Researching HRM's and I'm feeling overwhelmed

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Katina3333
Katina3333 Posts: 259 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I currently use runtastic on my phone but I'm afraid that it might not be accurate. Let me give you a run down of my typical week of exercise.

M - F: I walk 5 minutes on my treadmill at 3, then I run / jog for 1 mile at 4.5 - 5 (I'm at about a 13:04 minute mile), then I walk for about 17 minutes at 3.5.

Tu & Thur: I jog to the gym a little less than half a mile, I do 2 miles on the elliptical in 22 minutes, 6 minutes on the handbike (although I'm thinking of cutting this out / back as I can see that I'm building muscle) and then I walk home.

I try to get in some sort of walk or bike ride around the neighborhood on those off days (M, Wed, Fri) and then Saturday & sunday we'll play some tennis and maybe throw in another visit to the gym.

I just started using runtastic last week and it was great, but its not monitoring my heart rate, then yesterday it failed to calculate my calories when I ran on the treadmill. The calories burned on runtastic is WAY higher than what my treadmill shows (although my treadmill has none of my info where runtastic at least has my weight & height). So it made me kinda skeptical... I want to make sure that I'm actually burning what I record that I'm burning.

What I would like is something that monitors my heart rate, tracks my pace, distance & calories... preferably for different activities. Heck, I'd wear it / use it out dancing if I could!

Any suggestions?

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  • craigjmorton
    craigjmorton Posts: 24 Member
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    Just as a matter of interest, this article from BeginnerTriathlon explains a little about HR and assessing your heart rate. http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=633

    And if you visit http://www.dcrainmaker.com/ and look in his product review and "the queue" links you might find some good alternatives to the Runtastic HRM.

    I am currently running and working out with a Timex Run Trainer with a HR Ant+ strap. It fits very well and gives me a good indication of my HR. I also compare the calories burnt from my Timex with my exercise programs on my smartphone and MFP and they all tend to register approximately the same amount of calories used.
    The Timex strap is really comfortable, you could try a Garmin strap as well but for both of these you would need a dedicated fitness watch. I stand to be corrected on this.

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