Heart rate monitors? Information and advice please.

laxheart16

Hi all! This is my very first post so here goes...

I have some questions about heart rate monitors. I recently started hearing more about them, and before, I knew VERY little. So I'm new at this!

Here's a little about myself and why I'm considering getting one. My name is Bri, I'm a 20 year old college student at 5'1" and 127 lbs. My heaviest weight was close to 160 about two years ago, but my senior year of high school, I lost 30 lbs. However, right before starting my first year of college, I had a bad knee injury. Long story short...I gained the freshman 15 due to the inability to exercise and the unhealthy college food, of course. It was a rough year to say the least, but I've gradually been working my way back into better health and fitness. Although my weight in lbs is better than before my injury, my body does look very different than what it did. A lot more of my weight is lbs in fat, rather than muscle, which is what I'd prefer. I lost a lot of my muscle my freshman year. Now, even though my knees have improved a lot, I have had recurring hamstring strains and problems for a few years, and recently, they've been causing me trouble again. It's just another setback, but I'm not giving up. I want to lose my fat lbs and regain muscle tone as it becomes possible. Right now, I'm only able to walk, do upper body weight training, and probably swim. Eventually, I'd like to get back to the elliptical and biking, but I'll be patient.

So due to all of that information, I'm considering a heart rate monitor especially because most of my exercise comes from walking nowadays. I've heard that they can be pretty helpful for weight loss. Can anyone else pass along some helpful information? Here's a few of my questions...

1. Why are they actually beneficial?
2. Which brands and models do you recommend based on what you have used and experienced? (Ideally, not too expensive because I'm on a student's budget)
3. Do you recommend them overall for weight loss and exercise?

Thank you very much for any help! It's greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to add me. I'm always searching for new friends so we can support one another in our goals!