Are HRM worth the money?

It is to me worth every cent

very worthwhile...once i got one i realized i hadn't even been getting into the fat burning zone on the elliptical...and it's much more accurate for calories burned, i find the machines overestimate by 100-300 calories and that was undermining my calorie counting...

My best investment!!! Was only $62 for my Polar FT4 on bodytronics. I was skeptical, but now that I have owned it four months, I can't imagine NOT having one!

Yes...if you want to track exercise...I also have a body bugg I wear all day so I know what I burn in a day. I love it!!

Yes, it takes into account the intensity of your workout. Of course with all things there is a margin of error but, it evens out in the end.

Absolutely when I realized it took me a half hour on the treadmill to burn off a cheeseburger it brought things into prospective.

Lol

Yes!! I bought the polar ft4 in pink for about 90ish and I love it!! It motivates me to go running around my neighborhood when I can't make it to the gym!

Yes.
If I had known exactly how worth it it would be, I would have bought one sooner.
I have a Polar RS300X. Fabulous.

I've had more than one and they are the most valuable fitness tool I own. I only use it to see how my hard my heart is working during exercise, not as a calorie burn estimator.

Definetely...I bought my Polar 4 of ebay for around £60.....and I'm so glad. The exercise bike I use says i use lots more cals than the HRM does, and a lot of sites when you put in an exercise and time spent etc will often give you a flat rate of cals used, which is normally more than you actually do use, and they don't always take into account your height, weight, age and level of fitness.... for instant most stationary bikes have different levels and at the moment I am using the lowest level, I hope that when I get fitter that the level I use will go higher and therefore I will use more calories.
Yes even the HRM's are not always accurate, but I believe they are more so than most other equipment and the suggested calories given you by this and other sites.

I don't understand why people are using the calorie burner on their HRM when there is a calorie burner on this site. It confuses the heck out of people to use both (as seen by the many discussions here). Your heart rate and MFP WILL be different because the formula to calculate the calorie spent within the soft ware is different.

Someone said " find MFP and the equipment at the gym to be over-generous about calorie burn" - my response - if you look long enough you will find software who gives you numbers you want to hear.

I think HR monitors are very useful to determine what zone you are in when you do cardio. I frequently train in the aerobic zone (some will incorrectly label it fat burning one) which has altered my metabolism. a lot. You are not burning fat but you are using fat as your main source of fuel (different story).

I use the Karvonen's formula - http://www.briancalkins.com/HeartRate.htm and I will do a lot of running in the 65% of max HR. It will require a lot of self discipline but it pays off because you are running faster and faster over time. (The spread sheet is my witness). I just heard on a podcast from 'trainingbible.com' if you run the same pace when you are training as your event .... you are training too hard.

I know they are more expensive - but I would suggest you get a Garmin or Polar with a GPS so you can really analyze what you are doing from a cardio perspective - compare and contrast. Both brand often comes with a foot pod and a cadence monitor so you can use it on the bike and running. (The fancier one you can swim with as well).

I'm going to be the bad guy here and say NO. An emphatic no. I gave serious thought to buying one earlier in the year, and decided it really wasn't going to give any info that I didn't already have. I already have a "close enough" measure for my calories burned, and for all the HRM are awesome talk on these boards, the readings you will get from a HRM are the same "close enough" variety.

For starters, the calories burned shown by your HRM is not your actual calories, it's based on an algorithm. Essentially that means it's a best guess. Many HRMs will take your height, weight and sex into account, but without knowing your actual bodyfat %, the output isn't accurate. The calories your body burns is different depending on if you're doing a body weight supporting exercise like running or hiking than if you sitting down on a bike. That's why the algorithm built into a treadmill's calories burned reading is different from the one used on a recumbent bicycle, even if your heart rate is in the same zone. And even then, it's still based on what an average person would burn on that type of machine. The further you get from the median, whether you are taller than average, or shorter, or more or less physically fit, the further the reading is from what you actually did.

Just so I'm clear, while I'm sure an HRM gives you a very accurate reading of your actual heart rate, I believe the calories burned info is not nearly as accurate as people on this site believe. Just spend a day counting the "Help, I'm getting a strange reading on my HRM" topics that get posted on this site seemingly every 20 mins and you'll see that even people that bought models they trust but get readings that don't pass the smell test.

Also, while I love technology and you'd swear my Android phone is surgically attached to my hand, I just don't believe in spending any money I don't have to. You can get in shape without buying fancy equipment for your home, without paying for a gym membership or personal trainer, with $150 shoes, and without $100 worth of HRM and chest straps.

Yes and Yes!!! Get a Polar FT4 like others have suggested, amazing product.

It's absolutely worth it to me. Now that I know how many calories I'm burning, I'm trying to beat myself... I think how many more calories can I burn if I go just another 3, 4, 5 minutes, etc. The whole thing is much more satisfying, seeing something immediately for the hard work I did.

They can be expensive which is why I stalked eBay. I got a new $100 model for less than $30 with shipping.

Yes! But I would recommend on with the chest strap. I have found mine with the chest strap is much more accurate than mine without the chest strap.