HRM and Calories Burned watch?

suzqmf

I am looking for recommendations on an INEXPENSIVE watch that will give me my heart rate and tell me how many calories I am burning throughout the day - WITHOUT wearing a chest strap. Does that exist?

AmyRhubarb

Not if you want accuracy.

I started with a watch only model (New Balance something or other, on clearance from Target). You have to touch the face of the watch during your workout to take a heart rate, and of course it's more accurate the more often it gets your heart rate, so that means a lot of touching the face of the watch - not really a good thing during a workout, especially when it doesn't always read the first time, so you have to try again, resulting in slowing down or even stopping the workout just for a reading.

After about a month, I ditched the watch and started looking for a model with a chest strap. I needed inexpensive as well, so I did my homework on the various models by reading posts here, and reading reviews on Amazon. I narrowed my choices down to either a Polar or a New Balance N4. Looked 'em up on eBay, looking for new models from sellers who would take returns, just in case there was a problem. Within a week, I had a brand new New Balance N4, complete with the box and instructions for just $26 (they sell for $70 in the stores).

It works great! And all I have to do is hit the start button and start my workout, no more stopping to touch the dang watch. Was interesting to compare the calorie burns between the two as well - I was getting much higher estimations from the watch-only model, which is no bueno!

So I highly recommend the chest strap - it's worth it!