Heartrate monitor watches.

auntdeedee87

I've noticed several times at Wal-Mart that they carry these watches that will monitor your heartrate and keep track of your calories burned when you work out.

The packaging doesn't say how it tracks your heart rate without a chest strap of some sort, and I wonder how accurate they could be?

They're between 30-50 dollars and while that's not a LOT of money, it is a sizeable investment for me.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Tips?

jlr_12

I got one of those for Christmas and I think it's pretty good! I'm not sure how they all work, but the one I have has a touch sensitive face, "any touch technology". There's a sensor on the back too, so when I touch the face of it it completes a circuit and can tell me my heart rate. The only annoying thing about it (the one I have at least) is that it only takes your heart rate when your other hand is touching the faceplate....thus requiring you to test your HR multiple times throughout a work out. I do it at the beginning, and any time I feel like my effort has increased or decreased to try to get a final calorie count that's as accurate as possible.

cdnclovr

I've checked-out the HRM's that don't require a chest strap and like jlrushton said, you always have to make contact with it which really isn't doable during a workout. I have no idea how accurate the calorie count would be since if you only made contact with it twice (for example) during a workout, it couldn't be accurate.

I have the Timex Ironman HRM which uses the chest strap. You don't even feel that it's on (esp for women) and it is very accurate (I also cross-checked with the HRM on my treadmill). It's easy to setup and when you do a workout, just set it to chronograph and away you go!

AmyRhubarb

I started with just the watch variety (found it on clearance so went for it), but got frustrated with it for the very reason of having to touch the face to take my heart rate throughout the workout. The more you do it, the more accurate the calories burned results will be, but still not as accurate as having a chest strap that reads your heart rate the entire time. Plus, I found it annoying and frustrating to try to get a read while doing the workout, and it didn't always read right away, resulting in me stopping the workout just to get a reading.

I finally started looking for a model with a chest strap. Being on a tight budget, I didn't want to pay a lot, so did my homework on the various models and prices, decided which ones I wanted (either a Polar or a New Balance), then started watching eBay auctions for them. Scored a brand new New Balance N4 for $26 (they retail for around $70) - works great!

Edited to add: Look at heart rate monitors on Amazon and read the reviews - great way to get a feel for what people liked or didn't like about various models.

KBGirts

You have to be careful with the low end varieties. There is a pretty big disparity in how accurate they are. I have a Garmin and those are expensive but I consider it close enough to track my progress. I know a lot of people who have them and seem happy. I have heard that cheaper models will over estimate your calories, so then it's easy to think you are doing better than you really are.

Jot down the make and model and read tons of reviews and compare those to reviews by other manufacturers. HRMs can be a great tool, but ALWAYS do research anytime you spend money on anything.... it's good to be an informed and educated consumer.