reccomend me a heart rate monitor and explain them to me...

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leahslooloo
leahslooloo Posts: 57
in Fitness and Exercise
please :-)

I don't want to spend too much

Also could you explain to me how they work thanks
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Replies

  • Monisfit4life
    Monisfit4life Posts: 228 Member
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    You can get a heart rate monitor from target or walmart. The best ones come with a watch and chest trap and measure both your heart rate and how many calories you burn during exercise. Just turn it on when you start working out and it tracks your calories burned. Best investment you can make. The good ones are not cheap they will be about $80-100.
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    I have a Polar FT60 and I absolutely love it! It's a bit expensive, but worth it. I had a $20 Timex and it went in the trash. Cheap HRM will give you faulty calorie burns. What I like about the Polar FT60 is the fact that I can enter my stats (gender, weight, height, and there is a test for the VO2max). The more stats you can enter, the most accurate the data will be.
  • mumof5
    mumof5 Posts: 328 Member
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    i have a polar ft60 and i hate it. it only works sometimes. if you are from the usa i would definatley be getting a BASIS band. goodle them, they are getting great reviews but are in high demand and often out of stock. i cant wait for a friend to visit later this year and pick me up one!
  • lillypadstudio
    lillypadstudio Posts: 31 Member
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    Polar FT4. This heart rate monitor is awesome! My siberian husky got a hold of my chest (strap doggy teeth and all) and it still works! Quite amazing. I paid about $64 for it but well worth it.
    heartratemonitorusa.com has them at a nice price. checking ebay is always a good idea too.
    I love having a heart rate monitor.
  • larnsperger
    larnsperger Posts: 161 Member
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    I have a Polar FT4, received as a gift from my kids. Love it. You enter weight height age gender. It registers HR and calories burned. Love it!
  • SoViLicious
    SoViLicious Posts: 2,633 Member
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    I hear google is still functioning. But really I have the PT4 I hate it. It always say check transmitter and I've replaced the batteries.
  • Lift_This_
    Lift_This_ Posts: 2,756 Member
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    I have the New Balance N4 and i really enjoy it.....small face but easy to read and chest strap fits just right.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    it works by detecting how fast your heart beats.

    You can then use that info to determine if you're working out at a proper intensity to pace yourself for whatever time you're working out for. For a very general example, if your heart is beating too fast in relation to your max heart rate, you will soon tire and suffer lactic acid buildup, thus slowing you down and making your run times slower. Alternately, if your heartrate is too low, it just means you could go faster without penalty.

    Some use them for counting calories too, but that feature is vastly overstated and without question inflated by at least 30-100% for most everyone. (ie: most people don't realize the number spit out by a HRM includes their BMR for example, so don't realize their one hour of cardio is not 500 calories, but prob closer to 300ish) HRM's also are completely inaccurate for anything aside from steady state cardio as your heart rate has zero bearing on calories burned in non cardio conditions. That said, it can provide a metric for eating calories back that's better than just making up a number. So it's better than nothing.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    WIthout knowing what exactly you want it for I can't recommend one but check out this thread for the rest of your question
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    (ie: most people don't realize the number spit out by a HRM includes their BMR for example, so don't realize their one hour of cardio is not 500 calories, but prob closer to 300ish)

    Math? If my BMR is 1400, it will include 60 calories in one hour. That's quite different from 200.

    Either way, it provides a guideline. I have the polar P4 as well. I've had some annoying issues with the 'check strap' messages during a workout a couple times, but overall it's pretty good. Sure beats MFP calculations. I rarely eat up to my goal so it's not really an issue either way, but if you have doubts, just don't eat all of it back.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    (ie: most people don't realize the number spit out by a HRM includes their BMR for example, so don't realize their one hour of cardio is not 500 calories, but prob closer to 300ish)

    Math? If my BMR is 1400, it will include 60 calories in one hour. That's quite different from 200.

    Either way, it provides a guideline. I have the polar P4 as well. I've had some annoying issues with the 'check strap' messages during a workout a couple times, but overall it's pretty good. Sure beats MFP calculations. I rarely eat up to my goal so it's not really an issue either way, but if you have doubts, just don't eat all of it back.
    your BMR is not constant. Your awake calorie burn is 3-4x your asleep calorie burn.

    your average person burns 2-3 calories/min bumming around during the day.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
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    i have a polar ft7 and it does exactly what i need it to do. chest strap is nice quality, comfortable and stretchy. the monitor tracks heart rate, time, calories, and when the exercise is over it tells me my highest heart rate and my average. it saves up to 100 workout datas.
  • bagger113
    bagger113 Posts: 2 Member
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    In a nutshell: if you are going to use the monitor in a gym or on your own electric piece of equipment, you might want to check out Timex monitors. They are made so that the electric motors in the exercise equipment won't interfere with a proper reading. I use a Timex now for both gym and outdoor running.

    If you are not going to exercise near equipment, Polar has been around for years and I have used and liked their products as well as Timex.
  • sunshine3737
    sunshine3737 Posts: 44 Member
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    If you want a good deal you should check Ebay. I just got a Polar FT80 watch chest strap and a flowlink to upload all my information for just 30.00. I love mine. It helps me to stay where I need to be in regards to my heartrate.
  • paulperryman
    paulperryman Posts: 839 Member
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    Polar FT4 here aswell, doesn't always work 100% but none ever would they are just meant to be a guide.
    You should rinse them after each use to get rid of salts from your sweat which can build up on the sensors and note machines that register the monitor are never accurate they lag at best if not register someone else standing near you.

    The Polar series have a removable sensor so you can replace the battery which is far better then previous generation that was one complete strap and sensor and had to be returned for the battery to be replaced.

    They are also reasonably priced.ot to mention at the very least you have a stylish watch :)
  • leahslooloo
    leahslooloo Posts: 57
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    I'm wanting it for strength training and cardio
  • beccybean
    beccybean Posts: 4
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    I just bought a Polar FT7F. I was worried that I might get confused / frustrated trying to figure out how to use it, but it's so simple to use. The strap is very comfy. I like the feature that tells you if you're in Fat Burn or Fitness Building zones. Have been a bit disappointed that some of the classes that I do haven't burnt as many cals as I thought, but now at least I know and can look to reducing my cal intake or upping my exercise.
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001U0OFDM/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    I want to get one of the little Data Flowlink things to transfer data between the monitor and my computer now.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I'm wanting it for strength training and cardio

    For calorie estimates, or for monitoring heart rate?
    HRMs are not intended for use or accurate for estimating calories burned during strength training.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    OMG I DIDN'T KNOW GOOGLE WAS BROKEN!!!!!
  • craigjmorton
    craigjmorton Posts: 24 Member
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    This guy does great reviews on HRM

    http://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-reviews

    and have a look see here

    http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/category.asp?catid=54

    This is the beginners Q&A for all matters related to HRM and training with HR and HR Zones.

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