There are so many tools and gadgets out there to help you along your health and fitness journey. To be completely honest you can get by without any of them, although some do make your life easier while trying to form the good habits.
One of my favorite tools is the Heart Rate Monitor. I have the Polar FT7 and while it was pricey it has been awesome in letting me know how many calories I am actually burning.
I haven’t used it that often over the past couple of months as I found I was getting a bit obsessive and always trying to beat the number of calories burnt or staying in the gym until I had reached at least 500 calories or so.
The Polar FT7 also has a function which shows your past workouts, you can also look at your training log with weekly summaries which is pretty cool as well. I also like that the FT7 shows if you are working in your fitness or fat burning zones during your workout. Depending on what I am aiming to do in the gym (or on a run) I will glance down at the heart rate monitor and see if I need to up the pace or slow it down a little.
Whilst not necessary I think a heart rate monitor is a good tool as it takes the guess work out of how many calories you’re burning in any given workout. I believe that a big part of the reason people fail in losing weight (or toning up/whatever your goal is) is that they aren’t tracking either their food or workout calories closely enough. Weight loss is calories in VS calories out and often we tend to overestimate the amount of calories we are burning through workout compared to the amount of calories we consume through food and drinks.
If you are planning on getting a heart rate monitor I would do a little bit of research and check out the reviews for the model you are looking at buying as the price and features differ on them all. I would recommend looking for one that shows the number of calories burnt, has a chest strap (measures your heart rate more accurately) and shows your highest and lowest heart rate during your workout.
Do you have a heart rate monitor? If so do you use it often? If not do you monitor the calories you burn at all?
I confess. I have two HRMs.
Both are polar. I have an FT7, just like you. I don’t wear it often now days. I mostly use it since my really flash watch died and I needed a watch. The strap and sensor sit beside the bed in a box looking dusty and unloved.
I use my Polar H7 chest strap and sensor all the time now with the Polar Beat app on my iPhone 5 (also works with the Endomondo app) through a low power bluetooth transmission. I’m getting more information (OMG! GRAPHS!) real time about which zones I’m in and I can buy addons for the app, like the training in the fat burning zone or the fitness zone and it’ll tell me in my ear. The downside is that it is low transmission, so move too far away from your iPhone and you don’t get the data.
The other benefit I found of the bluetooth strap was using it with Endomondo, in that Endomondo automagically sent the calories burnt across to MyFitnessPal.
I’ve found that if I have my Polar Beat app open on my iPhone and I can see it while I’m at RPM, I’ll actually work HARDER than if I can’t see the app.
Two HRMs!
I don’t know if I could keep up with all that technology!
I do like the sound of endomondo automatically transferring the calorie burnt over to Mfp as well though!
Do you have a fit it as well?