Personal Fitness and HR Monitors

Hi all i have just starting excersisng but dont want to lose wat just to tone!! Any tips please thank you x

I use a bluetooth heart rate band that makes my smart phone a heart rate monitor. Before that, I had a Polar FT-something or other. I can NOT recommend them enough. Depending on your mood, how you are feeling, the exact same workout can burn a significantly different number of calories. e.g. if I finish work on time, I walk 2 1/2 miles to the station instead of getting the underground. I always wear my HRM and sometimes I burn 270 calories on that walk and sometimes only 170. 100 calories is a slice of toast! When I do harder workouts, e.g. spinning classes, the differential can be more than 200. I think HRMs are absolutely essential.

I have a polar ft7. I love it. It tracks calories, time working out, and heart rate. To me that is all I need to track when I work out. It also keeps a log on the watch so I can see my trends from my work outs. I also like the fact that it is water resistant so I can wear it in the pool, just don't touch the buttons under water.

I am new to this fitness malarky and need your help!

I want to start monitoring my fitness, heatrate, my steps (maybe my sleep too?) and I would like to sync it with MFP. I'm not yet a runner, but hey, you never know what the future might hold!

Firstly, we don't have to mention brands (don't want to break any house rules and I have done a bit of research so know which brands are available). Its just the features that seem a bit mindboggling.

So friends, can you tell me :

1. Which features are worth paying a bit extra for?

2. Which are overblown, unecessary or don't really work?

3. Are there any basic features that you think I should make sure it has (anything more is a bonus)?

I don't really have a budget in mind yet - but I'd like to get it sooner rather than later so the less expensive the better!

Thanks for reading

lucky you, this is my first post ever. thought i would share my experience with my garmin forerunner 110 my awesome wife got me for christmas.
what it does- gps HRM, stop watch, time, distance, avg pace/lap, calories after you download it to the connect site.
what i like - all the stuff i mentioned above. i like when running or walking knowing my pace and HR and know what the exact distance is(*see below) and can change my route mid run if i decide to go farther. then when you download it from the watch to the online site it maps it, like in google maps, so you can get a view of what you did and can think about how to modify or save it as a course. shows all your stats, pace, laps, actual moving time, avg HR, the whole works. the strap doesn't bother me, no chaffing or irritation. even when i do my circuit routine and lay down to do abs. can use indoors whe it is freezing out. it will still do stopwatch function and HRM just no GPS, obviously.

downsides- doesn't mean i don't like. just stuff to consider. battery. i have read a lot of reviews about battery issues. garmins don't have a regular battery you can change. i have only had it couple months so no issues. it has gone a week or more with out charging and still had half a battery left. i don't do marathons, the farthest i have gone with it is 4-5 miles total. about 45 mins so battery was fine. the thing that drains it is GPS. most of the day it sits or can wear as a watch. if the battery dies i will cross that bridge then. cost - my wife got a great deal. i would not have bought it myself because of cost, but fortunately i have an awesome wife who did. i prob would have went the fitbit or polar route. is it worth it, right now i say yes, ask me in a year. also- doesn't sync with anything. like your phone or mfp or anything, except garmin.

i have not tried out their training programs so i can't comment on that, yet.

*sidebar from above. it has on a couple occasions when i started running as soon as it synced GPS started me in the wrong location and had me running directly through the downtown buildings. in other words throwing off my first mile distance and pace. so now i make sure to walk at least a few hundred yds just to make sure it is on and then hit lap and start running.