For the heart rate - what HR monitor syncs easiest? & Is inexpensive?

[PS0705]

Do I need to get a heart rate monitor or am I missing somewhere on the dashboard?

Thanks for any recommendations.

-Paula

[DavidISUFan]

Hi Paula,

The heart rate monitor would be more of a nice to have than a necessity. You can get tons from your fitbit and the accompanying site without a heart rate monitor. I'm not sure if there are models that sync directly with the site, but if you do decide to get one they start at aroud $25 on Amazon and will just help you have another method for measuring your current fitness level. It's up to you as to whether to buy one, if it were me I would wait until I started to lose traction towards my goals and I would use it to boost my motivation and give me something else to work on. 

I hope this helps you and good luck with whatever your goals may be.

David

[Dominique]

Support for heart rate data in Fitbit is very limited: you only have a few fields for HR data and the data must be entered manually. You can't store HR data for a given activity, for instance.

You have to think of the benefits of a heart rate monitor outside Fitbit. A HRM can come handy to make sure you train in the right HR zone or don't push your HR too high (for instance, if you are at risk of having heart problems). It will also let you track calories for non-step-based activities that your Fitbit tracker is not very good at tracking.

If you have a compatible smartphone, you can use a chest strap (eg. Polar H7). Alternatively, you can use a dedicated watch + a chest strap. Look at Polar, Garmin, Timex etc. Using a smartphone rather than a "dumb" watch can make integration with Fitbit easier: some apps (eg. Digifit) can send activity data (including calories burned) automatically to your Fitbit account.

[madmaz]

Thanks for the info about Digifit, I didn't relaise that fitbit & digifit could be linked 

[PS0705]

Thank you everyone.

This is all very helpful but I still have a couple of questions.

The situation is that I didn't realize that Fitbit wouldn't track my spin class or my time on the stair machine and that it would randomly catch my time on the elliptical. 

I changed my "goal" on the Flex to active minutes instead of steps since none of the above were accurately tracked.

Also, I have a heart murmer so would like to make sure I'm not overdoing it. 

Is there an inexpensive heart rate monitor that is accurate that would easily sinc with FitBit? 

It sounds like the Digifit syncs but requires the additional purchase of a chest strap HR monitor - is that correct? 

I really don't want a HR monitor that requires a watch also since I already have the Fitbit on plus my regular watch - but if it is necessary for accuracy, I will.

Any advice?

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

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@PS0705 wrote:

Is there an inexpensive heart rate monitor that is accurate that would easily sinc with FitBit? 

It sounds like the Digifit syncs but requires the additional purchase of a chest strap HR monitor - is that correct?

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 You can check Digifit's online store for compatible HRM's. The kind of HRM you need depends on your smartphone. If you have a recent iPhone (4s or newer), you can use a BLE HRM like the Polar H7. BLE (Bluetooth Low Emission) is what recent Fitbit trackers (One, Flex, Force) use to sync with computers and (supported) mobile devices. Digifit also works with some recent Android smartphones over BLE, although they don't mention it on their site (support is in beta).

[Dominique]

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@madmaz wrote:

Thanks for the info about Digifit, I didn't relaise that fitbit & digifit could be linked 

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Syncing works even both ways if you want, eg. Digifit calories to Fitbit app and Fitbit sleep data to Digifit app. For more information:

http://www.fitbit.com/apps/digifit

http://blog.digifit.com/2013/07/fitbit-sleep-data-syncs-digifit-app/

[slysam]

Just adding Digifit works well for me too. I have it synched to Fitbit and it automatically logs the workout to fitbit. The heart rate data doesn't make it to Fitbit but it does log the calorie burn and the workout time/duration. For logged activity the activity level minutes are based on calorie burn per minute. I use Digifit with a polar H7 strap, I think I found mine on Amazon for about $60. The price can vary, but amazon was cheaper than the Digifit page (though look and see what the options are for your phone).

[slysam]

Just adding, one perk to linking Digifit and Fitbit is that Digifit pulls a lot of fitbit data to it's site. On my digifit calendar it shows a one month calendar and fills in my fitbit steps, distance, probably sleep (I haven't tracked it recently so don't recall) as well as my heart rate monitor records. There is also a section that shows the time and calories burned in each fitbit activity level (sedentary/sleep, light activity, moderate activity, and very active minutes). It also updates the weight when I update my weight on Fitbit--it is important to keep your weight current on a hrm as that is a factor in the calorie burn estimates. I think it is a great option if you keep a compatible smart phone with you when you exercise.

[gerrymcd]

I use a Wahoo Blue ($60) and the digifit app on my iPhone.  At the end of a workout the digifit app automatically uploads the data to my fitbit dashboard.   The combination of heart rate monitor, digifit and fitbit works great in my experience.