Heart rate monitor help please

[tammy]

Trying to pick one:

I would like to know calories burned and if I'm in the fat burning zone.

I work out in group classes at the gym and at home.

Can anyone recommend one?

Thanks

Tammy

[cttx31]

I have the Sigma Sport PC15 and like it just fine. It tracks calories and how long you spent in each zone and you can configure it to beep as you enter or leave a zone.

I got it several years ago so not sure if they still make that model.

You can replace the batteries yourself.

[jenn38]

Do you find it to be accurate? I had a Timex I think the batteries died and I can't or don't how to replace them. Now when I wear it it reads 0 calories burned which is obviously inaccurate.

[Sancho]

I have a polar. I think it's the F11. I called their customer service and someone helped me pick the right one. It was very easy. He asked me a couple of questions about what I was using it for and what information I wanted reported.

[tammy]

the polar..how do you like it?

Tammy

[Sancho]

I like it fine. For the model I have, I need to wash the sensor band after every use with soap and water. I also have to wet the sensor thoroughly before every use. If not, the moniter won't pick up my HR properly. It will keep going to 00 instead of the true HR. I didn't do these two things when I first got it and I had problems. I sent it in for fixing and they replaced the battery and told me to be sure to do the two items above. Since I started doing that, it was been working great.

The service when I sent it in was very quick.

[Country Girl]

I got this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sportline-1025...6701292&sr=8-2 shortly after Christmas and really like it. It tracks time in zones, calories and fat burned, and avg/min/max HR. It also stores previous workouts (I can't remember how many but I think it is the 5 previous workouts). The HR seems accurate compared to checking my HR manually but I don't know about the calorie/fat count. I'm hoping it is low but I doubt it. But I don't really care about the actual calorie/fat count, I'm mostly just interested in being able to compare workouts from day to day. So for that, it seems to work great.... days that I work harder or longer show a higher calorie burn etc.

HTH!

[Irisg1]

I've tried a couple brands. My favorite is the Polar. I have both an F4 and the newer FT4. I was looking for something relatively simple. The FT4 does everything I need it to do. It monitors my heart-rate and how many calories I'm burning. It's simple to use, and you can replace the battery on both the watch and strap yourself. That's something I couldn't readily do with the F4.

[Eibhinn]

I used to have a bottom rung Polar, and found it pretty unhelpful. It found it a little difficult to toggle through the options, and it had no memory storage in it so I would frequently lose the data from my workout before I had a chance to look at it by accidentally restarting. The chest strap was rigid and uncomfortable, so when the batteries died I didn't bother to send it to the factory for replacement.

I was going to avoid Polar from there on, but ended up getting an FT4, and am really happy with it. The chest strap is soft, the receiver has memory for 8 or 10 workouts, and it's much easier to start/stop/toggle through the features. The batteries in both the chest strap and receiver are both able to be replaced by the user. I do need to wet the strap thoroughly or it is inaccurate, but I don't need to wash it with soap and water after every use. But then I don't do workouts nearly as instense as Sancho does!

[Irisg1]

I only dab a bit of water on my receiver strap and I'm good to go. I really do like my FT4.