Polar watch and chest band

Yep.
Have done for about 10 years, so mine is a super old model though.

As to why? I'm a data geek and like the reasonably accurate calorie burn it gives me.
I also have a medical condition that affects my legs. I'm biomechanically way less efficient than most people, so tend to have a higher calorie burn just from things like walking (a 7 mile power walk home from work used to take me 2 hours and burn 1,000 calories!). I need to make sure that I put the calories back in to support my recovery, so knowing what I've burnt can be important for me.

Also, I find the heart rate data useful for checking actual exertion against perceived exertion e.g. when I'm feeling a bit under the weather but training anyway and notice that my heart rate is like 20 bpm higher than normal, I know it's probably time to back off a little bit!

Yes I use them but I'm not sure the model. I got mine on amazon last year. It definitely helped tracking workouts and how many calories to eat back doing steady state cardio and some boot camp classes.

I use the H7 and app via smartphone.

kipr69 wrote: »

does anyone use the polar watch and chest band for their workouts

Absolutely and I love it!! I have the Polar A300.

Just keep in mind that the although the HR reading may be accurate, the calories burned function is just an estimate, and is only somewhat accurate under certain condition (Steady state cardio). If you do intervals, HIIT, or strength training the Cals burned will be waaaay off and most likely overestimate your actual burn.

Even for steady state cardio the calculation give total cals burned, so you would have to back out maintenance calories. So if you burn 2 cals per minuute at rest and an hour workout says you burned 550 cals you would have to back out 120 (2*60minutes) to get cals burned from exercise to add to MFP, otherwise you are counting the 2 cals/minute twice.

That said, I do have one, don't use it often, but I wear it during cardio to track HR, not calories.