Hey everyone,

I'm looking for a heart rate monitor but tbh I don't know where to start. I don't want to spend a lot of money, if I could spend in the region of about £20-£30 that'd be great, but I want one that's reliable and has a calorie counter.

And I want one that I can get easily in the UK.

Thanks xx

Hey there

Polar is the leading line of heart rate monitors - their cheapest one with a calorie counter is probably around the £40 - £50 mark. (Used an online converter, I think that's accurate.)

Timex is also a fairly good brand, and they are usually more affordable.

An important thing to consider with HRMs is to make sure that the one you buy comes with a comfortable strap. Trust me, it's worth spending a little bit extra to get something that won't get irritating in the bra-strap region after 45 sweaty minutes on a treadmill.

All the best.

I have a Polar F6, got it from Argos for about £67 nearly two years ago, it's really good. It counts calories burned, and your max and average heartrate, and you can view all the things you've done over the week, as well as compare weeks to each other.

And are these pretty reliable? I know that the calorie counters on exercise machines are a bit iffy, but are these more accurate?

And I saw that you can get them without chest straps. Are these better/worse? Chest straps for some reason seem very scary to me.

Can you buy one that you can easily return? The chest straps are what make them more accurate than machines.