Heart Rate Monitors

BootyEvolve

Best heart rate monitors/activity tracker: most accurate?

I don't want apple anything

TavistockToad

I have a Garmin Forerunner 225 which is pretty accurate for running. It's an activity tracker as well but I don't use it as that.

keeler521

I have the Polar H10 chest strap waiting for me at the post office. Hope to get lots of data from it this weekend. It has lots of great reviews and lots of people use it when testing/comparing other products.

yirara

What for? They are only useful for steady state cardio, and only if you know your maxHR. Remember: heart rate does not equate to calorie burn.

BootyEvolve

yirara wrote: »

What for? They are only useful for steady state cardio, and only if you know your maxHR. Remember: heart rate does not equate to calorie burn.

Heart rate does equate to calorie burn because it tells you how intense you are pushing yourself. The higher zone your in the more calories you burn. A person walking does not burn the same as a person running because their heart rate levels are dramatically different.

Regardless, I wanted to use a heart rate monitor (preferably one on the wrist) to track exercise and activity level but mainly for exercise.

CM_73

I've been using the Garmion vivoactive HR since it was released, still very happy with it.
It is quite a large device though (relatively.)

sijomial

BootyEvolve wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

What for? They are only useful for steady state cardio, and only if you know your maxHR. Remember: heart rate does not equate to calorie burn.

Heart rate does equate to calorie burn because it tells you how intense you are pushing yourself. The higher zone your in the more calories you burn. A person walking does not burn the same as a person running because their heart rate levels are dramatically different.

Regardless, I wanted to use a heart rate monitor (preferably one on the wrist) to track exercise and activity level but mainly for exercise.

No not really.
It tells you your heart rate - the rest is interpretation and for calories that can be very inaccurate.
The reason running the same distance as walking that distance is a much higher calorie burn is the relative inefficiency of running (you are wasting energy projecting yourself upwards) not because your HR is higher.

HRMs can be useful training aid and with a bit of work can be reasonable/usable calorie estimators for certain exercise only. Straight out of the box they can be dreadfully inaccurate especially if you are an outlier or if your exercise is inappropriate for HR based calorie estimates.

Suggest you list your requirements and what exercise you do.
So far you have volunteered:
Activity tracker and HRM (that narrows it down massively).
Preferably wrist worn.
But what exercise(s) in particular?
(My Garmin Edge is great for its purpose but would be hopeless for you.)

mazdauk

I use the Garmin 3, as I only have small wrists. It doesn't have a heartrate tracker, but according to Which? it was the most accurate for calorie burn (unless you wanted to spend megabucks), fitbits routinely over-estimate by 40% or more. I mainly use it to measure walks so I can accurately add onto MFP eg 20 mins at 3.5mph.

I also got a nice pack of different coloured (plain) straps from Amazon for about £15 so I can change it according to my outfit! I use the plain black strap it came with for exercise.

AprilRN10

I use a fitbit HR 2. It is pretty spot on for miles walked/run and flights of stairs climbed. I am a nurse and I have compared it to HRM at work and it was within 5 points of the same both times I did that. I actually like the other features it has better than the HRM portion, but good luck in your quest to find what you want!

yirara

BootyEvolve wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

What for? They are only useful for steady state cardio, and only if you know your maxHR. Remember: heart rate does not equate to calorie burn.

Heart rate does equate to calorie burn because it tells you how intense you are pushing yourself. The higher zone your in the more calories you burn. A person walking does not burn the same as a person running because their heart rate levels are dramatically different.

Regardless, I wanted to use a heart rate monitor (preferably one on the wrist) to track exercise and activity level but mainly for exercise.

No it doesn't. If you sit on the sofa and hear an icevan outside and run outside your heartrate goes up. If you're fit it does so for a shorter time and less extrem than when you're unfit. Yet you burnthe same amount of calories at the same weight.

if it's hot and you run outside you're heartrate is bound to be higher, yet you don't burn more calories. Even where you are in the female cycle has some small influence on heartrate. You're tired? You're hr is bound to be higher at the same effort.

So basically, there i sno correlation between hr and calorie burn.

DaddieCat

All of these things.

I use a heart rate monitor for steady state cardio only and even then I take the calorie counts with a grain of salt as they are based on a loose mathematical algorithm that does not apply accurately to every or even most necessarily. It's great for an estimate, though. It's also not useful at all for any activity outside of steady state cardio.

I do wear mine while lifting, but just to track the time of my workout and not the heart rate or anything else.

I have the Polar M600.

stanmann571

For activity tracker, any of the Garmin or Misfit models are great.

For HRM, Any of the Wahoo chest strap models.

If you can't use a chest strap, Scosche makes a line of forearm based HRMs that are almost as good as a chest strap.

As has already been pointed out. HR is not equal to calorie burn, but it is a useful metric.

Tacklewasher

My vote is Garmin. I wear a Fenix 3 HR pretty much 24/7 (it comes off to charge when I shower). Doesn't matter the activity, it has an app for it. Good for swimming, biking, running, even can use it for Yoga (but more for tracking when I did what and not calorie burn).

CopperGodess

I use a Polar A370. I needed a monitor that I can use in the water. I started with a less expensive Polar and used the H10 for HR until I changed the battery and must have flooded the watch.

The A370 has the HR in the watch and seems to be reasonable accurate. I use their calorie count...but over the 4 yrs I've been using Polar products I can confirm that whatever algorithm they use has little touch with reality for an active 66 yr old female who exercises 4 days a week. But then, so are mfp caloric suggestions for losing 2lbs/ week. I have a scale that measures body fat%, skeletal% and base metabolism. There's not much relation to reality on the % measurements - but I do use them as a trend. Over time, with experience, I've decided that base metabolism seems realistic.

To lose weight, I cut Polar exercise calorie count in half, working out in the yard for an afternoon, I cut by 75%. My scale gives me about 1350 base metabolism. To lose weight I use 1000 calories (I eat out frequently and I'm sure I underestimate those calories) and divide by 2 the calories that come over from my A370 and get rid of the extra exercise calories mfp adds.

In 2 weeks, I've lost 2 pounds, decreased body fat% and increased skeletal%. Three years ago I lost 30 lbs over about 6 months. This time its only 10 lbs, but it will certainly take more than 5 weeks to get there.

ladyhusker39

I've had 3 over the past year. They've all helped with estimating my calories from Zumba, treadmill and general walking. I currently use the Garmin Vivosmart 3 which I'm very happy with and it's smaller for my girly arms. My hubs has the Vivosmart HR which has worked well for him and it's bigger for his "man arms".

The Fitbit Charge HR worked well for me for months, then I got the new Alta HR but it drastically overestimated my calories. I switched back to the Charge HR and it was overestimating my calories. No clue why.

BootyEvolve

Okay sorry i was wrong about the heart rate.

I mainly do weightlifting. But I keep my heart rate up as I only rest for 10 seconds in between reps unless I'm building muscle and doing here weights then it becomes 30 to 60 seconds depending on how much weight I am lifting.

I've had garmin vivofit hr but the problem being is the straps broke on my twice and there a pain to change. I was looking at the fitbit because a few you can change the bands extremely easy.

Meelisv

Most new Garmin watches have quick release straps.
Chest strap heart rate sensors are always way more accurate than anything optical wrist based.

TavistockToad

BootyEvolve wrote: »

Okay sorry i was wrong about the heart rate.

I mainly do weightlifting. But I keep my heart rate up as I only rest for 10 seconds in between reps unless I'm building muscle and doing here weights then it becomes 30 to 60 seconds depending on how much weight I am lifting.

I've had garmin vivofit hr but the problem being is the straps broke on my twice and there a pain to change. I was looking at the fitbit because a few you can change the bands extremely easy.

You're way over estimating your calorie burn if you're using a HRM for lifting. They're designed for steady state cardio.

BootyEvolve

TavistockToad wrote: »

BootyEvolve wrote: »

Okay sorry i was wrong about the heart rate.

I mainly do weightlifting. But I keep my heart rate up as I only rest for 10 seconds in between reps unless I'm building muscle and doing here weights then it becomes 30 to 60 seconds depending on how much weight I am lifting.

I've had garmin vivofit hr but the problem being is the straps broke on my twice and there a pain to change. I was looking at the fitbit because a few you can change the bands extremely easy.

You're way over estimating your calorie burn if you're using a HRM for lifting. They're designed for steady state cardio.

I don't think I am because it says I only burn 200 for 45 minutes

jumpsquats

I’ve had a polar ft2 belt and watch in the past which was suitable for the job if you’re just focusing on HR zones there and then. Recently got given a myzone belt from work which is good, it has an app to track the exercise you do and also works at the local gym I use.