Polar Fitness Trackers

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keefe90
keefe90 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone!

My current Fitbit has decided to die on me, and I was considering getting a Polar Fitness Tracker to replace it. As far as I can see, most threads talk about Fitbit and/or Garmin, but I have yet to read much on the efficacy of Polar products. So I was wondering on what the general opinion is on Polar products.

By the way, I typically use my fitness tracker to track heart rate whilst doing group fitness classes at the gym, as well as steps monitoring.

Cheers :)

Replies

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    I think Garmin and Fitbit are both much better than Polar. Either will do what you want.

    I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3, which has been good so far. My expectation is pretty low: I'll be very satisfied if it lasts 2 years. (My old Fitbits lasted less than a year, but they gave me free replacements several times.)
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited September 2019
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    Loved my Polar 4, hated the Polar 7 (bluetooth). Heard better things about Polar 10. But these are HRMs not fitness trackers. I think that Polar is better known for HRMs. The A370, though, is supposed to be good. That Polar Ignite does look interesting but it's a newer one.
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,646 Member
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    I've been using the M600 for several years now. No complaints other than I've broken and replaced the band twice. But that's more likely how I wear it/live.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
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    I’ve used a Polar M400 and M430 and recently opted for a Vantage. They are not as “flashy” as Fitbit or Garmin (minimal mainstream marketing, not much in the way of social/challenges, not a lot of fashion), but they do a fine job.

    I’ve had Fitbits (several), Garmin’s (several), Apple Watch - and Polar blows them all out of the water in battery life. After a 4 hour outing (using GPS on all), my Fitbit came back 83% charged, Garmin (Fenix 5s plus) 24% charged, Apple Watch: 53% charged, Polar: 97% charged.

    I do notice that my step count on the polar devices is considerably higher (sometimes as much as double other trackers), but the calorie burn total is the same. I don’t really care how many steps I take-as long as I have a reasonable approximation of calorie burn I don’t care if it thinks I took 16 steps or 16,000.

    One thing that I really like about Polar (but depends on which model you have) is that it monitors your level of training fatigue/recovery factoring in your workouts AND your general life activity. So if you walked around Disney world for 16 hours a day for a week, or built a patio, or were otherwise unusually active-it will factor that (plus workouts) in to recovery estimates. Not all models include this-but it’s part of the M4xx models.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    Aside from the device itself, you should consider the supporting apps. Garmin and Fitbit both have good phone apps, web sites, and integrate well with 3rd parties. Garmin has by far the most devices to choose from. (So many that I found the choice difficult!)
  • tlpina82
    tlpina82 Posts: 229 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    Aside from the device itself, you should consider the supporting apps. Garmin and Fitbit both have good phone apps, web sites, and integrate well with 3rd parties. Garmin has by far the most devices to choose from. (So many that I found the choice difficult!)

    I agree here.

    I returned a Polar for a Garmin and it's night and day.
    My wife says the same about hers.

    I have a Garmin Fenix 5x and my wife has a Vivoactive 3.
    They are both excellent, thou for calisthenics and high impact exercises, i recommend you using a chest heart rate monitor.
    Reason is because the sensor moves a lot with the wrist movement and i found that with mine, the wrist HRM is not quite as accurate.

    My wife's, however, works with every exercise. She does insanity and P90X and used my HRM to compare and the vivoactive is surprisingly accurate.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    tlpina82 wrote: »
    My wife's, however, works with every exercise. She does insanity and P90X and used my HRM to compare and the vivoactive is surprisingly accurate.

    This is an interesting comment. I have the VA3 as well, and I initially continued to use my chest strap because I was used to it, it's so easy to pair with the watch, and I figured it was more accurate. The final comment is probably true at times, but, how accurate does it really need to be? I've ended up just using the watch. I recommend tightening the band to improve accuracy.
  • allother94
    allother94 Posts: 588 Member
    edited September 2019
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    I have a polar v800. It’s great! Paired with a HRM strap you will never need anything else. I have a polar scale as well and everything pairs with each other to give a great calorie analysis. Also paired with MyFitnessPal.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    tlpina82 wrote: »
    My wife's, however, works with every exercise. She does insanity and P90X and used my HRM to compare and the vivoactive is surprisingly accurate.

    This is an interesting comment. I have the VA3 as well, and I initially continued to use my chest strap because I was used to it, it's so easy to pair with the watch, and I figured it was more accurate. The final comment is probably true at times, but, how accurate does it really need to be? I've ended up just using the watch. I recommend tightening the band to improve accuracy.

    I mostly use a strap when it's important, but when I've forgotten mine, tightening the strap one notch has produced results that I've come to expect from the strap. I don't really care what my HR is, but I find the training load thing mostly does a good job, so I want to feed it good info.
  • FransessM
    FransessM Posts: 20 Member
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    I just got a Polar Ignite after my Fitbit died. Never going Fitbit again. This fitness watch is extremely good!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,040 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    tlpina82 wrote: »
    My wife's, however, works with every exercise. She does insanity and P90X and used my HRM to compare and the vivoactive is surprisingly accurate.

    This is an interesting comment. I have the VA3 as well, and I initially continued to use my chest strap because I was used to it, it's so easy to pair with the watch, and I figured it was more accurate. The final comment is probably true at times, but, how accurate does it really need to be? I've ended up just using the watch. I recommend tightening the band to improve accuracy.

    For me, the VA3 will somewhat predictably lose contact when I'm rowing (on-water or machine), even when it's tight on my arm: There's just too much arm movement involved, I think. I always use the chest strap for that. So far, with only very rare exceptions (which could've been cases where I didn't have it tight, or bumped it hard or something), it's done fine with other activities.

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