Need suggestions/ideas on HR monitor

deneenae

ok fine... I'm giving in.... so I'm on the market for a heart rate monitor that is relatively cheap and accurate. I did consider doing something like fitbit hr, but I've concluded I don't need the extra bells and whistles (like 24/7 monitoring and sleep tracker). I've seen models of a chest strap that link (bluetooth) up to your smartphone and give you real-time stats, so that's neat. I just need a true heart rate monitor that estimates calories burned for when I workout. I started doing more strength training and non-machine workouts and I'm really curious how many calories I actually do burn... right now it's just a shot in the dark with MFP numbers.

I've been reading the phone needs to be right, and the apps you download need to be a certain type for the ones that link to your phone. I have an Android phone I got last summer, so I'm assuming it's up to date. Anyone have any experience with this? Recommendations?

Chieflrg

HRM being accurate is debatable to say the least. Just because your heart rate raises doesn't mean you ate burning more calories.

deneenae

yeah, that thought crossed my mind... If that's the case, should I just keep on estimating? I halve my calories burned when I enter it into MFP and I just wanna know if I'm halving too much or too little. Know what I mean?

SwindonJogger

The polar H7 has been working great for me. A chest strap with bluetooth. I downloaded the free polar app Polar Beat and it works well on my android phone.

sijomial

Remember HRMs are only accuate for tellng you your heart rate.

Heart rate is only a reasonable proxy for oxygen uptake (and therefore energy/calories) under certain conditions, strength training isn't one of them!

There's also the problem that unless you are "average fitness" and with an average exercise heart rate during cardio the estimates for calories are skewed.

So if you want/need to know your HR (not calories!) during exercise get one - a basic one like a Polar FT4 or FT7 are fine. But really unless you are intending doing cardio exercise to a reasonably high standard I wouldn't bother.

I use a Polar FT60 which is calibrated to my particular fitness levels and max HR (tested in a sports science lab) and it's remarkably close on calorie estimates to high quality power meters - but again only under certain circumstances.
Under some circumstances it diverges by 20 - 25%.

Just log strength training using the MFP estimate and spend the money you save by not buying a HRM on some exercise equipment or personal training would be my suggestion.

yirara

Please keep in mind that heart rate monitors don't work when doing strength training. Imagine you do a deadlift with 140 pounds. Your heart rate goes up. Then you drop the weight. Your heart rate is still up but you're not doing anything anymore. For that reason HR monitors only work for steady state workouts. Plus, using one without actually knowing your maximum heart rate is pretty useless anyway. The equation 120-age doesn't work for most people. If I go for a run, a HR monitor without adjustment would tell me I'm training at over 90% maximum heart rate for most of the run and calculate a massive calorie burn which just isn't there in reality. I just have a rather high maximum heart rate. Likewise, if you run at very high temperatures your heart will beat faster, still you're not really burning more calories. Thus such a thing only makes sense for cardio, and for figuring out trends over many measurements.

ZeroDelta

SwindonJogger wrote: »

The polar H7 has been working great for me. A chest strap with bluetooth. I downloaded the free polar app Polar Beat and it works well on my android phone.

+1 I prefer Digifit over the Polar app.

1brandn

yirara wrote: »

Please keep in mind that heart rate monitors don't work when doing strength training. Imagine you do a deadlift with 140 pounds. Your heart rate goes up. Then you drop the weight. Your heart rate is still up but you're not doing anything anymore. For that reason HR monitors only work for steady state workouts.

Not sure thats right. At least with the one i have.

Im using a garmin vivoactive with a strapped heart rate monitor. Has a variety of activites built in. I use it to monitor running, biking, soccer and for weights. For weights you time the entire activity, ie a 45 minute workout and it measures the lot as one activity, alternatively you can break it down into sets and time them individually. Syncs with your phone via garmin connect and garmin profiles are paired with MFP profiles. Works a treat

I havn't used any other heart monitors but this does everything i want and more.

Here's an idea of the data.....

1brandn

you can set your own max heart rate and burn zones as well for accuracy...

UG77

I feel your pain on dropping the money but I decided to wait and get the microsoft band 2. I know that if I don't I'll just be regretting everything a cheaper/compromise band doesn't do. I'm really interested in tracking my heart rate through the day though so I can gauge my improvements with my resting heart rate.

whmscll

Try the Mio Fuse. Very accurate heart rate monitor that you wear on your wrist. Has some of the other bells and whistles, but the focus is the heart rate monitor.

MeanderingMammal

1brandn wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

Please keep in mind that heart rate monitors don't work when doing strength training. Imagine you do a deadlift with 140 pounds. Your heart rate goes up. Then you drop the weight. Your heart rate is still up but you're not doing anything anymore. For that reason HR monitors only work for steady state workouts.

Not sure thats right. At least with the one i have.

It is correct, the device doesn't matter.

As explained upthread, using HR as a proxy for calorie expenditure is based on a number of assumptions, the first one being whether it's appropriate in the circumstances. HR is only a viable proxy in a very limited subset of circumstances. For other activities a device will use other mechanisms to estimate calorie expenditure; Metabolic equivalents (METS) and time.

For the requirement that the originator hasw, and HRM is not a useful tool.

deneenae

1brandn wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

Please keep in mind that heart rate monitors don't work when doing strength training. Imagine you do a deadlift with 140 pounds. Your heart rate goes up. Then you drop the weight. Your heart rate is still up but you're not doing anything anymore. For that reason HR monitors only work for steady state workouts.

Not sure thats right. At least with the one i have.

Im using a garmin vivoactive with a strapped heart rate monitor. Has a variety of activites built in. I use it to monitor running, biking, soccer and for weights. For weights you time the entire activity, ie a 45 minute workout and it measures the lot as one activity, alternatively you can break it down into sets and time them individually. Syncs with your phone via garmin connect and garmin profiles are paired with MFP profiles. Works a treat

I havn't used any other heart monitors but this does everything i want and more.

Here's an idea of the data.....

nice pictures! That looks pretty neat.