Suggestions of Heart Rate Monitors?

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jlz_jlz
jlz_jlz Posts: 9 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm interested in getting a HRM to see how much I actually burn calorie wise- Does anyone have experience with a good kind/do they actually work without getting in the way?

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Anything from Garmin, Suunto or Polar will be good. Just find the one with the options you want for the price you want.
  • timeasterday
    timeasterday Posts: 1,368 Member
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    My wife & I have been using the Polar FT7 for most of this year. It works great - just run the strap through the washer once a week (let air dry) and no issues.
  • Leadfoot_Lewis
    Leadfoot_Lewis Posts: 1,623 Member
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    Polar. I've had mine for about 7 years and it still works flawlessly.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    All HRM are not equal. A Garmin 405 (series 1), for example will be totally useless on a treadmill. And excellent on a run or bike training!

    What do you want to do? What type of exercise?

    See the Polar site - it has a pretty good selection tool.
  • dantrick
    dantrick Posts: 369 Member
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    polar FT4 - cheap, works, easy to change battery and waterproof. no real frills. just does it's job. oh and it does sync to a lot of the cardio machines like the elliptical.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I'm interested in getting a HRM to see how much I actually burn calorie wise- Does anyone have experience with a good kind/do they actually work without getting in the way?

    In that case, you'll need the one that has the VO2max stat for any sort of ongoing good estimates of calories burned.

    As you get more fit and HR doesn't have to go as high to perform the exact same work, therefore burning the exactly same calories - the cheaper Polars will underestimate your burn.

    I think it's the FT60 that has the fitness test to help getting that VO2max stat besides manual entry.
    Still have to figure out your HRmax for decent estimates too, but they all seem to have that.
  • eldoctore1
    eldoctore1 Posts: 2 Member
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    I have and loved the Suunto t6. It has EPOC readings which are great for HIIT. Basically that means you can see how hard you're pushing yourself as a workout progesses, rather than just the total calories.

    But then, after getting tired of Suunto's lame syncing process and its inability to sync to MFP, I tried Endomondo Premium with a Zephyr and a Galaxy II Android Phone.

    I preferred the functionality of the the Suunto t6 but it was a very expensive watch vs the Zephyr plus Endo subscription and it didn't sync to MFP which meant that I was only getting less than half of my fitness picture (food but not exercise).

    Now I have Endo syncing automatically and my food tracking.
    So here's my suggestion:
    If you're super serious about training, go with a high end, awesome trainer like the Suunto high end t6 or Ambit, enter the workouts manually to MFP.
    If you want convenience, go with Endomondo. Endomondo's not perfect but the auto-syncing makes my life easier.
    Either way, the calorie counts seem better than estimates from machines and guessing from MFP.

    Good luck.

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