HRM suggestions for someone on a budget!?

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miss_vdb
miss_vdb Posts: 755 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hia,

I would like to get a HRM so I can track calories burned while I'm exercising. I'm not convinced my wii fit is anywhere near close to accurate.

I have two dilemmas 1: I have no idea what is good and what is just poorly made tat.
2: I am on a pretty restrictive budget!

I can't afford anything seriously expensive at the moment - and don't really want to do without while I save up.

I would ideally prefer a wristband rather than a chest strap (unless these are inaccurate because of that placement) and would like something that can hook up to my iphone or MFP but that is not essential.

Any suggestions?!
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Replies

  • VibrantAnnette
    VibrantAnnette Posts: 43 Member
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    I love my garmin vivofit. it's an HRM, pedometer, sleep monitor, and a whole bunch of other cool tools. integrates to MFP, has an app for iphone or android. I wanted only the HRM and was pleased to get all the extras. my polar ft7 croaked two years ago, and it was a good enough HRM but when I looked to repurchase this year they had doubled their price which prompted me to research all fitness tracking tools. I've even contacted all the fitness tool manufacturers to ensure some details. I'm a computer techie, and can read right through marketing fluff that misleads one to think they are getting an HRM or some other feature.

    Only Garmin and Polar have real HRM, required for accurate realtime heart rate measurement.
    Only Garmin has GPS, required for accurate distances/speeds.
    All other popular brands, are only estimators based on your weight height and what you input for time or other details. I've confirmed this with manufacturers directly.
    There is one cycling tool that has GPS, but it's only for cycling.

    Your best HRM will use a chest strap. they will be a watch/cheststrap combo.

    As for pricing, all vendors are coming out with the latest and greatest this year and there will be a lot of old models on fire-sale now and soon. I think my vivofit dropped from $200 down to $130 right after they released their new $800 watch last month. My new vivofit will last a few years, just as my old polar lasted a few years. I wanted my tool ASAP to address some health stuff, and was super delighted with what I did get, and will reward myself with the latest thing once I accomplish some big goals. I get pre-alerts from both Polar and Garmin on when their new tech is coming out, and intentionally did not plan to pay $800 for a fitness watch. Like computers, all the fitness trackers will drop prices a couple years out.

    If you get a Garmin vivofit, connect with me, my username is AnnettesFit.
  • drepublic
    drepublic Posts: 180 Member
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    Check out the Polar FT4 watch.
  • VibrantAnnette
    VibrantAnnette Posts: 43 Member
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    ps: I bought my garmin vivofit at REI. they also have polar.

    It's a good idea to learn how to measure your heartrate by reading your pulse, and having a stopwatch or reading the seconds hand on a nearby clock.
    over a ten seconds, count the # of heartbeats from your wrist or neck. multiply that # by ten. that's your heartrate.
    you can also do a 60 second read, but honestly the ten second is quite good enough.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    Are you getting an HRM for workouts you do solely via WiiFit? Or are you doing more steady rate cardio like maybe swimming?

    HRMs are for steady rate cardio and aren't made for stop and go exercises like DVD programs, sports, strength training, yoga, etc.

    Two suggestions -

    1. Pick an exercise calculator (whether the Wii, MFP's, or some other internet one) and stick with that for 4-6 weeks. If you find the burns are too high, manually adjust by taking off 50-100 cals and give it another 4-6 weeks (at the same time, use a food scale to weigh out all or a majority of your foods when possible to make sure you are getting as close to accurate as possible).

    Or...

    2. Switch from MFP's NEAT Method to TDEE. MFP expects it's users to eat their exercise cals back so knowing the burns helps. But TDEE includes exercise calories so you eat just that amount and log exercise as 1 cal burned (if you continue to log it). IIFYM has a calculator you could use to figure out TDEE minus 15-25%.

    If you do this, again, give things 4-6 weeks before making any adjustments.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Cheap HRM (even cheaper Polars) and decent estimate of calories burned do NOT go together.

    Pick one or the other, you can't have both.
    Cheapest Polar I saw that had required stats for decent estimate, and self-test to get them, is RS300X.

    And even then.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study

    Use above suggestions unless you just plan on doing some specific endurance training which would benefit from HR zone training.
  • Ms_J1
    Ms_J1 Posts: 253 Member
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    Amazon has Polar H7s available for about $55.00. It works with fitness apps via Bluetooth on your smart phone. No watch needed. But it is a chest strap which in my opinion, are more accurate.
  • brownb56
    brownb56 Posts: 1
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    Most polar heart rate monitors are fairly inexpensive, I have had mine for over two years now. Waiting for it to die so I can replace it with the bluetooth version that also allows you to change batteries. But this thing is like a damn timex lol. You can get the polar ft1 watch and chest strap for around $40, very solid good device. And has worked with every piece of cardio equipment I have stepped on.

    On the flip side of that, knowing what I know now. If I had to choose one device to help watch my weight loss it would be a bodymedia link device. While I believe a heart rate monitor is worth its weight in gold to make sure your body is working as hard as the mind thinks it is. The bodymedia is able to calculate your metabolic rate to within 90% accuracy. So instead of relying on generic tables to calculate you base metabolic rate or how much you burn during a workout based on age and weight. This gives you a much better report. Add to that honest and accurate measuring of everything ate, I have seen better results in the last three months than I did the whole time prior. Now I don't feel guilty for skipping the gym to get some heavy gardening in or other rigorous activities that are more difficult to track manually.
  • miss_vdb
    miss_vdb Posts: 755 Member
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    Well this is a lot of info!!

    I do mainly do wii fit stuff and I recently got the zumba game too. I'm guessing then from comments that a HRM isn't really going to help me track calories burned.

    My pedometer on my phone estimates calories burned from walking and my wii estimates calories burned from exercise - they seem to be conflicting figures though. I have no idea what is accurate and its frustrating.

    I generally don't eat my exercise calories back but sometimes if I'm feeling like my calorie allowance isn't going to suffice for a day I will work out for a little longer and then allow myself that treat. I'm concerned that my phone/wii could be over estimating my burn and thus I may be going over my goals unknowingly.

    I am still loosing weight so I guess its not really a big deal but I'd just like to know which figures to trust :(
  • dazwan
    dazwan Posts: 81 Member
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    I have an Adidas MiCoach Bluetooth HRM (just the monitor not the super expensive watch), I use this with my watch, but it will also work with a smartphone (runkeeper, Strava etc. record your hrm data and make estimates of calorie burn). The chest-straps on the BT HRM's are generally a soft strap and the monitor itself clips onto a pair of "press-stud" fastenings, you can even buy t-shirts that the monitor clips onto so you don't have to wear a strap. so not like the old plastic Garmin and Polar things. A few others do Bluetooth HRM's these days, so there's a bit of choice.

    Scosche have recently released a HRM strap which you strap to your arm instead of around your chest. dcrainmaker has a review of it, and it seems fairly positive. I'd get one if I had the spare cash, but for the foreseeable future I will have to stick to my collection of chest straps.
  • rfsatar
    rfsatar Posts: 599 Member
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    I use my Wii a lot for exercise, but never as my sole weighing device and certainly not for calorie estimates.

    I have a Polar FT7 but the FT4 is the next model down and my bestie swears by hers.

    Remember these are just estimates of your calorie burn but can give you some indication - if you bear in mind that you are never going to be 100% accurate both on cals out and cals in and allow for a little drift, you should be in the right ball-park.
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    More accurate?

    More accurate at what?

    A HRM will tell your Heart Rate it will NOT tell you the amount of energy you have burned .. the Associated software is where the brains are and these will ONLY give estimates based upon their internal model of the world and the parameters that you provide - None of them are 'Accurate'.... but some are somewhat better at guessing for some activities than others.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    I'd say save your money. HRMs can be useful but calorie wise are only accurate for steady state cardio and even then it's still just a guess based on your HR. If you do a lot of running or Cycling they can be a useful training tool but for calories in my opinion there use is greatly over egged
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    If you do a lot of running or Cycling they can be a useful training tool but for calories in my opinion there use is greatly over egged

    Yeap
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    no one just uses a watch and their fingers and some math any more?
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    If you do a lot of running or Cycling they can be a useful training tool but for calories in my opinion there use is greatly over egged

    ^this

    That is really the only thing an HRM is accurate for. Training purposes. If I was you OP, I would skip on an HRM.
  • miss_vdb
    miss_vdb Posts: 755 Member
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    More accurate?

    More accurate at what?

    A HRM will tell your Heart Rate it will NOT tell you the amount of energy you have burned .. the Associated software is where the brains are and these will ONLY give estimates based upon their internal model of the world and the parameters that you provide - None of them are 'Accurate'.... but some are somewhat better at guessing for some activities than others.

    Don't believe I said "more accurate" at any point. Thanks for all the messages guys - People seem to keep raving on about HRM so I figured I should get one but from these messages it really isn't going to help me much anyway. Will just keep using the wii estimates and leave it at that I guess.

    Thanks for all your answers.

    Helen.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Don't believe I said "more accurate" at any point. Thanks for all the messages guys - People seem to keep raving on about HRM so I figured I should get one but from these messages it really isn't going to help me much anyway. Will just keep using the wii estimates and leave it at that I guess.

    Thanks for all your answers.

    Helen.

    Well, have you ever seen the logic from majority of those raving about it?

    "It gives me a different value than MFP, and it's lower - therefore it must be more accurate!"

    Ya - I wouldn't trust comments from someone using that type of logic, well, not logic, thinking.

    The other reason it comes up.

    "I didn't start losing until I started eating back those lower calories."

    Ya - and the fact they were sloppy on logging foods had nothing to do with it I'm sure.
    All they did was compensate in one place to make up for inaccuracy in another place. It'll work for awhile.
  • miss_vdb
    miss_vdb Posts: 755 Member
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    Like I said I'm not eating the calories back and I'm fastidious when it comes to logging my food so that's the main thing.

    I may not bother logging exercise from now on as it seems fairly pointless if its not accurate.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Like I said I'm not eating the calories back and I'm fastidious when it comes to logging my food so that's the main thing.

    I may not bother logging exercise from now on as it seems fairly pointless if its not accurate.

    Well, that's not accurate either.

    Think if you applied that philosophy to other things in life, don't know exactly so forget it.

    That gas gauge is never accurate as far as 1/4 or 1/2 or whatever gas being left - forget it.

    And eventually that idea of not caring about the burn side will be negative effects, sooner likely.
    Because the amount of deficit you take does matter.

    Are you aware of how far off calories can be not only on nutrition labels, but fresh food items too, over and under. You may be fastidious, but you are still only with 5-10%, depending on what you eat.
    Still willing to log as best you can?
    Then be willing to record burns as best you can.

    If bigger is better - why don't you just stop eating and get it over with faster and lose the weight?
    Whatever reasons you think of, there are more and likely more negative you aren't aware of that will happen too even with deficit too big.

    Sorry, just had to comment on that phrasing that I know will come back to bite you later.
    That's why MFP is trying to help you long term. So while it doesn't help people select a reasonable weight loss goal amount, it does attempt people from making it potentially worse by making the deficit even bigger.
    By eating back exercise calories.
    Then again they shoot themselves in their attempt by stating what you'd weigh in 5 wks if you keep doing any level of foolishness with your diet, so they aren united on that front.
  • miss_vdb
    miss_vdb Posts: 755 Member
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    Like I said I'm not eating the calories back and I'm fastidious when it comes to logging my food so that's the main thing.

    I may not bother logging exercise from now on as it seems fairly pointless if its not accurate.

    Well, that's not accurate either.

    Think if you applied that philosophy to other things in life, don't know exactly so forget it.

    That gas gauge is never accurate as far as 1/4 or 1/2 or whatever gas being left - forget it.

    And eventually that idea of not caring about the burn side will be negative effects, sooner likely.
    Because the amount of deficit you take does matter.

    Are you aware of how far off calories can be not only on nutrition labels, but fresh food items too, over and under. You may be fastidious, but you are still only with 5-10%, depending on what you eat.
    Still willing to log as best you can?
    Then be willing to record burns as best you can.

    If bigger is better - why don't you just stop eating and get it over with faster and lose the weight?
    Whatever reasons you think of, there are more and likely more negative you aren't aware of that will happen too even with deficit too big.

    Sorry, just had to comment on that phrasing that I know will come back to bite you later.
    That's why MFP is trying to help you long term. So while it doesn't help people select a reasonable weight loss goal amount, it does attempt people from making it potentially worse by making the deficit even bigger.
    By eating back exercise calories.
    Then again they shoot themselves in their attempt by stating what you'd weigh in 5 wks if you keep doing any level of foolishness with your diet, so they aren united on that front.

    Are you just trying to start an argument?

    I asked if it was worth getting a HRM and it seems the general answer is no. I said that PERHAPS I may not bother to log the exercise if it is inaccurate.

    I'm not going crazy with exercise as I'm not physically able to do so, generally anyone who is very serious about exercise and is working out a lot probably isn't going to be using a wii fit.

    I probably only burn a couple of hundred cal (according to wii) 2/3 times a week. So as its not an accurate read I think I would potentially do more harm than good if I started trying to eat it back especially as I know that labels on food can be out.

    Saying things like oh why bother with anything or perhaps if you are in a rush stop eating is just facetious.

    I asked for advise and I appriciate peoples help but I'd prefer it if you weren't flippant and I don't believe you need to go to the extremes to make your point.

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