gadgets to help track burned calories - need advice

derekgetsfit
derekgetsfit Posts: 4 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Looking for something that will accurately tell me how many calories I am burning when I work out.

Fitbit Charge HR? Or are heart rate monitor chest strap things (like Polar) the way to go?

Replies

  • TnTWalter
    TnTWalter Posts: 345 Member
    my favorite is a Polar watch/chest strap combo. you program your age weight height and can even program your zones...it's awesome. but depressing because the machines always say i burn more. lol.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
    derekgetsfit wrote: »
    Looking for something that will accurately tell me how many calories I am burning when I work out.

    Fitbit Charge HR? Or are heart rate monitor chest strap things (like Polar) the way to go?

    What kind of workout?
  • Jonny15121983
    Jonny15121983 Posts: 573 Member
    Hey Derek,

    Chest straps are superior to wrist monitors due to the way that they track your heartbeat. Though you may wish to consider a few other points when you make your decision. (admittedly I don't have a Polar so am unsure of their functionality so hopefully an owner can chip in with their pros/cons.)

    1) The Fitbit Charge HR will also track your steps, tell you the time, give you notifications from your phone, monitor distance traveled and tell you how many 'stair flights' you have climbed. All of this is displayed directly on the watch.

    2) It will also link to a smartphone app to give you a detailed breakdown for all of the above in daily and weekly charts and graphs.

    3) You can wear the FB pretty much 24/7 and from this it will give you a detailed break down of your sleep patterns, including time slept, number of times restless and number of times awake.

    4) You can log food and water via the app.

    5) It will do it's best to automatically interpret what activity sessions you have done with a breakdown of time, cals burned, avg BPM, heart rate graphs, calories burned graphs, impact that session had towards your day and times in different exercise zones.

    6) It will try to encourage you in various ways through challenges and the ability to link with friends (including app messaging.)

    7) I charge mine once or twice a week.

    8) It has the ability to customize much of the above via the settings so you can tailor it to your own preferences.

    9) It can be linked to MFP.

    10) Personally I find it to be extremely comfortable and quickly forget it is there, something I had read the opposite on some reviews for the chest straps. Admittedly depending on how you sleep, it may annoy you if you tend to put weight on your wrists like I do.

    11) Easy to wipe and keep clean.

    12) Sturdy design.

    If you are very serious about accurate data then I would guess go for the Polar, if you want more of a solid all rounder, a lifestyle aid then probably go with the Fitbit but wait to hear from a Polar owner first to see what that has to offer :)

    If you have any questions specifically about it then please don't hesitate to ask!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    derekgetsfit wrote: »
    Looking for something that will accurately tell me how many calories I am burning when I work out.

    Fitbit Charge HR? Or are heart rate monitor chest strap things (like Polar) the way to go?

    What kind of workout?

    This^

    Because my cardio workouts are steady state and step based....a FitBit One works well enough for me. If your cardio is steady-state....and not step based, then a heart rate component will help.
  • snowflake930
    snowflake930 Posts: 2,188 Member
    edited June 2016
    TeaBea wrote: »
    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    derekgetsfit wrote: »
    Looking for something that will accurately tell me how many calories I am burning when I work out.

    Fitbit Charge HR? Or are heart rate monitor chest strap things (like Polar) the way to go?

    What kind of workout?

    This^

    Because my cardio workouts are steady state and step based....a FitBit One works well enough for me. If your cardio is steady-state....and not step based, then a heart rate component will help.

    ^^same for me. My activity is mostly step based as well. I have a Fitbit Charge HR. I really like it and it does a fantastic job for my purposes. It does have the heart rate monitor and that is kind of a fun statistic to have, but not crucial for me. When I began, my resting heart rate was about 70. Now, it is in the upper 40's to very low 50's.

  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    Even with an accurate HRM calorie burns are still estimates. I suppose you could call it a data supported guess.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,003 Member
    Lots of data is my method.
    1. track all the food you eat as thoroughly as possible, use a food scale for everything and chose correct database entries
    2. weight every day after getting up and to the loo
    3. chose an appropriate weight from the beginning of the data collection period and an appropriate current one (women often store more water for the tiniest reason)
    4. calculate your calorie deficit over the same period, maybe 3-4 weeks to start with
    5. compare expected weight loss with actual weight loss. The extra weight loss is due to sport
    6. update and refine data regularly.

    Thanks to that I have a pretty good idea how many calories running or bodyweight circuit training burns per minute or kilometer.
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