What kind of heartrate monitor should I get?

Polar FT4 is going to be your best bet... It's around 60 dollars on Amazon Shipped.

The strap goes under your bust is made of fabric and elastic.. so it's pretty stretchy.

I have a Polar FT40. Do not worry about the chest strap not fitting. I am 6'3, large frame and at the time was 440# ish. The strap fit fine. It is very stretchy and soft fabric. You'll forget it's even there. The cheapest you can get is Polar FT4. Whatever brand you decide on, make sure you get a chest strap. Those HRM are more accurate than ones without.
Sorry forgot to add, my specific model, the FT40 averages 100$ The FT4 is less in price. Not so sure on cost though.

The Polar HRM are the best as they were the first in the business. So they so of course

Got the FT7 which does a few more things being a bit more costly and higher up on the scale of abilities.

The best thing to remember with chest strap also is, you can make the adjustment yourself. You can always add elastic to it if needed. Hand sewing mate. Bit of similar sized elastic and a sewing needle will do the job. Just gotta have the heart rate monitors at the right spot in the front. Hopefully all will hold with sewing, or clips, something in the sewing and fabric section of the craft shops, those people always like to offer help.

Getting the Polar ones on here seems to be a popular option. The FT4, a model below seems to get good responses also.

Just shop around for the best price.

You have to remember though, the ones with just a watch isn't going to give you the best results, you will have to go with the chest strap ones. The exercise machines and so called 'heart rate' watches without the chest strap seriously can only give you an average. Once I was able to compare my HRM with the exercise bike machines results, I was blown away with how different they were. My watch is specific to my heart, so the readings are right on which is so much better than just an average. If you are like me and have high blood pressure, your readings will be more than the average machines and wrist watches alone.

Awesome deciding to get one, they are truly motivating and so much fun when you are able to see all activities are able to burn up cals. From walking doing the shopping, to house work, to mowing the lawn (which btw is a huge cal burner!) My only motivator for doing the lawn lol.

Good on ya matey. Any support for fitness is a positive!

cheers and best of luck for your journey.

Polar makes some very good ones and are very inexpensive. IF you want a great one I suggest a Garmin

OK I just got the Polar FT7 for christmas. My question is: Is there any differences between the woman's model and the mens other than the color? I got the mens model and I don't want to open it if there is any big differences and I should try to exchange it for the woman's version. I am pretty small so I am a bit worried that the main difference is size and will the men's verson be small enough to fit me.