you are supposed to eat them back, with healthy foods of course.

I learned a while ago that whether you walk, run or use intervals you burn approximately 100 calories per mile. So that's what I've been using to calculate calories burned the past few weeks. Yesterday I used intervals for a mile, I ran a mile, I walked a mile, I did 65 squats, my arm workout and my ab workout. I don't count calories burned for strength training, so for a distance of 3.27 miles I burned 327 calories.

Today I wore my heart rate monitor the entire time. I used intervals for a mile, I ran a mile, I walked a mile I ran a mile, I did 70 squats, my arm workout twice and my ab workout twice. According to my HRM I burned 1056 calories.

That seems like a lot. But my settings are all correct, the battery is new and I can only assume that the watch is accurate. This is my dilemma.

I'm worried that if I only put the calories for the miles I ran (today it would be 4.28 miles) then I am not eating enough. But if I put the 1056 calories burned based on my HRM then I am afraid that I am eating too much. Why does it have to be so complicated?

Or am I just making it more complicated than it needs to be?

As of right now I think that it would be worth it to try just using the HRM and seeing how that works out. It has yet to prove me wrong and it could very well be that I was not eating enough the past few weeks compared to how much I was working out.

I think that if I am consistent with how I do things (track everything, eat healthy, workout daily, use my HRM to track calories, eat the calories I burn and weigh in/measure once a month) then my lifestyle change will really be focused on the change and not the weight loss.

It's worth a try.