Heart Rate Monitors

I've got a Polar FT7 and they do cost a bit more than the $10 kmart cheapy I started with. The ones with a chest strap are the best for accurate calculations. The ones without, like just a watch one or ones on exercise machines give estimates only. My spin bike would say I had burnt 80 cals and the HRM FT7 watch said 120. which was really encouraging knowing I was burning more! I wear it for bike riding, workouts, mowing, walking and even housework. It's a real motivator knowing the things that I dont really like doing (House work, mowing etc) are now to my benefit as I can count them as exercise really

The Polar brands (Some of them) can have extra accessories to link them to your computer to down load info like time, cals burnt, min/max heart rate, average rate, distance etc. They can get fancy. Hubby got the top of the range one I think its an F80? He has another accessory that he puts on his back pack for walking and mountain bike riding that gives additional info like its a gps or something? Polar also has a website to down load your info, we do it about weekly and all our data goes into graphs, you get feedback, you can set fitness routines and get support 'bossed' by your watch when it tells you to rest or move pretty much. Good value really.

Others have said they are happy with the Polar F4 a model before mine. They would be cheaper online, if you wanted a good one brand wise, can get a second hand one and just buy a new chest strap (so you dont get an old sweaty one!) and they are around $10 apparently.

There are other good brands out there. To start off with though matey, you could go for just the wrist watch one without the chest strap and they will be $10. But that can still be a good motivator for you for finding out your average calourie burn.

I have responded to other posts about HRM and the Polar brand with the F4 and FT7 model seem to come up quite frequently.

Best of luck with the shopping!