can someone help with heart rate monitor question?? please?

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annajade24
annajade24 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello! I am wondering if someone can please help me with accuracy of heart rate/calorie monitors? Can someone give me an idea on what brand is a good one? If you cannot input your weight, how accurate can it be?

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  • lindalee0315
    lindalee0315 Posts: 527 Member
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    I've had a Polar for years. It allows me to input age, height, gender and weight. It also does a "fit test" to determine how healthy I am, and also uses that information to configure the caloric burn. I think generally, the HRMs with chest straps are more accurate, and I agree with your implication--if you can't input your statistics, then it can't be very accurate. It really is a guess without that information.
  • vetsnatural
    vetsnatural Posts: 186 Member
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    Hi there Annajade24, I have a Polar FT7 and I really like it and it seems to be pretty accurate. I usually do about 90 mins or more of Cardio in the morning, which is a very fast pace walk with weighted gloves and depending on my efforts and of course the quality of the morning air my calories burned range between 588-800 for that same 90 mins. That leads me to thinking that it is working pretty good and it holds up to 99 sessions. I think with the Chest Strap it is Very Accurate!
  • ejha77
    ejha77 Posts: 63
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    I agree; Polar ones are good, and you need to get one with a chest strap. I've never heard of a HRM that won't let you input your weight (as well as other factors such as age, height and gender). Can you link to it?
  • yeabby
    yeabby Posts: 643 Member
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    Most of them have you input age, height and weight. The better ones have you do a fitness test too. In the past I had a Timex. Great price but it only lasted a year. Now I have a Polar and a Garmin. Both are awesome and have worked for years. Shop around and you can get Polar for a decent price. I've seen the Polar F4 (older version of their FT4 and FT40) for about $50 on Amazon. If you go Garmin look carefully at the specs. They all to heart rate but not all count calories.
  • exphys79
    exphys79 Posts: 2
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    You will have to have a monitor that you can input your height and weight into. Polar is a good brand that I have had patients use for years. You will be spending more money, but you will get a much better product that will be more accurate. There is no way anything can accurately count calories burned without your height and weight. It can give you a "general calories burned" amount, but this amount will not be accurate for you. Hope this helps.
  • iwillsoonbeslim
    iwillsoonbeslim Posts: 283
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    Hi there :)

    If you use the 'search' function on here, you'll find 1000s of replies to this exact question. Good luck choosing!
  • AHealthierRhonda
    AHealthierRhonda Posts: 881 Member
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    I hyad a SportDuo and hated it!!!! I now have a Polar and love love love love it! You cna input age, height, weight. It calculates your resting heart rate, gives you suggestions for how to workout (I was too much in level 3 one day), has alarms that can sound, I just love it. Cost was $150 from amazon.com and comes with a chest strap too. Worth the money!!
  • annajade24
    annajade24 Posts: 12 Member
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    Thank you everyone! You have all confirmed what I thought. Also, thanks for the info on searching. I am not yet used to exactly how this site works. Also- can someone tell me what "bump" means?
  • jfinnivan
    jfinnivan Posts: 360 Member
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    Remember to subtract your maintenance calories from the number the HRM gives you for calories burned. For me, I have to subtract about 80 calories per hour. To find your number, look under "My Home" "Goals" on MyFitnessPal.com. The number you want is "Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity". Take that number and divide by 24 to get the calories per hour to subtract from what the HRM tells you.
  • nwkarin
    nwkarin Posts: 16
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    late to be adding, but.....another vote for Polar HRM. I have used Polar for many years and....think I am on my 4th monitor! (I've had different versions).

    "bump" means bumping to topic by adding to it, so it shows up at the top of the message board list.
  • fasttrack27
    fasttrack27 Posts: 324
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    Another vote for Polar. Maybe they should start giving us MFP'ers a referal discount on future purchases! I have an FT-40 that has been used for strength, cardio, kickboxing, spinning and biking, swimming, you name it and it has held up very well. Now, if it could just zap that last little bit of my belly at the same time.....lol

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