Calorie Counter Gadgets??

artist444

I'm wondering if any of you use any cool gadgets to calculate calories burned?? I'm interested in heart rate monitors for my work outs. But I've also heard about bodybugs and fitbits. What do you use?? What do you recommend?

ronda_gettinghealthy

FT4 heart rate monitor- a watch with a single strap chest band- easy to use and I love it.

aimee0515

I use a polar heart rate monitor and I love it. I have thought about checking out that fitbit...but more to find out how sound I sleep at night...I don't feel there is anything wrong with my heart rate monitor. I've had it for 2 years and have had no problems with it.

roundisnotsquare

Do you have a smart phone? If so you can get the free CardioTrainer app and buy a Polar bluetooth chest strap and it will link to your phone. You can share your workouts on facebook, twitter etc. It keeps track of your history and has a heart rate graph you can look at. It is pretty cool.

If you don't have a smart phone, I highly suggest a heart rate monitor with a chest strap.

wolfchild59

I have a Polar FT4 that I wear for my workouts and I have Body Media Fit that I wear all the time. I love both for the different information that they give me. There have been a handful of posts recently about Body media Fits and Budy Buggs and I've already written a ton of explanation in those, so I won't get into it again since I tend to go on and on since I've got a lot of good to say. But HRMs and BMF/BB are for very different things and I find them both beneficial for what they do. It's just a matter of figuring out if you want one over the other or if the combo of the two is what will be best for you.

artist444

My main interest is finding out exactly how many calories I'm burning during my workouts. I like the idea of the fitbit and knowing all the additional info of steps, sleep, etc. ,but i don't know if it will work that well for workouts?

wolfchild59

If you only need/want to know workout calories then all you would need is an HRM. I find thy my HRM and BMF are always pretty close when it comes to what I burned during a workout. One thing I like about the BMF and workouts though are that it then continues to see that I'm burning more calories per minute for awhile post workout than I do pre-workout. And I like being able to see how my body functions/burns during that time.

artist444

Thanks so much for the advice! Very helpful!!