what to look for in a HRM

petemeep

Any good brands, models, features to look for? All of them I've looked at seem so big are there smaller models?

Ashleysh22

The BodyBugg brand I think is the most accurate but also way out of my price range. I have a polar FT4 and I love it. the things I was looking for were:

(1) had to have a chest strap - I wanted to make sure it could accurately measure my heart rate without me having to pause and press my thumb to the watch or something

(2) it had to have watch that I could read from as I worked out

(3) it had to calculate calories.

I believe amazon sells them for less than 60 bucks

rides4sanity

The BodyBugg brand I think is the most accurate but also way out of my price range. I have a polar FT4 and I love it. the things I was looking for were:

(1) had to have a chest strap - I wanted to make sure it could accurately measure my heart rate without me having to pause and press my thumb to the watch or something

(2) it had to have watch that I could read from as I worked out

(3) it had to calculate calories.

I believe amazon sells them for less than 60 bucks

^^Agreed, my old Polar finally kicked the bucket after 3 years and I just got a new one. I don't recommend the FT7, it costs more but the extra function it gives is ranges for fat burning & such which I think is a bit overrated. burn more calories, burn more fat. At the high HR, with a slightly reduced fat burning % in the end I still burn a larger amount of "fat" than I would have at the higher % on a smaller total number of cals.

BrittanyFordham

I recently purchased a Mio + Drive HRM from Academy.
It gives you your target heart rate, counts calories burned during workout, gives resting heart rate, and also gives you a total of calories burned throughout the day, it has been wonderful so far.

The only thing is it doesn't have a chest strap, so if you're looking for a product with a chest strap you probably won't like this one. I press my index finger over the sensor and it gives me THR and total calories in about 4 seconds, so it doesn't bother me at all, and it fit much better into my price range at about $44.

Good luck!

Jacwhite22

Doesn't it also allow you to change the battery yourself as opposed to sending back to Polar? I have been looking and this is one thing pushing me toward the 7.

^^Agreed, my old Polar finally kicked the bucket after 3 years and I just got a new one. I don't recommend the FT7, it costs more but the extra function it gives is ranges for fat burning & such which I think is a bit overrated. burn more calories, burn more fat. At the high HR, with a slightly reduced fat burning % in the end I still burn a larger amount of "fat" than I would have at the higher % on a smaller total number of cals.

GetFitDiva777

I have a PolarFT with a chest strap and it's very accurate. The bodybugg doesn't monitor heart rate if you need it to track your heart rate during your workouts.

Jacwhite22

Doesn't it also allow you to change the battery yourself as opposed to sending back to Polar? I have been looking and this is one thing pushing me toward the 7.

^^Agreed, my old Polar finally kicked the bucket after 3 years and I just got a new one. I don't recommend the FT7, it costs more but the extra function it gives is ranges for fat burning & such which I think is a bit overrated. burn more calories, burn more fat. At the high HR, with a slightly reduced fat burning % in the end I still burn a larger amount of "fat" than I would have at the higher % on a smaller total number of cals.

Looks like I was wrong....According to the website they both allow you to change the battery. The 7 records 100 workouts while the 4 only does 10 and the 7 will allow you to pull the data off (with an additional extrra piece)

IronmanPanda

www.dcrainmaker.com

butterflylover527

I love my polar ft 4 , all I need it for is to count calories lost