Sell me your HRM?

teresamwhite

I want to start really tracking how many calories I am actually burning, and be as accurate as possible. (I know there isn't one that is 100% accurate). I have an iphone 4s, and am fairly well technically savvy. I'd rather hear from people who actually have and love their HRM, rather than wade through possible bogus reviews on Amazon. My budget is $100, though if one of them is a hands down winner, I can go up a bit from there.

I lift 4 times per week and do cardio for 20-30 minutes the other 3 days per week, if that helps...things like HIIT, sprints, running up and down hills, biking, or running stairs.

SLLRunner

Love my Polar FT7. So far for me, the readouts have been accurate enough to where I have gotten favorable results. The readings are always lower than MFP, gym machines, and any internet or Iphone app I've tried. .

I got mine at Big 5 for $98, which included tax.

Smirnoff65

I have the Polar H7 which I absolutely love, I use it along with the free Polar Beat software on my Android phone though it is also available for iphone. Seems to be very accurate at measuring my heart rate as I recently had to do a heart stress test at the hospital while connected up to their heart rate equipment and running on the treadmill, I kept my own H7 on and it was matching their read outs so I was pleased with that, as for calories I honestly don't know how accurate any of them are, they use an equation which is based on the information you provide in the polar beat software, ie.. height, weight, age, gender etc... I see quite a big difference between what calories the polar beat tells me compared to treadmill etc.. at the gym but that is understandable as that equipment doesn't know whether I am a 200lb man of 30, or an 80lb lady of 70, I trust the calories that polar beat tells me but I always subtract the basal rate calories that I would have been burning if I wasn't training anyway.

Sarauk2sf

I do not have one, nor have I looked into them, but tagging so it shows up on my feed.

nikkohli

I have the FT4. Doesn't do anything fancy (that I bothered to learn at least) but I find it to be accurate compared to MFP and Map My Run--it is usually under. When I use it in combo with the TDEE-deficit approach I had a lot of success. The chest strap isn't even noticeable and the battery is easy to replace too.

JosieRawr

I did have a really well rated hrm from amazon that had a chest strap... Personally it was unbearable imo, if I went above moderate activity, the sweat and rub was just bad and it didn't help that it interacted with my bra either... It was okay for walks and seemed very accurate and it was okay if there were a couple days between use.

For daily use my body media fit is so much better(imo) if you could find one used it would definitely be worth it. It does have a monthly cost of $7, but it does charts and break downs and my calorie balance almost exactly equaled my weight changes when I was using it and tracking religiously. (for monthly dehydrated weigh ins- I had a routine of eating x food for a couple of days and then drinking enough booze to get rid of excess water weight and weighed in in the morning, not suggesting it or saying that it was a healthy choice, just saying it's something that I did do lol)

edit- breaking up the huge text block...