What does a heart rate moniter do?

It can help you measure calories burned and intensity of workout. Not required but after a while you start to want t know a bit more about how hard you are working. You can do the same workout with very different results, depends on how much you are putting into it.

I find mine be very helpful in making sure that I am working out at the right pace and at the right intensity. I was training too hard which was not achieving the goals that I had hoped for. Now I work out at a lower intensity and the results are more in line with what I wanted.

Anyway, I find it very helpful and a great way to get a sense of what kind of results you are getting from your workouts.

--Carter

Polar is one of the more respected brands, and a lot of people around MFP have one from them (myself included).

After getting my HRM I realized I was under-reporting my calories burned during my workouts, which meant I was putting myself under the healthy lower limit of my net calories for the day (I try and eat back my workout calories). That was a big reason I hit a plateau for a few weeks a while back. Now I don't have that problem anymore.

The kind of HRM that you buy really depends on what you want it to do. Some of them are more focused on outdoor running, others focus more on cycling, some are more general, some have GPS (very useful for the outdoor stuff), and other features. If you really just want to track workout time and calories burned, there should be a wide range of relatively inexpensive entry-level models from which to choose. When you add GPS and other "work-out computer" functions, the costs and complexity can go up.

The two brands with which I am familiar are Polar and Garmin. I have had one of both and found them both very good. Both were more designed for runners with GPS functionality, but, as I said, there are a ton of other models that would satisfy different needs.

Good Luck!!!

FYI, I purchased my current Polar online and saved about 40% over the store prices at my local retail outlets.

--Carter

--Carter

I find mine be very helpful in making sure that I am working out at the right pace and at the right intensity. I was training too hard which was not achieving the goals that I had hoped for. Now I work out at a lower intensity and the results are more in line with what I wanted.

Anyway, I find it very helpful and a great way to get a sense of what kind of results you are getting from your workouts.

--Carter

Carter, just curious as I'm new to all of this, how does lowering the intensity of your workout yield different results? I find this interesting as I'm usually one of those "all or nothing" people which helped to make me overweight and also has a tendency to hinder my attempts at weight loss as well. I got a polar ft60 for Christmas and, I'm currently on hiatus from exercise as I pushed too hard and sustained an injury, but would like to know more about different intensities/different results. Thanks!

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Carter, just curious as I'm new to all of this, how does lowering the intensity of your workout yield different results? I find this interesting as I'm usually one of those "all or nothing" people which helped to make me overweight and also has a tendency to hinder my attempts at weight loss as well. I got a polar ft60 for Christmas and, I'm currently on hiatus from exercise as I pushed too hard and sustained an injury, but would like to know more about different intensities/different results. Thanks!
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Yes I am wondering, too.
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Ok, first, I am not an expert on this by any means, but I have been reading quite a bit on this topic of late. As I understand it, there are two principals at play. First, some people, myself included, push themselves too hard too soon when starting a work-out program. If some exercize is good, then more, harder, faster must be better, right? Well, this doesn't turn out to be true. First of all, you are much, READ AS MUCH, more likely to have an injury when working out an intensity level that your body isn't ready for. This is why everything you read says to ease into it. Secondly, different types of intensity burn different types of calories. I am a little fuzzy on the details here, but the general idea is that low intensity, lower heartrate exercize burns MORE calories from fat than high intensity, high heart-rate workouts. So, the low intensity work-out is more effective in a weight-loss scenario than going crazy on the treadmill.

Finally, and I have lost track of my point numbering scheme, is when my POLAR FT80 tells me that I am training in zone 1 or 2, I can train 2x-3x as long, burning even more calories. And, I don't feel like I am about to die afterward. For example, 30 minutes of all-out Nordic Track for me burns about 400 calories. I can definitely feel it, I am drenched with sweat, my legs are tired, etc. Going an extra 10 minutes in zone 3 is not an option. When I work out in zone 1 and 2 and not in zone three, as I did this morning, I put a movie on the DVD player and worked out for 91 minutes. Frankly, I only stopped because my wife told me the kids were driving her nuts. I burned 900 calories, mostly from fat, and felt fine afterwards. In fact, I went on another bike ride this afternoon with my 6 year old. My legs don't feel like rubber, etc.

As you continue to train and get into better shape (so I hear), you gain the ability to run faster and work-out harder while still maintaining a relatively low heart-rate. Serious runners don't feel near death when they run. It is just us, when out of shape, that try to push it harder, faster, heavier in order to speed the results.

So, that is my take on it from what I understand. I am not an expert at all so take more than a grain of salt, but that is how I have understood it. And, on the advice of my FT80 and others on this forum, I have started training at a lower intensity and I think I can already see a difference.

Good Luck!!!

--Carter

Thanks so much! This makes absolute sense and yes, this is coming from one who has sidelined herself for a few months for nearly blowing the bursa on her hip! When I'm allowed to start back you can bet it will be slow and deliberate but reined in on the enthusiasm side! lol In the meantime, I will be educating myself instead of hopping on the treadmill willy nilly. I appreciate your answer. Thanks!

Best of luck!!! Happy to help!

--Carter