I'm in the market for a Calorie/Heart Rate Monitor ~

One that I can use in the gym and out & about on runs, hikes, etc.
Something simple to use but work's well and reads accurately.

What do you use? Reviews on it?!

Show me what you got :-D

I'm also in the market for a HRM and would be interested to see what works for others.

bum bump bump ~~~ nobody?

I purchased the Polar f6 a few years ago and I love it!!

I honestly don't know how I survived without one.
I use my hr as a guide for many of my workouts,
So it's vital for me.

I have a Garmin heart rate monitor soft strap & use the digifit iphone app, good for exercise indoors (for me).

I also have the Garmin watch 910XT for outside biking & its the only watch that really, does swimming well (has advanced metrics for swimming that no other watch does). However, its complicated to use, & its been miserably hot out 116 degrees outside today (water temp 96 degrees!), so I am just doing the Digifit + HRM indoors right now.

The Polar bluetooth HRM with the Polar FT7 watch/ or digifit is a great starter system. I used to have this setup in the beginning.

HTH.

PS: note, you do not need any watch with Digifit app, just the HRM strap.

I just bought a wearlink+ to pair up with my smartphone, unaware that there is actually a specific model with bluetooth, :-(


I hope they will swap it over, becuase like most people, I already take my phone with me for music, and I also use endomondo (which should pair with the correct HRM) GPS to track distance and speeds.

OPPS! Correction:
If you use the Polar bluetooth HRM strap with digifit, you dont need an ANT+ dongle.
If you use the GARMIN HRM soft strap with Digifit, you DO need the ANT+ dongle (because Garmin is not bluetooth). I personally am using the WAHOO ANT+ dongle with the Garmin.

I have the Polar FT40 which is the "intermediate" line. It does ALMOST everything I could want it to do...the FT60 actually does strength training calorie burned which is a great feature and I kind of wish I sprung the extra $80 or whatever it is for that one...but oh well.

It works very well and I really like it, like the above poster, I'm not sure how I worked out without it!! It cost me 130$ on amazon which was the cheapest I could find it...other places wanted $180 for it.


There is another really cool one called the MotoACTV which is a touch screen color display with a GPS and MP3 player built in. That one would be $149 (unit) + $49 (chest strap) and comes with headphones and arm band. With what you are trying to do (hiking and running) I think this would be your ideal unit as it tracks your movements via GPS to give you the most accurate readings and distance traveled as well as a map of where you went. Really cool stuff.