heart rate monitor ?

kinderj
kinderj Posts: 14
edited September 23 in Fitness and Exercise
Does a heart rate monitor tell you how many calories you have burned or do you have to calculate that somehow based on your heart rate and if so, how do you do that? There is a big discrepancy between what my treadmill says for burned calories and what MFP says when I enter in the exercise. Some suggested I use a heart monitor but I have no idea how they work.

Replies

  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
    The heart rate monitor does the calculations for you. When you set it up it ask you to input all of your information and it does the rest.
  • polo571
    polo571 Posts: 708 Member
    costco is selling one online used by biggest loser. its 149.99 and you get 12 months online service. good deal and 92percent accurate
  • rhodes2b
    rhodes2b Posts: 304 Member
    The heart rate monitors are a great tool. I love mine!
  • mrandolph09
    mrandolph09 Posts: 4 Member
    My HRM is awesome. I ordered it from Amazon. It is the MIO MOTIVA Petite. It's pink and is very nice as it has no chest strap. Yesterday, I went to Zumba to learn that I was not burning between 3-400 calories like I had thought... but I burned 736 cals in ONE HOUR of Zumba. I will never workout with out my MIO again. I highly recommend it.
  • FemininGuns
    FemininGuns Posts: 605 Member
    I got a Polar FT4 from Sportscheck for 130$ Canadian, taxes inc. It's very accurate and works excellent! It has a chest strap to pick up your HR. I love mine!
  • ifeelsqueaky
    ifeelsqueaky Posts: 193
    I got a Polar F11 from Boots.com (I live in the UK) for about £70 which was a great price at the time. I absolutely love it and would definitely recommend getting an HRM if you can afford it.
  • mamagooskie
    mamagooskie Posts: 2,964 Member
    I got a Polar FT4 from Sportscheck for 130$ Canadian, taxes inc. It's very accurate and works excellent! It has a chest strap to pick up your HR. I love mine!

    I have that exact one.....and I love it. worth every penny!
  • Loves418
    Loves418 Posts: 330 Member
    So jealous of you all who have them. I asked hubby if I could buy one and he said NO we can't afford it. He was annoyed when I spent 50.00 on a blood pressure machine which I needed and still use. I am trying to think of a way to earn some cash and get one anyway and deal with his attitude later.lol..
  • newmeat30
    newmeat30 Posts: 766 Member
    I have a Polar F6 and I love it! I wouldn't workout without one. :)
  • HW2Hottie
    HW2Hottie Posts: 100
    So jealous of you all who have them. I asked hubby if I could buy one and he said NO we can't afford it. He was annoyed when I spent 50.00 on a blood pressure machine which I needed and still use. I am trying to think of a way to earn some cash and get one anyway and deal with his attitude later.lol..

    I am right there with you. I bought a crappy one and now I am taking it back to buy the Polar. He will have to get over it! I figure it will pay for itself! I will also note that everyone that is raving about this has lost quite a bit of weight!! Congrats to all!
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    I use a Polar FT7. I bought it this month from amazon for $85. It is a watch and chest strap combo. The chest strap is very comfortable, feels much like the underwire of a bra, without the shoulder straps of course. It is very easy to use and comes with decent instructions. I didn't need instructions as just pressing buttons figured out any questions I had. The FT7 holds records of any time you 'record' your workout, you can review them or leave them alone, either way :) It shows your heart rate as you use it, and will beep (if you program it to) when you reach your target zone so that you can aim to hear the beep the entire workout: getting the best burn you can!

    MFP entered in my 30 min run as something like 620 calories burned. I did the run again wearing the HRM, and it read only 322. I recommend getting yourself one!! I had been overeating my calorie goal without knowing it because this sites recommendation was off.

    Please remember that when you see your calories burned on the monitor, to subtract any calories you would have burned if you were just laying around. Here is an example:

    My calories burned from normal daily activity (how much my body would use if I were in a coma!) is 1,800.
    Divide that by 24 (how many hours in a day) = 75 calories per hour
    if I exercise for 30 minutes, and the HRM says I burned 350 calories...
    I would take half of 75 calories (30 minutes is half or 1 hour) and subtract it from how much I burned:
    350 - 37.5 = 312.5

    This is really nitpicky but I like to remind everyone about it. Instead of burning 350 calories like my HRM said, in all reality I burned 312.5. It's not too big of difference that you absolutely need to include it, but I like trying to be as precise as I can :)

    Best of luck in your shopping, and again I HIGHLY recommend getting yourself a heart rate monitor!!
  • brittk70
    brittk70 Posts: 17 Member
    Question about the Polar FT7 - do you have to use it with the chest strap? and can you also use it as a watch? i wear a timex ironman watch...pretty much everyday....b/c i can just forget about it and wear it ALL THE TIME...in the shower, in the pool, etc.
    can you do that with the FT7 or FT4??
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    I believe you must use the strap with the watch for the FT7, because the strap has HR sensors and the watch without it would not have a way to track your heart beats.

    The watch itself keeps great time and has a user replaceable battery (no mailing in to replace batteries!) and is water resistant. That protects it from you sweating, or splashing a bit of water on it, but I am a little wary of telling you it's ok to shower with it on. That might be too much water! I have a woman's model, black band with a gold stripe and a silver face. It is not very womanly and likely would go great on either sex. I definitely recommend against pool with this on, it would not do well to track calories burned while swimming :( (water resistant is not for submerging)
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
    I've been looking at the FT7 on Amazon today, it's not longer $85, but $109. Bummer.
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    whoa crazy, I got mine on the 14th! it hasn't been that long at all...
  • Nigel99
    Nigel99 Posts: 498 Member
    I bought the FT4 after seeing some recommendations here, and I couldn't be happier with it so far. I've been able to accurately measure my calories burned on various activities that I wasn't sure about based on MFP or online estimates, and I've found that I have been burning way more calories on Kinect's Your Shape than it was reporting.

    Whatever you end up getting, get one with a chest strap, and you'll get more info that will help you see what you're really burning.
  • droppin_lbs
    droppin_lbs Posts: 107 Member
    Question about the Polar FT7 - do you have to use it with the chest strap? and can you also use it as a watch? i wear a timex ironman watch...pretty much everyday....b/c i can just forget about it and wear it ALL THE TIME...in the shower, in the pool, etc.
    can you do that with the FT7 or FT4??

    I have the FT4 - love it! You can use it as a watch. You can swim/shower with it and if your a good guy you can even wash dishes with it! ;)
  • Mads1997
    Mads1997 Posts: 1,494 Member
    I have the Polar FT7, I use it as a watch, it doesn't ever come off. The ft7 is waterproof to 30 meters so completely safe in the shower.
  • amccrazgrl
    amccrazgrl Posts: 315 Member
    I'm hoping my Polar FT 40 w/ chest strap comes tomorrow or the next. I can't wait to compare the Curves computer towards it and towards EA Sports Active 2.

    My gf uses the Mio Drive Petite and it works great w/o a chest strap.
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
    whoa crazy, I got mine on the 14th! it hasn't been that long at all...

    Which color did you get? I might have chosen the wrong color. Looks like the "black/gold" is $85. I was looking at the bright red one.
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
    Which color did you get? I might have chosen the wrong color. Looks like the "black/gold" is $85. I was looking at the bright red one.

    Yeah I got the black/gold one, didn't think to look for other colors!
  • amccrazgrl
    amccrazgrl Posts: 315 Member
    I just used my Polar FT40 for the first time playing EA Active2. The game said I burned 136 cals and the Polar said 196. That's not bad for a video game. The extra 60 calories are probably from the loading screens. The time difference was Polar 34 and EA 28. The chest strap is good and barely noticeable.
    If you can afford it I'd go for it. This was also the cheapest model that works with the sports bra which I might get later down the road.
  • Randee75
    Randee75 Posts: 234
    I ordered mine(Polar FT7) this week and it was $109 they only had the red/black one.
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