New Heart Rate Monitor

If you noticed in the picture from yesterday I have a sweet new watch. I got it from the Wal Mart for $27 so not sure how long it will last. It's totally awesome right now. It has a clock, stop watch, a preset timer thing, heart rate monitor, and calorie counter. The preset timer is set to a time (1min) then 5 secs to the end it beeps, and you can stop it and start it again. I'm excited for when I do interval runs outside, or doing different exercises for a certain time each like squats and crunches. For the heart rate monitor, you just put a finger on a front button then like electricity goes from the back of the watch through you to the finger button. From that heart rate, it also calculates the calories burned. Totally awesome.

Except now I have a second opinion. I track my food and exercise on a website and the calories for exercises I get from the machines at the gym. So today I did intervals on the treadmill for 30mins. The machine said I burned 243cals, my watch said I burned 344! Then 30mins on the elliptical. The machine said 388, and the watch said 488! Throughout the workout I checked my heart rate on both and they were always comparable, only about 2 or 3 bmps different. The machines only use the weight and speed, but the watch only uses heart rate. AHHHH. Well for now I'm going with the machine numbers. I figure I probably miscalculate my portions with my food and it's better to low ball it. Especially since I have this wedding to prepare for!