Heart Rate Monitor Watch

Thank you so much for all of your input. I am willing to wait a while longer to be able to save for a more expensive model, but I was concerned about that because I noticed, more often than not, you DON'T get what you pay for when you pay a lot (though, I will admit that usually if it's dirt cheap, it's just plain dirt). It seems like my concerns about the chest band were unfounded according to those of you that posted about that (I've had that issue before when trying to buy fitness equipment, it only fits people who are fit).

Thank you very much again, all of you! This gives me some direction to go on, and confirms some of the better rated product reviews I've seen (almost every Polar product I've seen has a fair to decent customer satisfaction rating).

I just want something to accurately measure calories burned during my workouts. I was warned by a trainer at the gym that the machines are not entirely accurate (based on the information from his HRM), and I've seen a lot of variance in the database here. I'd like a heart rate monitor so I can keep track of that as well to make sure i'm working at my most efficiency (not that I dislike spending time exercising, but if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right), and the monitors on the machines at my gym seem to take drastic leaps even though I try to get a reading about every minute (plus, when I do my kickboxing dvd at home, I have no way to gauge if my heart rate is too high or low). I don't even really need a watch function at all (I never wear the things, so this will probably only be worn during 'active' exercise, though not to tell me how much I burn running my trash out or lugging groceries up the stairs to my apartment), or the stop watch/work out timer function.

I just get concerned sometimes that I'm overestimating my burn. Even though I overshoot on intake, and undershoot on output, I don't want to be fooling myself unintentionally. I also want to be careful to not be balancing correctly and consuming too little. Since I started using the log on here (and I am brutally honest with myself about it and log everything), I debate long and hard on if I'm really hungry or if I'm eating for some other reason. I also upped my water intake dramatically, so I'm not eating near as much as I used to. That's great and all (I'm actually really proud of my determination here), but like today, it's 3pm, and i just realized that all I consumed aside from water to this point is a venti carmel nonfat iced latte from Starbucks. I'm eating some cereal now, but not really because I decided I was hungry, more because I know I should eat something to keep my metabolism up.

Anyway, sorry about the rambling, I'm just looking for something I can trust (at least mostly, I know nothing can be perfectly accurate) to tell me how many calories I burned during exercise, and when I'm in the right heart rate zone for max efficiency.

Once again, thanks so much for all of your responses.