Recommendations for Heart Rate Monitor

dcrlaw

I am looking for recommendations for a basic, simple to use Heart Rate Monitor that I can use while Spinning or other gym-exercise, then plug in and download the "calorie burn" into either an iPad or (ideally) transfer to a myfitnesspal.com Exercise Journal in order to track my progress. Not expensive (<$100).

Thanks

cindaboo1

bump

petitedemoiselle

Would love to hear recommendations too.

brian90

im not sure about the plug in part, I use the Polar FT3 and it is great.

cactus39

I use the polar ft4. http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Womens-Heart-Monitor-Bronze/dp/B001U0OFD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318534425&sr=8-1

Solid. You enter your weight, age, height, etc. It DOES come with a strap you put around your chest and the watch will tell you how many calories you've burned

desrosiersf

Under $100 it's gonna be hard to find a monitor that tracks calories burned.

Polar is pretty much THE reference when it comes to heart-rate monitor.

I personally use the Polar FT7 ($150) and it does keep track of the calories that you burn and also saves your workout inside of the watch (so for example you get 13-10-2011 / avg heart rate: 155 / maximum heart rate: 180 / calories burned: 650 / etc.

And with an additional device called the "Polar Flowlink" (~$50) you can transfer all of these data between the watch and polarpersonaltrainer.com. (However, I don't use it so I can't say if it's good or not :S sorry)

The watch also has a really sweet feature which is called the Energy Pointer and that tells you if the main effect of your training is fitness improvement or fat burning.

hope that helps !

AmyRhubarb

I recently picked up a brand new New Balance N4 on eBay for $26. It has a chest strap and the watch, lets you enter your gender, height, weight, age, and tracks your calories burned, percentage of fat burned (I guess, I don't really use that feature, but it's there and I always feel good when it's over 50%!), three levels of workout intensity to choose for target heart rate, etc. Pretty easy to use with the directions that came with it.

I had read good things about both the Polar FTs and the New Balance, so started watching auctions for both - got lucky with the low price on the NB, so went with that. It retails for around $60 in stores, some online stores are cheaper, but eBay got me my best price, I just had to be patient for a couple of weeks.

Good luck!

Tereztaylor07

I picked up my Polar ft7 on Amazon three months ago for $75. I recommend the polar brand highly. It's extremely easy to use without even reading the manual.

d2footballJRC

I had a polar ft4 and loved it. I replaced it with a ft40 and it's amazing.

I had a couple of the cheaper brands when I started out but the polars are by far a better buy and worth the 40 extra dollars.

Tereztaylor07

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U0OFDM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER Hopefully that links takes you to it. The polar ft7 for $79. If you watch it for a few days, the price goes up and down. Which ever one you choose, I would definitely shop around. The prices vary alot from site to site.