Recommendations for Heart Rate Monitor

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dcrlaw
dcrlaw Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am looking for recommendations for a basic, simple to use Heart Rate Monitor that I can use while Spinning or other gym-exercise, then plug in and download the "calorie burn" into either an iPad or (ideally) transfer to a myfitnesspal.com Exercise Journal in order to track my progress. Not expensive (<$100).

Thanks

Replies

  • cindaboo1
    cindaboo1 Posts: 150 Member
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    bump
  • petitedemoiselle
    petitedemoiselle Posts: 69 Member
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    Would love to hear recommendations too. :smile:
  • brian90
    brian90 Posts: 285 Member
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    im not sure about the plug in part, I use the Polar FT3 and it is great.
  • cactus39
    cactus39 Posts: 29
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    I use the polar ft4. http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Womens-Heart-Monitor-Bronze/dp/B001U0OFD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318534425&sr=8-1

    Solid. You enter your weight, age, height, etc. It DOES come with a strap you put around your chest and the watch will tell you how many calories you've burned
  • desrosiersf
    desrosiersf Posts: 14
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    Under $100 it's gonna be hard to find a monitor that tracks calories burned.

    Polar is pretty much THE reference when it comes to heart-rate monitor.

    I personally use the Polar FT7 ($150) and it does keep track of the calories that you burn and also saves your workout inside of the watch (so for example you get 13-10-2011 / avg heart rate: 155 / maximum heart rate: 180 / calories burned: 650 / etc.

    And with an additional device called the "Polar Flowlink" (~$50) you can transfer all of these data between the watch and polarpersonaltrainer.com. (However, I don't use it so I can't say if it's good or not :S sorry)

    The watch also has a really sweet feature which is called the Energy Pointer and that tells you if the main effect of your training is fitness improvement or fat burning.

    hope that helps !
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I recently picked up a brand new New Balance N4 on eBay for $26. It has a chest strap and the watch, lets you enter your gender, height, weight, age, and tracks your calories burned, percentage of fat burned (I guess, I don't really use that feature, but it's there and I always feel good when it's over 50%!), three levels of workout intensity to choose for target heart rate, etc. Pretty easy to use with the directions that came with it.

    I had read good things about both the Polar FTs and the New Balance, so started watching auctions for both - got lucky with the low price on the NB, so went with that. It retails for around $60 in stores, some online stores are cheaper, but eBay got me my best price, I just had to be patient for a couple of weeks. :)

    Good luck!
  • Tereztaylor07
    Tereztaylor07 Posts: 200
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    I picked up my Polar ft7 on Amazon three months ago for $75. I recommend the polar brand highly. It's extremely easy to use without even reading the manual.
  • d2footballJRC
    d2footballJRC Posts: 2,684 Member
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    I had a polar ft4 and loved it. I replaced it with a ft40 and it's amazing.

    I had a couple of the cheaper brands when I started out but the polars are by far a better buy and worth the 40 extra dollars.
  • Tereztaylor07
    Tereztaylor07 Posts: 200
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    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U0OFDM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER Hopefully that links takes you to it. The polar ft7 for $79. If you watch it for a few days, the price goes up and down. Which ever one you choose, I would definitely shop around. The prices vary alot from site to site.

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