Calorie counter for workouts?

I really like the polar watches. Right now I have the F4 watch and the new polar loop. Buying it with the heart monitor helps track calories and your workouts hope this helps.

oh_teezy wrote: »

Hey guys, any suggestions on something that I could wear/use to count calories burned during my workouts? Thanks in advance

Depends what type of training you do, and how you intend to use a calorie estimation.

For many people a heart rate monitor is a waste of money as it can't give a consistent and meaningful estimation. That said lots of people seem to like being able to look at a number regardless of whether it means anything or not.

fwiw I use a Garmin HRM on my GPS tracker for running and cycling, though that's principally for HR monitoring rather than calorie approximation.

I have a FitBit Flex (the lower end model) and it seems to be pretty close. You have to watch how you change the settings because you can make the calorie estimate very conservative or allow it to vastly over-estimate your calories. I changed all the settings to be as conservative as possible and have had good success with using it for the last two weeks, I'm down 3 lbs in that time. By my estimation, it is fairly close to what various other estimates have for my calories burned (websites, MFP estimates, etc.).

There are (probably) hundreds of other threads about fitness bands such as Fitbit, so I'm sure if you search the threads you will find more information about the various types.

If your workouts are step-based (ie. running, treadmill, Stairmaster, etc.) then a Fitbit will be fine. But it won't work well for things that aren't step-based, like weight lifting or even some ellipticals.

You can try a heart rate monitor, but it will only be accurate with steady-state cardio, so it's also not good for lifting.

The new generation of fitness trackers that are just coming out, like the Fitbit Charge HR and Surge, or the Microsoft Band, claim to track heart rate all day and incorporate that data into your calorie burn, but they are notoriously inaccurate during workouts with lots of movement, as the optical LED pulse readers are prone to missing beats if any ambient light is let in between your skin and the sensor. They're great when you stand still, but if you're moving, they're pretty much crap for most people.

Hopefully soon they will improve on the tech to be able to accurately track heart rate all day, and that should give a much more accurate calorie burn. For now, just look at the reviews for the various features and choose accordingly.

I recently returned my Fitbit HR. its useless for weight lifting(P90X) and cardio (Insanity) and got the Polar FT4. So far it is reading nicely but...when i compare the calories burned to online calorie (http://p90xcalories.com/ or http://insanitycalories.com/) estimators it is WAY different. Example, each time i do a P90X or insanity workout the Polar has my calorie burn several hundred under online calculators. Could they be that different? I am curious as for the last couple years I have been eating with the goals made using the online calculators., I have maintained my weight based on them. I will have to drastically reduce my intake if the Polar is correct
Any thoughts?

oh_teezy wrote: »

Has anyone heard of or tried "FitBit"? I'm wondering if the product is any good? Like gemmahalligan, I too like to see numbers. It makes me feel like I'm "doing something"

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

They're activity trackers which calculate your TDEE (aka your maintenance calories) and sync with MFP. Some models track your sleep, and some have a heart rate monitor.