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So I know a bunch of folks are doing the ol' healthy lifestyle make-over.

And while I started last year, took a break in the fall, and got back into it in the new year, it's been difficult gauging my weightloss requirements and workout requirements against each other.

Now I've spent over a year humming and hawing over a heart rate monitor, but I buckled... found a sweet deal for a Polar AXN 500 and went for it.

And even as a skeptic, the numbers are showing that this thing is working wonders for me.

Besides giving me altitude, electronic compass and barometric/temperature graphs/readings, it does an amicable job of tracking my heart rate (nice graphs too), and tracking my calorie expendatures as well as fitness level.

When I started using it, I found my workouts plateauing -- calorie expenditures and intake weren't matching up with my weight loss (or lack thereof).. and it was a bit demotivating.

However, the heartrate monitor pointed out the problems.

1 ) I wasn't as fit as I thought I was -- my fitness index rated in the 'low', just one step above 'very low'
2 ) I wasn't expending as many calories as I thought I was. 1 hour on a stair climber wasn't burning 1100 calories, it was burning 580 -- a mere 40 calories more than an hour on my bike trainer.
3) I was resting too much between sets when working out -- my heartrate would fall back to resting within 30 seconds while I waited a minute between sets.. not good for building muscle endurance.

Since using the HRM religiously for nearly 2 weeks, I've accomplished the following

1 ) reduced my resting heart rate by nearly 5bpm -- getting closer to a fitness rating of 'normal'
2 ) can track my calorie expenditure more accurately, leading to a 500% increase in weightloss in the past 2 weeks -- without starving myself as I would have been tempted to do
3 ) my strength has SHOT up in 2 weeks -- I'm a bit sore, but the gains are a month ahead of where I was at this point lastyear... so it's encouraging...

it's been good to track another metric and find a way to step quickly towards my overall health goals.

so If anyone's considering a HRM, I recommend it.. I truly do... as long as you do what it tells you to do, it's all good!

here's looking forward to great results heading into spring!

dp can you post some tech about what to look for in a heart rate monitor? i have been thinking about purchasing one also, but i don't really know what to look for. is there a way to compare accuracy across different models?

Face it.............your fat.

Now go order those XXXXXL pants you need and hop over to eat 2lbs of wings.

I knew I could help.

Me

One thing I am noticing about you Steve, you don't seem to go about anything half ass...thats a fine HRM.

For those that can't afford a $400 HRM, I got the Polar A1 because i'm a cheap bastard. It does a good basic job, still gives you your heartrate and a calculaed cal. burn.

meford4u,Apr 3 2008, 10:25 PM Wrote:Face it.............your fat.
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hahaha. a$$

naz,Apr 3 2008, 05:20 PM Wrote:dp can you post some tech about what to look for in a heart rate monitor?  i have been thinking about purchasing one also, but i don't really know what to look for.  is there a way to compare accuracy across different models?
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It really depends on what you want it for... but I just did a lot of reading up on the web. The general concensus is to stay away from the Nike/Reebok/no-name heart rate monitors. They offer basic functionality and don't have very robust or accurate training functions...

Which tends to bring one back to Polar. And they're one of the first, and still the original. I would recommend hitting up their website, and seeing what they have through the different ranges.

To track the major fitness factors,

The big things to look for is something that has target heart rate alarms (lower and upper to make sure you're not slacking or overdoing it), and for my usage I looked for a heart rate monitor with calorie tracking (which tends to be slightly more accurate than the cardio machines at the gym's calculations), a fitness test (ie, myIndex™ which takes your resting heartrate and calculates an approximate VO2 max from it (Polar uses a calculation based on several clinical studies).

Now, if you're going to get really serious, you may want to look for a HRM that allows you to enter in a manual VO2 max and maximum heartrate for even more accurate measurements. However, you'd have to get clinically tested for those numbers.

Now, there are HRMs for many uses. I find that even though they can be used as an everyday watch, they tend to be a tad bulky, so take that into consideration when you go shopping -- you don't need a watch that does everything (never, ever follow my example :P).

Then you also have options of getting HRMs that are cycling computers which allows you to track speed, distance, etc. However, for the cost of an HRM and the beating a bike can take, I feel a bit more comfortable keeping the two separate.

I guess the last consideration is the transmission type.. I'd just make sure it's at least FM, and it's a bonus to get coded transmission. Make sure that the strap is replaceable and sized appropriately for your chest. They come in multiple sizes.

Another handy feature to check for is to make sure that the HRM and chest strap sender have easy to change replaceable batteries. Mine have covers that you use a dime to unscrew. Which simplifies things as HRMs tend to go through batteries quicker than your average watch.

Other than that, it's really a personal preference thing.

meford4u,Apr 3 2008, 06:25 PM Wrote:Face it.............your fat.

Now go order those XXXXXL pants you need and hop over to eat 2lbs of wings.

I knew I could help.

Me
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I could only wish to someday be as slim as you... or fall below the maximum allowable weight of a segway scooter :P

i want it to measure my heart rate accurately, and alert when me when i am in my target heart rate zone. i want to be able to manually specify the upper and lower bounds of the target zone

whatever does that reliable at the lowest price would be the one for me... i was thinking polar's basic model?

a nice to have is calorie tracking, but that's not a big deal

any suggestions?

thanks!

naz,Apr 4 2008, 01:02 AM Wrote:i want it to measure my heart rate accurately, and alert when me when i am in my target heart rate zone.  i want to be able to manually specify the upper and lower bounds of the target zone

whatever does that reliable at the lowest price would be the one for me... i was thinking polar's basic model?

a nice to have is calorie tracking, but that's not a big deal

any suggestions?

thanks!
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Calorie tracking is handy if you tend to eat whatever happens to cross paths with your mouth.

For what you want, a Polar FS3 would probably suffice. All of the polar monitors will track your heartrate accurately and you can find one for under $90US..

For $10 more, you should be able to find a polar F4 which will also track calories. So if you think tracking calories is worth $10, go the F4..

Actually, my Sony Ericsson W580i has a built in pedometer (not built-in pedophilemeter - that's the Michael Jackson model) and it's pretty damn accurate. I keep my phone on me / on at work all day and I use it to keep myself on track for my day's walking around the office. It's great and not bad for a "free" tool with a cellphone! It also tracks distance and whether you're walking / running. Neat eh?

darkpuppet,Apr 4 2008, 01:02 PM Wrote:For what you want, a Polar FS3 would probably suffice.  All of the polar monitors will track your heartrate accurately and you can find one for under $90US..

For $10 more, you should be able to find a polar F4 which will also track calories.  So if you think tracking calories is worth $10, go the F4..
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dp that's good feedback thanks. it wasn't immediately clear to me what my additional $20 is buying me going from the f1 to the f3 though