I need a good heart rate monitor without a chest strap

[disney_girl125]

A fitness instructor suggested I get a polar f4 to keep track of calories burned during workouts. I was all set to get it, until I found out I had to wear a chest strap with it. Does anyone have one of those? Do I have to wear a chest strap with it? I don't want to wear anything extra. Any other recommendations for a budget friendly basic heart rate monitor that will keep track of calories burned without the extra strap?

 

[pryncess527]

A fitness instructor suggested I get a polar f4 to keep track of calories burned during workouts. I was all set to get it, until I found out I had to wear a chest strap with it. Does anyone have one of those? Do I have to wear a chest strap with it? I don't want to wear anything extra. Any other recommendations for a budget friendly basic heart rate monitor that will keep track of calories burned without the extra strap?

I've been wanting one of these:
http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeplus-fuelband

It doesn't track calories burned, but it measures your movement in "Nike Fuel" so in terms of being to compare how active you were from one workout to the next, it works, just using a metric other than calories burned.

 

[Tinkerboy00]

I have the Polar F7 and its perfect if you don't want to have the GPS function of other watches. If you are just looking for heart rate features do the F4 or F7.

I don't really notice the strap anymore really, but to get the best read out you need to wear the strap (as opposed to the ones without the strap).

The ones without the strap don't always give you the exact readouts you want. Its much better to go with the chest strap.

Ive been looking at the Nike Fuel or the Jawbone Up but they don't do heart rate, just track steps etc. So different features and needs.

I love my Polar

 

[disney_girl125]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I don't need the gps. I guess I wouldn't mind the chest strap if it's just for my workouts. But, the fitness instructor suggested I get the polar f4 and wear it at disney when i'm just walking around. She said i'd be surprised how many calories I burn just walking all day. If i'm walking around all day, or just walking for exercise that's when I don't want to wear the chest strap.If I run or do my fitness workouts then the chest strap would be ok.

 

[bumbershoot]

It just seems that the ones that measure HR on your wrist aren't very accurate.

I have the FT7 with the soft strap and except for the fact that mine is incredibly finicky especially when I get overly sweaty (which happens whenever I jog), it's good. And your trainer is likely right about what you're burning at Disney. Unless he's saying you don't burn much; I wore it at Disneyland a couple times and was AMAZED at how much I was burning "just walking around". It helped me understand how DH and I always lose weight at Disney, even before we were trying to do so. (helps that we don't eat huge amounts in the heat)


I'm trying to find the possibly-mythical HRM and GPS unit all in one that works really well. For not huge amounts of money and that won't weigh my wrist down. I don't think I'm going to find it. I have a funny feeling I'm going to be a person wearing two watches; one the Polar and the other a GPS unit for my jogs.

 

[disney_girl125]

Maybe I should get a polar f4 for my workouts and a fit bit zip for just walking around.

 

[Tinkerboy00]

You can get a pedometer to measure your steps at the parks, and convert it over to calories burned (there are some sites online to do so) but wouldn't be as accurate as wearing HRM. Although wearing it all day at the parks might get old really fast.

I just use mine for my workouts which range from 60-120 minutes, so I only have to deal with it for short periods. The great thing about it is that it makes you work harder for sure. For instance in spin class if I noticed my heart rate is lower, than I work harder to get it up higher.

I ride outside, and used to have the garmin gps watch, but the hrm part of it was a pain in the neck. It would never stay on the hrm part. So now I use the Polar watch with the strap to get HR and I use the Map My Ride app to track my time/distance/splits etc.