Burn 4000 Calories A Week September 2013 Challenge

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MFP over calculates exercise calories?

ricki011
ricki011 Posts: 89 Member
in Social Groups
has anyone used a HRM? is it worth my $$ to get one? any ideas?
does anyone know a good mid-level ($) HRM that isn't very difficult to use?
Thanks for helping with this.

Replies

  • benjicloverdale
    benjicloverdale Posts: 92 Member
    Yes. I love my Polar. Way more accurate than machines or MFP.
  • ricki011
    ricki011 Posts: 89 Member
    love that quote!:flowerforyou:
  • EniBee
    EniBee Posts: 274 Member
    I just got mine 2 weeks ago so, I am very new to HRMs. The first one I bought was quite cheap and the reason why was because it was just a wrist watch without a chest transmitter. To get a reading you had to put your finger on the wrist watch sensor. Needless to say that the readings were not good and to top it off, you had to decide the intensity level of your workout before it could calculate the calorie burn. COMPLETE AND TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY (albeit £14.99). So I then did some research and decided to buy the Polar FT4 which is the basic one. It monitors your HR and then calculates your calorie burn after you've complete your workout. the only negative is that it does not have a GPS, but that's fine, because I always have my phone with me when I exercise. Also, it stores up to 10 workout matrix on the watch, but does not transmit the data online. Decided that I did not need that functionality so, went for the FT4 model. would have gone for the next model up, but I had already wasted money buying the cheap version.

    Comparing MFP calorie count, I find that MFP is not too far off! My HRM Reading is always within 2-5 calories lower that MFP's estimate.
  • Raasy
    Raasy Posts: 972 Member
    I use a HRM all the time when I work out.. I know that MFP tends to over/under estimate my burn so I like to get a closer assessment of what my actual numbers are. My HRM is blue tooth driven so it communicates with a program on my phone and that program has GPS so I am covered there. And the best thing of all is that the program syncs with MFP!!!
    I totally feel that is you want more truer numbers to get a HRM, they are worth it, but you need to spend the money and get a good one.. Don't by cheap!!
    I think I paid $85-95 for mine and I am happy
  • ricki011
    ricki011 Posts: 89 Member
    where did you buy your HRM?
  • EniBee
    EniBee Posts: 274 Member
    I use a HRM all the time when I work out.. I know that MFP tends to over/under estimate my burn so I like to get a closer assessment of what my actual numbers are. My HRM is blue tooth driven so it communicates with a program on my phone and that program has GPS so I am covered there. And the best thing of all is that the program syncs with MFP!!!
    I totally feel that is you want more truer numbers to get a HRM, they are worth it, but you need to spend the money and get a good one.. Don't by cheap!!
    I think I paid $85-95 for mine and I am happy

    After reading your reply,I checked if my RunKeeper App could sink in with my HRM, but sadly not as it do not have bluetooth technology. It would have been very handy for me because I log all my activities on RunKeeper.

    Here in the UK, I paid £55 for my FT4 Polar HRM & Watch. Maybe when I am next in the States, I will buy one with bluetooth, as everything seems to be cheaper across the pond.

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