What is the best HR monitor ?

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BABBALOOOSKYY
BABBALOOOSKYY Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone,

So i just got a new Elliptical for the house. i got the Sole E25. and i don’t know if i’m right about this but i feel like after doing 60minutes on it and having a hard time from time to time that i only burned 327 calories.
i do level 1 but on this elliptical it feels harder then at the gym equipment. i do not put my hands on the heart rate monitor because my hands are usually by my side. so now i am trying to find a heart rate monitor that will count my burned calories on this machine and see if there’s any difference. i used to have the Polar TF4 a couple of years ago and i really like it but i don’t see it on their website anymore.

Any suggestions which would be good for this kind of cardio ?
also, what are your thoughts on the apple watch?

Thank you in advance :)

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited April 2020
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    Always keep in mind that heart rate monitors do not and cannot actually count calories - they can only count heartbeats and make a load of assumptions about you and your exercise. There is no direct relationship between the number of heartbeats and the energy you expend.

    That a HRM might give you different numbers to your elliptical just means you have two different estimates and either or neither could be reasonable. Also bear in mind a HRM estimate is likely to be a gross calorie estimate (so an element of double counting) and not a net calorie estimate (just the extra calories burned in that time period).

    They can be reasonable for people with average exercise heart rates (which isn't always a direct correlation to average fitness levels) and for basic ones like your old FT4 steady state cardio. Interval training would throw the estimate out badly.

    Do you want a self-contained unit (such as a watch) or one that can connect to your phone?
    The Polar FT7 had very similar functionality to the FT4 in a slightly less clunky watch. My personal experience with Polar FT1, FT7 and FT60 watches wasn't great - they didn't last anywhere near as long as they should have. I did like the features on the FT60 while it lasted.

    I now use a Wahoo TICKR chest strap that connects to either my Garmin bike computer, or my phone or to gym cardio machines.
  • jguldi11
    jguldi11 Posts: 201 Member
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    I use a Fitbit Inspire HR and it works pretty well for the price, and is water resistant which is cool. It does come with annoying pins to change the straps, but if you don't change them too often it's not a big deal. It seems to be pretty accurate, very close results when I've compared it to HR monitors on exercise equipment and my portable blood pressure/HRM machine.
  • djaxon1
    djaxon1 Posts: 82 Member
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    I found this article a while back -
    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

    I bought a used Polar f11 , they sell for peanuts, works with old chest strap but I have just ordered a bluetooth chest strap sensor (£10) which I will use with a phone app. hopefully for better info , graphs etc.

    Good reply above - they count heartbeats not calories , then make a guess.
    Even online calculators often give different figures with same info.

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