Recommended HRM?

lauraesh0384

I've been looking into the Fit Bit and I have a family member that really likes it, but I was curious what others opinions are of the various monitors. I prefer one that is a wrist band or watch. My main source of exercise is walking, but I also do cardio kickboxing and the treadmill or elliptical. I'm also curious to see how many calories I burn while at work. I'm a vet tech and out of 9.5 hours a day, I'm generally on my feet at least 8-8.5 of those hours with a lot of walking throughout the clinic. It'd be nice to know approximate calorie burn for work outs where I don't know the calorie burn.

isulo_kura

Generally a HRM such as a polar FT7 is only good for steady state cardio they are not designed to wear all day. As you want to record your daily activity and do kickboxing an activity monitor such as a Fitbit, Microsoft band, Jawbone etc would be more appropriate. Some of these do monitor HR as well.

Mr_Knight

Fitbit isn't suitable for getting calorie burns for any of those activities. It won't be anymore accurate than just using the "lightly active" etc settings in the usual calorie calculators.

blankiefinder

You definitely can't use a HRM to get calories burned at work. As mentioned by isulo, it is only good for steady state cardio. If I forget to turn mine off, you should see the crazy burns it gives me for doing things like sitting. I just let my iPhone's step counter auto adjust my calories on a busy day.

editorgrrl

lauraesh0384 wrote: »

I've been looking into the Fit Bit and I have a family member that really likes it, but I was curious what others opinions are of the various monitors. I prefer one that is a wrist band or watch.

Which Fitbit you choose is entirely a matter of personal preference. They all calculate your TDEE and sync with MFP. I lost the weight and have maintained for ten months, so my Fitbit burn is totally accurate. It'll take trial & error to find what works for you.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

coryrood

Polar a300 would be perfect for you.

lauraesh0384

Well I have a pedometer that calculates steps, distance and calories burned (although I don't know if the calories burned is all that accurate). Would I be better off just sticking to a pedometer and aiming for x amount of steps each day?

EmBlazes

Your pedometer is probably the cheaper option I just got the Garmin Vivofit and I love - it is like a more sophisticated pedometer (so does the step counting which is good for your day to day activity). It came with a HR monitor as well which I wear when I do spin classes and other cardio stuff. For me, it was on sale at the time and seemed to fit my requirements.

The vivofit is similar to the Fitbit in that it lets you know when you've been sitting too long and you can chart your progress over time in terms of both steps and active calories. When I was looking, the vivofit had a few benefits over Fitbit 1) the watch unit has batteries that last for a year so you don't have to muck around with charging it 2) the watch unit is completely waterproof so you can wear it permanently if you wish (I even wear mine to bed) 3) it was MUCH cheaper than the equivalent FitBit so for me that was also a factor.

Read reviews first because your smartphone/bluetooth connection and requirements are important. Some people have had problem with the Garmin Connect app but personally it has worked really well for me so far. If you want to connect with other Fitbit users that might mean that the Fitbit is a better option.

The other good thing about the vivofit and fitbit is that your step goals are increased automatically over time (a little each day that you make your goal I think) so you should become more active. A straight pedometer doesn't do that - you would have to set goals yourself.

Good luck with whatever you decide

editorgrrl

lauraesh0384 wrote: »

Well I have a pedometer that calculates steps, distance and calories burned (although I don't know if the calories burned is all that accurate). Would I be better off just sticking to a pedometer and aiming for x amount of steps each day?

Try it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. When you connect a Fitbit, MFP adjusts your calorie goal every day to TDEE minus deficit. All the wristband models track your sleep, and Charge HR and Surge are heart-rate monitors. Fitbit challenges are great motivation—and fun.

blankiefinder

You can either use your pedometer and then re-evaluate based on your rate of loss, or you could set your activity level based on your work and non-exercise-routine activity, and again, monitor your loss and adjust accordingly.