heart rate monitor ?

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.

The heart rate monitors are a great tool. I love mine!

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 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!

I have a Polar F6 and I love it! I wouldn't workout without one.

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!!

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)

whoa crazy, I got mine on the 14th! it hasn't been that long at all...

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!

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.