Heart rate monitors?

kcdrake

So I've been working out on my apartment's treadmill lately and I just log my exercise by determining how many miles/hour I walked/ran. However, I've been hearing that the exercise numbers on MFP aren't that accurate. I'm also planning on running outside soon and I may not always know how many miles I've gone so my system may not work as well. I've heard some other members talking about heart rate monitors and I think I've heard that they can track how many calories you're exerting...?

I've never heard of these so I'm not really clear about what they do. So... could somebody explain how these things are able to determine how many calories you are burning? And I was wondering which monitor you would recommend. I've heard that the chest ones are more reliable than the wrist ones. Why? If there's anything else I should know about these, I would really appreciate you telling me.

Thank you, guys!

shirk13

Garmin makes a really good personal GPS. You wear it on your wrist like a watch and some models have a heart rate monitor. They really come in handy when you are running outdoors to track you time/distance/calories burned/ etc. I personally don't have one because the cost is prohibitive right now but a lot of my friends do have them and are very pleased.

CharityD

I have a polar F6 and I LOVE it! It has a chest strap and watch that tracks your time, calories burned and gives you weekly reports. It was $92 on Amazon and well worth it.