is a heart rate monitor worth it

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  • mostein
    mostein Posts: 200 Member
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    YES YES YES!!! Any time I forget to wear mine I'm depressed lol. It is great for seeing how many calories you actually burn as well as keeping track of your heart rate.
  • TeamDale54
    TeamDale54 Posts: 186
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    Yes! I would not workout without it.
  • born2drum
    born2drum Posts: 731 Member
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    It's pointless. I mean why would you need one other than to track your target hear rate? Honestly, learn your TDEE and go by that.
  • Kevalicious99
    Kevalicious99 Posts: 1,131 Member
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    Have a Polar FT4 and love it. One of the best investments I have done.
  • meeper123
    meeper123 Posts: 3,347 Member
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    I love mine :) If I am doing really high cardio I need it to make sure I am not going to far. I can far exceed a healthy heart rate if i am not careful. Also if I am interval training it helps me know how much harder to push or back off.
  • Kimdbro
    Kimdbro Posts: 922 Member
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    Absolutely!
  • Will32283
    Will32283 Posts: 1,361 Member
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    I ordered the Polar FT4 from Amazon and started using it yesterday. I read on the forums that exercise equipment is way off on calories burned. How true thst is. My bike is off by 125-200 calories. One of the best decisions i have ever made. I advise you to buy one.
  • n_unocero
    n_unocero Posts: 445 Member
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    I had a polar FT7, lost the transmitter, then splurged and got an FT60. After the watch crapped out on me, I will never buy another one....

    not saying they are bad. I loved having mine and was pretty pissed when my 60 broke. It was a great motivator because it gave me target times and cals to achieve for each week.

    but, now that I think back they were a waste of money for me. I've always been an athlete (played basketball and softball at the college level) so I've always been active. I knew my body and knew how hard I could push myself and what I should be eating to refuel. The HRMs were just a confirmation of what I already knew about myself.

    So i guess it just depends on the person.
  • kiwitechgirl
    kiwitechgirl Posts: 145 Member
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    Do you wear them all day or just when working out?

    Just when working out, they're designed for steady state cardio, not everyday life. You want a FitBit or something similar for that.
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
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    Without one, you're simply guessing at exercise calories. No point in tracking your food accurately if you then guess the other side.

    Sorry but I disagree with this statement. I don't have a HRM, and I probably never will, not for the kind of exercises that I do. I don't like gadgets or having a strap in my chest either.

    I log my food religiously, even when on vacation. I register in my exercise diary whatever numbers the cardio machines gives me (less than MFP counts), and for the rest of my activities I log MFP numbers. If I feel that they are too high, then I log less. Sometimes I eat some of my exercise calories, sometimes all of them. Depends how hungry I am.

    I have been on maintenance for almost three years, so I must be doing something right. If you can lose weight without exercising or without eating clean, then you can lose weight without a HRM.
  • pgn301
    pgn301 Posts: 29 Member
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    Yes, I have one and I love it!
  • teamAmelia
    teamAmelia Posts: 1,247 Member
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    Yes. I'm always skeptical of everything (burn numbers), so actually being able to compare what my HRM says to what sites like MFP I should be burning set my mind at ease. I find that it motivates me, now.
  • Ideabaker
    Ideabaker Posts: 515 Member
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    For me, absolutely! I am an "at home" exerciser, and was finding a wide range of calorie burns for the same activities in different online sources including MFP. Now, with my HRM, I can see exactly how many calories I am burning for the specific cardio I am doing at home (like rebounding, hiking, aerobic dance, etc.). No more guessing! If I see my Heartrate is moving too low within my range, I know to step up the intensity... and in the same vein, if it is too high, I know to slow things up so that I'm exercising in a safe zone.

    I have the Polar FT4; it was affordable, is easy to use, and keeps a record of the last few training sessions in case I'm travelling and can't input them into MFP right away.

    Since I've been losing (eating half of the calories back), and am now moving into maintenance, it will be especially useful as I "tweak" my daily calories so that my weight stays fairly consistent.
  • fullerbrickroad
    fullerbrickroad Posts: 22
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    I don't eat back exercise calories, so for me it is not necessary.
  • Pete0725
    Pete0725 Posts: 36 Member
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    I too don't eat back exercise calories but I wear the monitor religiously while doing any cardio exercise.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    I would be lost without mine. I've used them for years. If find that it itself overestimates my calories burned, by quite a bit, so I use this website to calculate my burns. It gives you a gross and then you can go on to calculate the net.

    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    I guess I'm the lone dissenter. Not worth wasting money on. They are fairly accurate (about 85%) for steady state cardio, but completely in accurate and absolutely useless for any other type of exercising you may do, strength training, intervals, etc.

    I wouldn't waste money on it unless you happen to have the money to waste, and have nothing else you'd rather buy.

    I've heard people say that. I used mine today during a kettlebell workout and then calculated my calories burned and I think it was pretty accurate. But kettlebell is pretty much continuous movement with not much rest, so I guess you could call it sort of steady state. Though my HR did vary quite a bit depending on what move I was doing.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    So, I worked some overtime and have enough to buy myself a little gift, and I've been hemming and hawing over whether to get a heart rate monitor. I believe the machines at the gym and MFP are both providing inaccurate calorie burns for me as I become more fit because even though I have my goals set to lose .5 pounds per week, I am losing more than I should be. I have a digital scale so I know I'm estimating my food correctly. I don't want to just blindly intake more calories.

    Well, after reading here about your happiness and successes with the heart rate monitors, I am going to buy myself one.

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