Heart rate monitors

Of course you don't need them just like you don't need MFP.

Human beings have been gaining and losing weight without the benefit of technology since time immemorial!

I like using a heart rate monitor. It gives me a more accurate reading vs. guessing or relying on the equipment. To each his or her own.

LOVE mine! Polar FT4. Takes a ton of the guessing out of figuring out how many calories you've burned. But I wouldn't say I NEED it. Although I do think it's the best money I've spent on weight-loss thus far... Got it slightly used on Amazon for $40 (retails around $80).

It depends on what you're trying to achieve....

If you work out hard regularly, its a good tool too to prevent you overtraining... or if you're aspiring to a particular event, prevent you undertraining...

Many uses, could do without but takes out some of the guess work!

I don't have a heart rate monitor, but I sure WANT one! I plan to get one as a reward for losing 10 pounds!

I am currently looking for one to take the guess work out of my work outs. I dont want to be over estimating, and to be honest I dont trust what others put in the database. I have found way too many errors in things. I want to remove all doubt of what is going in and what is going out!

I just bought a Polar FT7 yesterday! I bought it so that I could count calories while working out at home & weightlifting at the gym! It's an awesome gadget to have!

I track all my calorie burning with a HRM.

Its a Tool to use to get a better estimation on calories burned, and the more information you have the better decisions you can make.

Go for Polar brands, though there are lots of HRM brands but many are getting to fancy or bulky. Polar fits nicely which is suitable during exercise, it also offers lots of variety from simple ones up to a more fancy ones, and they are in for many years now.
Avoid the ones with GPS and other fancy features, go for the simple ones, usually they are more reliable.

Do you really need them? or are they just another expensive thing that we think we need but could really do without?

I never really thought about getting one until I got some money for my birthday a short while back, their I bought one on Amazon.

What I didn't realize, was that apart from counting calories burned during exercise, I can also use it to gauge my heartbeat during interval sessions on my treadmill. It has become invaluable and I would have bought one a long, long time ago if I had realized just how useful it would be.

I just got my polar Ft60, The calorie burn is not accurate on the machines at the Gym or MFP.
I also know that I havent figure out how to set mine up 100%, but Im learning...

You can do without one, if you realize that all the tools you use overstate the calories you burn. With that in mind you can just adjust your intake of food. The machines at my Y are 35% more than actual.

I got mine on ebay for half price ($71)

Anyone know how the Polar ones compare to the Garmin ones? I have a Garmin Forerunner that I use for my runs with GPS, but it dosen't have a calorie counter.

Also, how big are the Polar ones? I have a tiny wrist so I prefer one that doesn't look like I'm strapping a freaking cereal box to my arm.

Can the Polar owners explain the difference between the FT4 and 7? I have heard about both these time and again but still can't figure out how they are different. Thanks!

There is always a distance between needs and wants. In the case of my HRM there is no doubt that I could workout and be healthy without it. But I love the data it gives me, I can upload my results to an internet site which gives me charts and graphs. I can be the CEO of my own body by looking over my workouts. From those charts I can go back and assign a individual lifting set to a spike in my heartrate. I know that leg presses in a machine with a substantial ammount of weight do not raise my heart rate nearly like lunges holding little 25# dumbbells. Likewise barbell flat bench does not jump my heartrate compared to that of traditional pushups. This is a huge motivation for me, and has me looking forward to the next time I go to the gym. It does give me calories spent and I do record that information, but it is way down on the list of information I want from my HRM. This may be due to the fact my nutrition plan has set numbers, eat at one level for non-workout days and eat at a different level on days I do work out. Some people may need an I-pod, others it might be a fancy gym outfit or shoes, and some purists do it regardless of the gadgets just because they can. If a HRM elivates your fitness efforts than it is worth it...........

**please correct me if I am wrong**
The FT4 has no capacity for data transfer. Any thing you want to transfer to your computer has to be done by user input. The FT7 is the lowest level monitor from Polar that has the capacity to use the FlowLink (a separate purchase) to seamlessly transfer your exercise data to the computer.

I love my HRM. I use it all the time even though I don't "eat back" my exercise calories. I use it more for a training tool. If I am doing high intensity cardio, i try to keep my heart rate between 160-180, if I am aiming for low, I keep it between 140 and 160. The other nice thing about the Polar HRMs is they are compatible with most of the machines at my gym, so I am not constantly looking at my wrist. The machines that have the transmitters built in will show my heart rate on the machine's HR display.

I think HRMs are one of the things that helped jump start my weight loss. I find that MFP's database can overestimate lots of activity (and underestimate some as well). They are also a fun thing to wear while doing laundry and cleaning vigorously and stuff to see how much cals you **actually** burn over what your body would burn if you were just sitting there watching TV.