This post is a bit random as its basically a dump of thoughts I have on exercise, weight loss and the use of  Polar Heart Rate Monitor.

I was at a family gathering with my wife’s family over the last weekend where I saw many of her family members that I haven’t seen in a while. When I talked to them, they were fascinated with my weight loss. Every one that I talked to told me I look great (which made me feel good when they said that), but every one asked “what are you doing, exercising?” My reply to that question is that while exercise is an important part of my life, my weight loss comes from proper eating.

To date, I’ve lost roughly 50 pounds. The first 25-30 pounds were sans exercise; it was all diet. I slowly integrated a workout regiment into my life that has help my fitness tremendously. Notice I said that it has helped my fitness and not my weight loss. While exercise can be a great tool in losing weight, exercise has improved my overall fitness (or health) rather than been the sole reason for losing weight. In fact, exercise (weightlifting in particular) has been an obstacle to losing weight. Building muscle will not immediately show results on the scale. Many people get frustrated when they are weightlifting for weight loss. They don’t see the results on the scale. I know that I must keep at it, as muscle burns calories and will eventually help lose fat.

Cardiovascular exercise has been very helpful to me in aiding my quest to lose weight. The problem is that it is very difficult to determine how many calories are burned while doing cardio. The readout on elliptical machines or treadmills are not very accurate. I did a ton of research looking around online, on how I can get an accurate count of how many calories were expended while working out. I came to the conclusion that I need a heart rate monitor. I found an older Polar Heart Rate Monitor in my closet. The model I have (F1) has no bells and whistles. It shows your current heart rate and duration of exercise. Thats it! It stores one session of data (average heart rate and duration of session). I found a calculation online that helps determine how many calories burned based on average heart rate and duration. This is quite tedious, so I am contemplating buying a new Polar Heart Rate Monitor that allows me to plug in my age, weight, height etc that will automatically calculate calories burned. I’m looking at the Polar FT7 as it has all the features that someone looking to lose weight needs. I am a calorie counter, and as such, I need to know how many calories I am consuming as well as burning.

Once I figured out what my target heart rate should be for a given workout, I found that the heart rate monitor pushed me to workout to my full potential for each workout. For example, when I wasn’t using a heart rate monitor, I’d get tired and would pull back on how hard I pushed myself. This lead to not getting the most of my workouts.  When I started using a heart rate monitor, I would get tired and then would look at what my heart rate was. I noticed that I was below or at the low end of my target heart rate zone. This tells me that I could push myself and still not have my heart jump out of my chest. I learned that I could push harder and make my workouts more effective if I stayed in the middle to high end of my target heart rate zone. I burn more calories and feel better when I push myself.

I chose Polar as I have tried a few heart rate monitors from other companies and I find that Polar models as the easiest to use, the most accurate, have great support for their products and have an active and supportive community of users.

If you are exercising and trying to lose weight, try using a heart rate monitor to gauge how effective your workouts are. You will find that you can push yourself and make your workouts more effective.