Heart Rate Monitor Watch

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nareykay
nareykay Posts: 18 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How accurate do you guys think they are? I bought a cheapie one at Wal Mart and wore it today during my hour spinning class. It said I burned 300 Calories. MFP tells me I burn 600 calories with and hour of spinning. I will obviously go with the lower total......but I am just wondering how accurate you find that the HRM is? And I am wondering if I should invest in a better more expensive one?

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  • JWeaser
    JWeaser Posts: 302
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    I too bought a watch one and returned it the next day. The "Calorie Burn" reader was ticking like a timer no matter how hard I pushed myself so I took it off and set it on the table and it kept ticking away. Waiting until I can get a proper one with a chest strap.
  • Waynes_World
    Waynes_World Posts: 333
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    I had a timex HRM with a chest strap. I had to enter my sex and weight on it... It showed I burned over 1000 calories.. Over the weekend I bought a polar FT 40 HRM... I wore them both during my workout today.. The Timex said i burned 1000 + .. The Polar said 430... If I was going to trust a HRM it would be the Polar brand
  • epj78
    epj78 Posts: 643 Member
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    You want one with a chest strap. The watch type only take your heart rate when you put your fingers on the sensors and assume that is your HR until the next time you put you fingers on the sensors (and that is assuming the sensors for the fingers are even accurate). The chest strap type will continuously take your HR and take into account your age, height, weight, etc to give you a fairly accurate calorie burn. Some find its lower than MFP, some find its right and some find its higher. All depends on the person!
  • Jackie0127
    Jackie0127 Posts: 71 Member
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    I also bought a HRM from target, and returned it the next day, the way they work, you have to constantly keep checking your pulse with it so that it records your heart rate. To me that was a bit annoying, and innacurate! If I forgot to check my pulse I could be cheating myself! So, I got the polar at Best Buy for less than $90 (Polar FT4) and, I LOVE IT!! It comes with a chest strap, that is constantly reading your heart rate. If I were you, return the one you got and invest in one with a chest strap, it truly makes a huge difference! I carry it with me everywhere, although I only use it for work outs.

    Good Luch! :)

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