Looking for advice on heart rate monitors

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  • shall1112
    shall1112 Posts: 40
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    You can have both - I just got the Garmin Vivofit. It's a fitness tracker and HRM (as long as you buy the bundle with the chest strap). So far I love it. I have had a fitbit and the jawbone UP before but would get frustrated having to charge it every few days. The Garmin battery lasts a year! The only disadvantage that I can figure out so far is that it is bigger than the fitbit and jawbone. But it also tells time so if you're not looking for fashion you can wear it as a watch too. Check it out.
  • AlicesNirvanaHealthWellness
    AlicesNirvanaHealthWellness Posts: 112 Member
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    I got the polar loop, an activity tracker and it works with polar HRM . Just got for Christmas, but so,far like it
  • azkunk
    azkunk Posts: 956 Member
    edited December 2014
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    Thanks, I will check them out. I am trying to hold out for the Apple Watch to see how it compares to the current fitness trackers before I pull the trigger. I was going to get a HRM in the meantime but now I am rethinking it based on the type of activity that I do and the information that I learned here.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    azkunk wrote: »
    Maybe I'll hold off on the HRM and get a tracker. It's purely for motivation. I typically do not eat back the calories that I expend.

    Activity trackers (like Fitbit) show your TDEE—way more accurately than any online calculator. When you connect your accounts, MFP compares your tracker burn to your MFP activity level and adjusts your calorie goal accordingly.

    A fitbit uses a TDEE calculator that is no different or more accurate than the others. It is still an estimate. My fitbit was about 300 calories off the numbers provided by direct calorimeter testing ... a greater variance than several other calculators. It's clear that the answer you've provided here is simply a cut and paste for you.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    edited December 2014
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    I said Fitbit is more accurate than online calculators—which rely on people to enter subjective information about how active they are. People overestimate their burns (and underestimate their food).

    I lost the weight & have maintained for six months by eating back my Fitbit calorie adjustments. TDEE is by definition the number of calories at which your weight will stabilize. Therefore, my Fitbit burn is my TDEE.

    @brianpperkins‌ You have every right to disagree with my opinion. I've refrained from quoting you in hopes that you'll edit your post to remove the personal attack.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    azkunk wrote: »
    I never heard/ read that HRMs were not accurate for this type of activity. I will have to research some more. Has anyone else heard of this.

    There is a lot of mysticism, particularly on these boards, about both activity trackers and HRMs. Both have their benefits, equally both have weaknesses and in both cases it's a question of recognising those weaknesses and working with them.

    Fitness trackers depend on movement, and for a wrist worn device it can generate a lot of false positive if one is in a situation where arm movement predominates. From a personal perspective I can see them as beneficial for people who don't otherwizse exercise, and the majority of their CICO calculation has to come from calorie estimation of their base level of activity. They do seem to get uncritically cult like, and you get some people who wander around the boards putting cut and paste promotions into every related thread.

    HRMs are designed for heart rate monitoring, any calorie expenditure estimation is a result of using the data already gathered to get a second order calculation. They use heart rate as a proxy for expenditure. The algorithms that they use were designed as a result of research on people doing work in the aerobic range for reasaonable durations; treadmill, cycle ergo, ergo rower. So if they're used in circumstances where those sessions aren't mimicked then they'll give a flawed estimation.

    Many threads asking about HRMs have some discussion from several people who unserstand how they work trying to caution people who see them as some form of panacea.

    Neither device is some kind of magic bullet.

    If you're after something for motivation then I'd suggest a Vivofit, as that'll give you real time feedback and prompt you to move more if you've been stationary for a significant period of time.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    Activity trackers (like Fitbit) show your TDEE—way more accurately than any online calculator. When you connect your accounts, MFP compares your tracker burn to your MFP activity level and adjusts your calorie goal accordingly

    Subject to using them in a way that reflects the design of their algorithms then I'd agree that it has some potential to provide a more objective assessment of background activity levels. For some people it's going to lead to a high level of false positives.

    It's always worth thinking about what the originator says about their situation rather than uncritically evangelising the One True Way (tm) with virtually identical posts in many different threads.

    In this situation the eclared concern about driving may be a valid one, as most wrist trackers do report a small level of false positives related to driving. So it needs a supplementary bit of information around how much driving the originator does. They're not the right tool for delivery drivers, but if one is talking about a 20-30 minute commute then it's not an issue.

    Personally I've lost 40lbs without one, and I don't even weight and measure food. More improtantly I can run a sub 2 hour half marathon distance and cycle 50 miles in 2:30.

    All these toys are just tools that have the potential to be useful. They're not magic bullets.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    editorgrrl wrote: »
    I said Fitbit is more accurate than online calculators—which rely on people to enter subjective information about how active they are. People overestimate their burns (and underestimate their food).

    I lost the weight & have maintained for six months by eating back my Fitbit calorie adjustments. TDEE is by definition the number of calories at which your weight will stabilize. Therefore, my Fitbit burn is my TDEE.

    @brianpperkins‌ You have every right to disagree with my opinion. I've refrained from quoting you in hopes that you'll edit your post to remove the personal attack.

    You've repeatedly put the exact same words in multiple threads when replying about fitbits ... noting that isn't a personal attack.

    As for the accuracy of a Fitbit. If all you do is step based activity, they can be fairly accurate. If you cycle .. they don't track that accurately. If you swim ... they don't track that accurately. If you lift ... they don't track that accurately either. They can't accurately *kitten* caloric burn from sex, yoga, etc. Fitbits base TDEE on the same inputs as MFP, Scooby, IIFM ... age, gender, height, weight, activity level ... which is plugged into a formula and spit out as a daily caloric total. They are far from a cookie cutter, "way more accurate" in all situations device.
  • azkunk
    azkunk Posts: 956 Member
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    MeanderingMammal wrote: »

    If you're after something for motivation then I'd suggest a Vivofit, as that'll give you real time feedback and prompt you to move more if you've been stationary for a significant period of time.

    Thanks for the info, that was really helpful. I will look at the Vivofit. Like I said it's purely motivational for me. I do have a desk job and my exercise is mostly walking with weekend hikes and a few gym classes thrown in. I drive less than 10 miles to work. I'm a tech junkie so I like my gadgets and haven't gotten one yet because I was waiting for them to become more advanced which they now have become.

    I really appreciate all of the advice given here. Thank you all.
  • sheepotato
    sheepotato Posts: 600 Member
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    azkunk wrote: »
    Thanks, I will check them out. I am trying to hold out for the Apple Watch to see how it compares to the current fitness trackers before I pull the trigger. I was going to get a HRM in the meantime but now I am rethinking it based on the type of activity that I do and the information that I learned here.

    If you are considering an Apple Watch, you could look into a pebble. I got one for swimming but there's are pedometer apps and a version of runkeeper that works with it. It syncs with iphone and android phones. https://getpebble.com/pebble there's info on it, it's $100 with usb recharable battery and swim.com has a code for 15% off so mine was about $84 with free shipping.
  • donnysoule
    donnysoule Posts: 1,185 Member
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    I have to say, I have the Microsoft Band and I love it... and, tracking wise, it seems to be VERY accurate
  • azkunk
    azkunk Posts: 956 Member
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    sheepotato wrote: »
    azkunk wrote: »
    Thanks, I will check them out. I am trying to hold out for the Apple Watch to see how it compares to the current fitness trackers before I pull the trigger. I was going to get a HRM in the meantime but now I am rethinking it based on the type of activity that I do and the information that I learned here.

    If you are considering an Apple Watch, you could look into a pebble. I got one for swimming but there's are pedometer apps and a version of runkeeper that works with it. It syncs with iphone and android phones. https://getpebble.com/pebble there's info on it, it's $100 with usb recharable battery and swim.com has a code for 15% off so mine was about $84 with free shipping.

    That's really affordable, I will look into it.
  • azkunk
    azkunk Posts: 956 Member
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    donnysoule wrote: »
    I have to say, I have the Microsoft Band and I love it... and, tracking wise, it seems to be VERY accurate

    Thanks Donny. I am an Apple girl through and through and would probably have issues connecting to my Mac/iDevices.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    What device, if any, is best suited to track your activities depends upon what you do and what details you want to track. For running and cycling, a HRM can be useful. For walking, including hiking without much of an additional load, a step tracker can be useful. Most of the sleep tracking features track restlessness at night ... more accurately they track movement at night and interpret that as restless or awake.

    None are the perfect fit for all people. My Fitbit is great for tracking some things, sucks for others. The same is true for my GPS/HRM combo. The newest batch of trackers tries to span all features ... but the basic limitations of each component remains. HRMs remain useful only for certain steady state cardio activities ... motion trackers remain useful only for tracking the motions they are programmed to interpret as steps ... GPS is only good for tracking how far, fast you moved outdoors.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
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    azkunk wrote: »
    Thanks, I will check them out. I am trying to hold out for the Apple Watch to see how it compares to the current fitness trackers before I pull the trigger. I was going to get a HRM in the meantime but now I am rethinking it based on the type of activity that I do and the information that I learned here.

    I am also waiting on the release of the Apple watch first quarter of 2015. Right now I am still using the Polar FT 4 HRM that I've had for over a year now. Luckily it has performed well over that time. While it doesn't sync with my iPhone 6 Plus, there are apps out there that you can use to record the data if you needed to.
  • missADS1981
    missADS1981 Posts: 364 Member
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    I use and swear by my polar ft7. make sure the chest strap is tight and also wet it with some water otherwise sometimes it wont read in the beginning until you sweat. i love mine

    I have this one

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