Heart Rate Monitors
Many people ask me how I track the calories I burn during exercise. I use my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor (HRM). It’s one of my must have fitness tools that I use for every workout to track:
- calories burned (so I’ll know how many calories I need to eat each day);
- my workouts for the week and duration
- my average and maximum heart rate for each workout, and
- how much time I spend in the fat burn zone vs. the endurance) zone.
Determining the number of calories you need each day is the key to maintaining, losing or even gaining weight.
To lose weight, you need to create a daily calorie deficit of 500-1,000 calories either through your workouts, calorie intake or a combination of both. To burn fat and build lean muscle, add 2-3 days of strength training per week.
I’ve used both an HRM with a chest strap and without. I got inaccurate readings from the monitor without a chest strap, so I recommend using one with a strap for more accurate readings.
The most accurate heart rate monitors use a chest strap which fits snugly around your chest just below the breast. The transmitter detects the electrical activity of your heart just like an ECG. It relays this to a display, usually worn like a wristwatch. Here’s a link I found for decent HRMs in the low to high price range.
To learn more about how HRM’s work and the benefits of using them to aide in weight management, read this article I found at VeryWellFit.com http://bit.ly/2omM71b.