[Cwhit0012]

I'm looking into buying a fitness tracker and I'm not sure which is best. I had settled on the polar watches with the chest strap, but I am intrigued by the new Fitbit HR. I do worry about it's accuracy since it died not use a chest strap.

Comments or suggestions would be great!!

[atmos]

A heart rate monitor is best for steady state cardio. It won't help you much in terms of calories burned (if that's what you're going for) if you're doing something other than steady state cardio.

I have a heart rate monitor for use when running. I'm still not much of a runner so I run/walk, so the heart rate monitor is even not that useful for me in terms of calories burned. I use it mostly to watch my heart rate when running and keeping it in a certain range. I have a tendency to start running too fast and then I'm burned out of energy for the latter half of my workout.

Hopefully someone else can jump in regarding other types of trackers. I think it depends on your goals. For me, I only track the minutes and activity performed and am not worried about calories burned so I simply enter activity into an online application.

It might help if you could give some info on what you're interested in? Is it steps/day, total day activity monitoring including sleep, calories burned, something else? I personally don't have much experience with fitness trackers but perhaps extra info will help someone else jump in who knows more.

[Cwhit0012]

I am mainly interested in calories burned during workouts. The all day calorie burn is interesting, but I don't feel that the all day devices currently in the market are very accurate. That's just my current opinion. For some reason I feel like you need a chest strap to have a more accurate reading. I don't really need the steps tracker because my phone does that and I'm happy with that.

Basically, I walk/jog on the treadmill and I'd like an accurate calorie burn and heart rate monitoring.

[slimmingsi]

no calorie burned measure is particularly accurate. firstly you would need a biopod stationary metabolic measure. this will set your base line metabolic calorific rate. Secondly saying you did X miles at X speed will give you a calorie reading, however it will not be accurate as that is the rate for a perfectly flat surface. If there was any hills slopes steps etc that will throw it off.

Yes calorie monitors are getting better, and they give a rough guide but the margin of error is pretty horrific. Personally I'd save my cash and only get a HRM. knowing your HR is in the zone when working out is infinitely more beneficial than an a rough estimate to your calorie burn.

[atmos]

Originally Posted by Cwhit0012

I am mainly interested in calories burned during workouts. The all day calorie burn is interesting, but I don't feel that the all day devices currently in the market are very accurate. That's just my current opinion. For some reason I feel like you need a chest strap to have a more accurate reading. I don't really need the steps tracker because my phone does that and I'm happy with that.

Basically, I walk/jog on the treadmill and I'd like an accurate calorie burn and heart rate monitoring.

In that case I've heard good things about the Polar brand of heart rate monitors that you mentioned. The fitbit brand is more of a step tracking device from my understanding and the Fitbit HR in particular would be more of an all day tracking device.

I assume the Fitbit device gets the heart rate via the wrist pulse? I'm not sure if that would be more/less accurate. But it's probably within the margin of error. It seems like the Polar would be a better fit for your needs unless you absolutely hate wearing the chest strap. Hopefully someone who has a Fitbit HR will stop by and give an opinion.

[Koshka]

I currently am using a Fitbit One (previously had a Force which was recalled). I have on order a Fitbit Charge HR (wrist based with heart rate monitor).

I am going with the Charge HR because I think that having the heart rate information during daily non-exercise activity will be useful to get better calorie burn information. I do like getting the all day information. I record food with MyFitnessPal which talks to Fitbit so I can easily see my calorie deficit.

From reports on the Fitbit forum, the Charge HR (and all wrist based optical heart rate monitors) is less accurate during exercise. Some people say it does reasonably well for steady state cardio particularly at lower intensity. So, if I walk on treadmill it may be fine for that.

Where people find it doesn't work well (and no one's wrist based optical HRM works well) is doing intervals with lots of heart rate changes or when doing strength training where heart rate changes a lot.

In my case, I decided it didn't matter because I wear a Polar H7 heart rate monitor during that kind of exercise.

Currently with my Fitbit One I wear a Polar HRM (bluetooth) during exercise. I use an app called Digifit (there are others) to keep track of my HR. Digifit then sends the calorie burn data to Fitbit so that calorie burn data is used for the workout instead of what the Fitbit One would say. This works great.

What some people are doing is that they get a Charge HR (or a Surge -- which I think is too big for me) and they use it during the daily stuff to get better calorie burn since HR is being monitored. Then, during real exercise, they use a chest strap and use Digifit (or similar app) to have the data sent to Fitbit. This seems like the best of both worlds for me so I've ordered a Charge HR.

[Cwhit0012]

Thank you all for your comments and advice! It has been so helpful to me!

[vbaez6]

I personally love my fitbit because I can use it with the MyFitnessPal app on my iPhone. That way I can log my diet and exercise. I'm not really knowledgeable on any of the other options out there but I justed wanted to let you know what has been working for me!

[HiddenAbs6]

I use a regular ole polar hrm for calories burned during exercise. It's been helpful... able to see when I'm slacking and when I'm pushing it to the max.

[MaeCrochet]

I bought the FitBit Charge (non-HR) and I really love it for tracking steps since walking is my main exercise. The HR seemed really cool, but I don't do a lot of intense cardio so I didn't feel it necessary.

[kisskiss]

I got a polar watch for christmas, and I love it! Not sure how accurate it is as I have nothing to compare it to(although reviews online say it is), but it's consistent and easy to use. I have a heart rate monitor on my phone, and it's basically the same as what the watch tells me.