Couch to 5K Running Program (C25K)

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Heart rate monitors?

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weightliftingdiva
weightliftingdiva Posts: 522 Member
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I'm on week two, and I'm considering purchasing a heart rate monitor for when I do c25k on the treadmill, or a fitbit for my everyday activity. I don't have it in the budget to buy both.

At this point in time, since I'm still running a lot of intervals in C25K, will a heart rate monitor be able to accurately track my calories? Or will it at least track them more accurately then MFP (I manually add the walking and running)?

Or, am I better off estimating my cardio workouts, and buying a fitbit to monitor my everyday calories?

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  • cwrig
    cwrig Posts: 190 Member
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    My Novice Opinion:

    HRM will help estimate running burned calories better than just estimating based on time running. But its still a calculation.

    If you are getting HRM just to improve the accuracy of estimating calories burned, I'd say its not worth it. Is improving the calorie burn rate accuracy really that critical? If so; go for it.

    HRM is more useful at helping to structure a more effective running training program where you train at specific heart rate zones for specific conditioning goals.
  • weightliftingdiva
    weightliftingdiva Posts: 522 Member
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    Thanks, that was really helpful.
  • Jonalee1977
    Jonalee1977 Posts: 415 Member
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    I don't work out without my HRM. I have a Polar FT7 and I love it. I feel much more confident using it than I do using MFP's general workouts. If you are going to log C25K using MFP, you'll have to log your walking time (and speed) as well as your running time (and speed).
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    Personally I would say don't bother with either.

    An HRM is interesting, but of limited value to you at this stage in your running. Once you're up to running consistent 5Km upwards distances and you're wanting to improve your performance then heart rate training might be useful to you, but until then it's just one more thing to try to think about.

    A fitbit, I really don't see the point in. Why pay for an expensive overgrown pedometer...

    fwiw estimate about 100 calories per mile of completed distance. If you have a smartphone then Runkeeper or Endomondo are about the best tracking apps to use. Both of those sync to MFP to automagically log your running.
  • ashleigh315
    ashleigh315 Posts: 87 Member
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    I received the Fitbit for Christmas and liked it at first, but soon got bored with it. I just purchased the Polar FT4 and REALLY like it. I've found that it motivates me more to see how many calories I'm burning, the length of my workout, and my heart rate all in one place. In retrospect, I wish I would have just skipped the Fitbit. That's just my personal experiences :)
  • pmur
    pmur Posts: 223 Member
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    I personally used the polar FT4 to track my cals expended. I used it for Zumba and c25k since my MFP cals were way off the mark. I loved it. It help me lose all the weight that I lost. It was spot on calorie wise. I didn't use the heart rate tracker much just the calories burned. Mapmyrun also overestimates for me :(. My estimates using the hrm and otherwise were off by 150 or so cals.

    Now, I don't go often for Zumba. I'm at maintenance weight and don't feel the need to track cals anymore. I can use the FT4 in training to manage my speed/intervals etc but I'm still a novice concentrating on finish a half marathon, not to ace it. I need a GPS watch and I'm shopping around for one with a hrm that I can use in the future for training. I sort of stopped using the ft4 because it's extremely hot where I live and the chest strap started bothering me. I'm looking for a gps watch without the chest strap. So yeah a hrm may help you with you calorie tracking goals but if you start running seriously then you may have to update your gadget. Mapmyrun on the iPhone just isn't cutting it for me anymore :(
  • elv1ra
    elv1ra Posts: 146 Member
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    i have a bodymedia fit.

    it tracks calories burned, steps taken, minutes of moderate and vigorous heart rate(but not the actual BPM), and sleep throughout the day. you wear it 24/7. you manually enter your calories and weight and it keeps track of those too.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
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    I do have a Polar older model, but I've noticed that it consistently shows a bit less than the MFP estimate. The same goes for the Runtastic app; Polar shows slightly less. I wish I had purchased a Garmin from the beginning and just used that one, but it is costly so these other solutions will do for now.

    My suggestion is to estimate with meanderingmammal's 100 kcal/mile and compare to MFP, then eat back (if that's your method) whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.

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