Heart Rate Monitor

I own a Timex (with chest strap) and I can tell you that it's not accurate in counting the calories burned. It overestimates the calories BIG time. Other MFPers will tell you the same thing. So your options are:

1. Buy a better quality (higher cost) HRM
2. Buy a cheap one, but one that includes a chest strap, and log between 50-60% of the calories it shows.

I just recieved my polar ft4 from ebay. I won it for $50 and it works great

I just found this on Amazon does anyone have one
Polar FT4 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Bronze)
Could you please tell em if it is worth the $60

I have a Polar FT4, and it works just fine. It does not have a fitness test or an input for VO2MAX, so it's not as accurate as higher-end HRM's for calorie burn, but it works well enough for me. $60 is a good price for it. I paid around $100 for mine, but it was at my local running store, so I feel fine about it.

been testing a few different ones, myself lately.. I have both a bodybugg and Polar. I am looking into losing weight and getting back into running goal is to run a few 5k's this summer... I have been using the bodybugg to track calories lost. cumbersome with the Iphone but seems accurate I guess.... and I just tried a polar watch today which after a 30 min run/walk it was about 120 calories lower than the bodybugg. what should I go by? which device would you use? I find that I kinda like the heart rate training, lets me know when I should step it up..

I got the polar f4 for my birthday and I love it. I paid 76 (tax and everything) so that's way less then most out there. It is nothing fancy, but it does EXACTLY what I need it to do and it's simple to use.

I got a polar ft40 for around $150. I went with this model because it seemed to have a couple more features. It's also water resistant so I can swim with it. I had to save for it but after returning cheaper ones I'm happy. It's definitely worth the investment. The chest strap is soft and comfy and it's easy to set up. If you're thinking about body Bugg, personally I had more luck with a body media fit which is essentially the same thing. The company also dropped their price to about $7the a month including month to month subscribers. I liked it too but I got a general.sense of how many calories a day I burn and it was way off from any online calculations. When I lose more weight I'll wear again to see how I burn. I prefer the watch because I can watch my heart rate and burn from exercise alone instead of a whole days burn. Hrm doesn't have a pedometer which the body media fit does.

I love my ft4, completely worth it

When I researched them, Polars were by far the most recommended. Keep watching eBay and amazon, you would be surprised at the deals. I think the FT4 is one of the cheaper options and I love mine. I like it so much that I have been thinking of upgrading to a HRM with a GPS. The price goes WAY up for those, but I like the idea of being able to track my runs without having to bring my iPhone. I have already dropped one phone and cracked the glass and I don't want to do that again.

I have a mio motiva. LOVE it. Very accurate, not annoying chest strap and reasonably priced. I got mine new on ebay for a great price.

Personally I just use it track my cals for my workouts so it's great for that

Actually without a chest strap the accuracy goes down significantly. With a chest strap, the data is being fed continuously to the watch.. without, it only gets data when you touch the watch... and if you don't touch it that often, then it will base the calorie burn off when you last touched it.. and since heart rate fluctuates a lot, that could be a bad thing.

To OP:
Timex is awful.. stay away.

Polar really is best.. I just got an FT60 which I love!

Actually. Shut up.

I just found this on Amazon does anyone have one
Polar FT4 Women's Heart Rate Monitor Watch (Bronze)
Could you please tell em if it is worth the $60

i got mine at walmart for 40 bucks