I use a Polar monitor. It is an elastic-type band which goes around the body, I wear right right below my sports bra. Monitors to a wrist watch type thing that gives a readout. I've had it for years. Not sure it's even an active retail product. I bought mine during a trip to Canyon Ranch about 8 yrs. ago. Just replace the battery when necessary. Works great.

I also have the Polar heart rate monitor for when I am exercising. The monitors I'm asking about are something you wear all day, like my pedometer, but provide more data.

Seems like a lot of the reviews for the fitbit mention problems with it. But, as was discussed here months ago, it's hard to trust the reviews - good or bad. That's why I was hoping for a comment by someone I "know".

Maybe I'll just stick with the stuff I have and save the money.

I have a friend who runs and she uses a fitbit. Loves it. She wears it other than just when she's running. She has a goal of a set amount of steps per day.

tina

Question: Do the Polar monitors do a really accurate job of heart rate monitoring?

L.

Liriodenddron,

Yes, they do a very good job of monitoring heart rate! I always use mine when I am execising.

I would not exercise without it now that I understand the importance of getting my heart rate into the right zone to get the most out of my workout.

I actually read a great store about Polar monitors.

A Polar user called the company sating that he thought his monitor was not working because the heart rate number was going up and down erracticly. So, they told him to send it in for repair. They checked it, reported that it seemed to be working fine and mailed it back to the customer. When he used it again, it continued to move up and down erracticly and he called the company again. They told him to get to a doctor. He did just that and had emergency heart surgery that saved his life.

Interesting!

My Polar monitor watch always agrees with the display on the machines at that gym. Are they both accurate? I dunno for sure, but they are consistent.

What is nice is you can indicate the range you want to stay in and it at a glance you can see where you fall in that range. It also has an alarm when you go out of your range but I never set that. Mine is quite a few years old so I couldn't find the exact one on the Polar website.

It tells me total time spent exercising, time in the zone, average heart rate, highest heart rate, and calories, based on my age(advancing), weight(a smidgen too high), & height (a smidgen too low). I don't feel fully dressed for exercising without wearing it.

Just FYI for those who use heart rate monitors, the formulas that are in use now, ie., 220-current age, are not really scientifically sound.

The common formula was devised in 1970 by Dr. William Haskell, then a young physician in the federal Public Health Service and his mentor, Dr. Samuel Fox, who led the service's program on heart disease. They were trying to determine how strenuously heart disease patients could exercise.

In preparation for a medical meeting , Dr. Haskell culled data from about 10 published studies in which people of different ages had been tested to find their maximum heart rates.

The subjects were never meant to be a representative sample of the population, said Dr. Haskell, who is now a professor of medicine at Stanford. Most were under 55 and some were smokers or had heart disease.

On an airplane traveling to the meeting, Dr. Haskell pulled out his data and showed them to Dr. Fox. ''We drew a line through the points and I said, 'Gee, if you extrapolate that out it looks like at age 20, the heart rate maximum is 200 and at age 40 it's 180 and at age 60 it's 160,'' Dr. Haskell said.

At that point, Dr. Fox suggested a formula: maximum heart rate equals 220 minus age.

But, exercise physiologists said, these data, like virtually all exercise data, had limitations. They relied on volunteers who most likely were not representative of the general population. ''It's whoever came in the door,'' Dr. Kirkendall said.

In addition, he and others said, gauging maximum heart rates for people who are not used to exercising is often difficult because many prematurely stop the test.

Here is a link that might be useful: NYT-Maximum Heart Rate Theory is Challenged -