Heart Rate Monitors!

One of my MFP friends recommended the BodyMedia armband. I ordered it yesterday, so I can't yet recommend. I'm interested to hear your responses on this though. Thanks for posting!

I really like my Polar FT4. I've had it for about a year - works great and easy to figure out.:laugh:

Polar FT4 (I have the FT7 and love it!).

I like that Polar will link with most exercise machines (if you do those kinds of things). When I was researching, the Nike+ required to many additional components that I would need to purchase to make it useful for me; the Garmin required you to be outdoors (to link with satellites). The Polar worked right out of the box, useful indoors or out, and while there are additional components (the uplink thingy) they weren't necessary.

I recently purchased the Garmin FR70, and it rocks. The ability to program custom workouts through Garmin's website is deep, functional, and generally great, and the ease of uploading and analyzing data is cool too. The chest strap is comfortable. User-replaceable batters in the watch and strap are nice, and the fact that it is compatible with the foot pod for running and a cadence / speed meter for cycling is great too. It is a bit pricey though. It's also ANT+, which means it should work with most cycling-related electronics and almost no gym equipment. It also should eliminate any chance of cross-talk with the ubiquitous Polar devices that flood my gym.

I looked at several Polar devices, and the extra cost for the device to upload data to the computer, plus the lack of replaceable batteries in many of the straps (depending on model) seems consumer-unfriendly.

One of my MFP friends recommended the BodyMedia armband. I ordered it yesterday, so I can't yet recommend. I'm interested to hear your responses on this though. Thanks for posting!

The Body Media is a great tool, however it's not an HRM.. and it used all day versus just when you exercise.


I have a Garmin FR60 and I love it, and it syncs with my Body Media.

I have a Polar FT7 and love it. It does tell the time and I wear it as a watch most days. When exercising it is set to tell me heart rate but all I have to do is pass my wrist in front of my chest where the monitor doo dad is and it beeps and shows me the time(no having to push buttons). I chose the FT7 Mens Black with the Silver stripe cause I wanted something simple that I could wear everyday and not have a pink or red eyesore on my wrist.

I have the Polor FT4. I didn't need too much, just want to keep an eye on my heart rate and get a better reading on the calories burned. This does everything that I need a HRM for.

I am minutes away from receiving my Polar FT7. I'm hoping to wear it to work out today and I will let you know how it goes. I was looking for accurate calories burned and I believe this watch also gives a fat burning readout as well?

I have the Polar FT4 and I love it. It does tell the time and gives you the duration of your exercise session. Also very easy to use. It has really shown me that I was overestimating my calories burned by going by the mfp site and also my stationary bike.

I have the Polar FT60, had it for about a year now and I love it! It really helps in tracking the intensity of my workouts so I know if I need to pick up the pace or slow it down and seeing how many calories I burned. I have not used any of the other brands out so I am partial to Polar. The Polar FT60 also tells time, day and date and is really easy to use.

I had bought the Polar FT7, loved it but I hate wearing watches and I really wanted something that could sync without additional items, so I upgraded to the Polar Wearlink Bluetooth. LOVE IT - when used with Endo it can track distance, avg speed, laps, calories, heart rate (and abg rate per exercise), plus I have Endo linked to MFP so it posts here every time I use it. And... for normal things (not outside activity) it still works, but won't track distance/speed if you don't move (or leave the GPS off).

just checked the price for polar and garmin and they are a bit pricey.

for a beginner, do you think a cheap HRM will still do the job?

Where did you look? I got my Polar FT4 for under 80 bucks through amazon (and that includes shipping) I got a "cheap" Timex Ironman, which worked well but didn't fit my wrist right, for 90 bucks

If you run or cycle outdoors go for the Garmin. I jave an FR410. You can easily use it indoors as well all you have to do is switch off the GPS.

I have the FT4 and like it a lot, even though the chest strap can get annoying (it slides down occasionally during work-outs, even after I tighten it). It's really easy to use and I like the timer function so I can time my work-outs.

I don't know if I'm weird or not lol, but unlike just about everyone, I found out that the MFP database was grossly UNDERestimating my calories burned. Anyway, investing in a HRM has been worth it to me.