Recommendations for a good HRM/calorie counter

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stephanie8625
stephanie8625 Posts: 119 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Ok... so I am asking "Santa" :laugh: for a a HRM/calorie counter and there are so many out there !!
I feel that the machines in the gym are not giving me accurate calorie counts, and want to fix this plateau that I am on !! :frown:
So, does anyone have any good recommendations of brand and type? :huh:
Is it better to get one with the strap and "reader" on the wrist?
Any suggestions would be great !!

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Replies

  • tmarie2715
    tmarie2715 Posts: 1,111 Member
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    Yes, I would love to know as well. :)
  • jamaicanlady
    jamaicanlady Posts: 878 Member
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    Well I did a lot of research (read a lot of reviews) on this and finally settled on the Polar FT7. It seemed to be the best in my price range (about $70+). It comes with the watch and the chest strap.
  • cloren1317
    cloren1317 Posts: 19 Member
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    bump....i too would like some recommendations..
  • graycaro
    graycaro Posts: 71 Member
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    I have the Polar FT4 and absolutely LOVE it! The FT4 has a target heart rate zone and beeps at you if you're outside of it. It also counts calories burned and I believe keeps a record of your most recent burns (Though I haven't really looked for it on mine yet). Once you get an HRM you won't be able to understand how you ever lived without one. They are definitely worth the money. So great!
  • intuitively_healthy
    intuitively_healthy Posts: 3 Member
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    I have the Polar FT7 and absolutely adore it! It was reasonably priced, never has any kind of technical error, and is stylish enough to not look like anything out of the ordinary. Love it!
  • vanessaclarkgbr
    vanessaclarkgbr Posts: 765 Member
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    I've got an ancient (I was told yesterday, over 10 years old!) Polar that's served me pretty well. Twice in the past few months I've contacted their customer support, both times I received a response by the end of the day which is a bit of a rarity these days :-) I kind of looking (it'll be after Christmas) at replacing with another Polar, it seems that anything lower in spec than an FT7 doesn't have a calorie count, but of course it depends if that's important to you. Definitely recommend Polar though :-)
  • RMinVA
    RMinVA Posts: 1,085 Member
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    I just bought a MIO Lifestyle watch/HRM yesterday. I don't have it yet, so I can't provide any specifics. It usually
    runs about $70, but I had a Schwaggle offer (like a groupon, but it's from Active.com and for exercise related gear) so I got it for $35 + shipping. I was looking for something that was simple to use/inexpensive and it had decent overall reviews.
  • jesilva80
    jesilva80 Posts: 287 Member
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    Polar is a good one, but my funds were limited so I got a sportline at ****s sporting goods for 39$ with the chest strap. It is very accurate and easy to use.
  • jesilva80
    jesilva80 Posts: 287 Member
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    Polar is a good one, but my funds were limited so I got a sportline at ****s sporting goods for 39$ with the chest strap. It is very accurate and easy to use.


    LOL they bleeped out the name, and that is the name of the place, rhymes with tick, if you don't get it
  • healthybabs
    healthybabs Posts: 600 Member
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    I use a bodymedia fit and love it. It has the arm band and wrist monitor for quick looks and monitoring specific activity. I recently started using a tip from a fellow BMF user who said to check what your burn is at 6pm (assuming you have already completed your work out) and then be sure to eat that many calories for the day. What you then burn from 6-12 midnight is your deficit. At rest I burn 1.5 calories/minute so that ends up being a pretty good burn for the day. I am still working on trying to get myself out of this stall I am in but you get the idea, right?

    The BMF tracks calories burned per minute, sleep patterns, steps taken, minutes of moderate and vigorous activity. They have great reporting capability and you can also put in your total calories eaten per day so you can get some good reports.

    You can read about it here.....

    http://www.bodymedia.com/
  • Jennacita
    Jennacita Posts: 116 Member
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    I have a Polar F6. It tracks calories, minutes in zone, how much calories burned from fat. Also keeps a running tally from the first time you used it to the present. Tells you how many times a week you exercised, minutes and calorie burn. I believe it's meant for the ladies as I have only seen them in pink. And it comes with chest strap.
  • mmk137
    mmk137 Posts: 833 Member
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    I use a bodymedia fit and love it. It has the arm band and wrist monitor for quick looks and monitoring specific activity. I recently started using a tip from a fellow BMF user who said to check what your burn is at 6pm (assuming you have already completed your work out) and then be sure to eat that many calories for the day. What you then burn from 6-12 midnight is your deficit. At rest I burn 1.5 calories/minute so that ends up being a pretty good burn for the day. I am still working on trying to get myself out of this stall I am in but you get the idea, right?

    The BMF tracks calories burned per minute, sleep patterns, steps taken, minutes of moderate and vigorous activity. They have great reporting capability and you can also put in your total calories eaten per day so you can get some good reports.

    You can read about it here.....

    http://www.bodymedia.com/

    This has been quite helpful to me as I'm am consider purchasing one of these (it's a bmf here in australia too, bodybugg elsewhere).

    I do have a polar ft4, and I love it, it does what I want it to do, but I would like a longer record of previous workouts (it only holds the last 10).
  • SusanneWhittington
    SusanneWhittington Posts: 339 Member
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    always used Polar and love them. Would not recommend a touch wristwatch, as you have to touch it way too often to really get an actual read, e.g. you work out slow a measure, then get faster and it still will count the calories and burn as for the slow pace till you touch it again, the chest strap is more accurate and not bothering at all. I would check out the Polar website to find out which watch fits you best, my husband and me got us the FT40, we got the FT7 for his son and the RX300S for the daughter in law.
  • monet13
    monet13 Posts: 324 Member
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    I just started using my new Polar FT60 - it's pretty cool - I'm really liking it! Amazes me how much I burn just doing regular 'stuff' :)
  • rosied915
    rosied915 Posts: 799 Member
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    I have the Polar FT7 and LOVE it!
    Easy-peasy to use and was only $78 on Amazon~ also "easy" on Santa's budget so he can get you something else!!
  • gashinshotan
    gashinshotan Posts: 753 Member
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    I just ordered one on Amazon for 72 with expedited shipping :). Could have got the FT4 for 65 with free shipping but the FT7 was 70 with free shipping and only 2 more for expedited.... even without this discount right now the diff between the two is 10.... I debated for 3 hours over 7 bucks lol
    I have the Polar FT7 and LOVE it!
    Easy-peasy to use and was only $78 on Amazon~ also "easy" on Santa's budget so he can get you something else!!
  • XDoodlebugger
    XDoodlebugger Posts: 54 Member
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    My Polar F6 just died after many years of service so I hit ebay and got a new POLAR RS300XSD for $91 but it hasn't arrived yet.

    Careful if you are using gym cardio equipment and you want to see your heartrate on the display, some watches do not sync, Polar does.
  • davekaplan
    davekaplan Posts: 14
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    I have the FT7 and after about 6 months of excellent service it has started to malfunction.

    I used to love it, now it doesn't give me a Heart Rate about half the time, just a 00. Today I hit train button at the end of my workout instead of the pause/stop and it restarted, ugh! I guess there's a 2-yr guarantee, but I'm not sure how that works.

    I'm on the lookout for something better
  • aguilarrumiko
    aguilarrumiko Posts: 52 Member
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    bump :-)
    great info!!
  • davekaplan
    davekaplan Posts: 14
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    I've been doing some research and there's a brand I'm looking at called Suunto that looks pretty good. http://www.suunto.com/us/en

    And they have a website that lets you track your progress called http://www.movescount.com/

    http://www.rei.com/product/829389/suunto-quest-heart-rate-monitor

    The quest comes with a USB Stick that I imagine lets you download your workouts. That's cool! The Polar Flow Link thing that does the same thing is extra and has some mixed reviews. The Suunto is also Windows/Mac whereas the Timex and most of the Polar are Windows only. I'm a Mac person ;-)

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