@ms7dc The Polar H10 is one of the best deals in all of fitness data tracking tech. I do 10 hours of zone-specific cardio a week, all tracked and logged with the Polar H10 chest strap heart monitor. I can count on one hand how many times it was thrown off, and when it was, it corrected itself in under 30 seconds. Apps are user friendly and easy to use. To me, it's a no-brainer.
@skygirl71 On the off chance…you don’t happen to have any tattoos where the chest strap sits, do you? I have my entire upper body covered…I have had tons of issues getting wrist HR monitors to accurately track HR because of the tattoos on my wrists. Trying to see if it’s even really worth trying a chest strap, it will still likely be on an area that’s covered in ink too.
@nothingtoknow They work by different mechanisms and a tattoo wouldn’t confuse the chest strap. The wrist uses an optical sensor to look at rate of blood pulsation under the skin essentially (which is readily obscured by tattoo ink) whereas the chest straps actually detect electrical output from each depolarization of your heart, so ink becomes largely (id venture to say entirely) irrelevant
@lintonsa This. I have a weird allergy that will make my skin flush at times when I'm outside and it confuses the shit out of my fancy Garmin Fenix (probably similar to the tattoo problem). Meanwhile every chest strap I've ever used has been fine, flush or not.
@nothingtoknow I do not, the strap sits low enough to not touch my ink. However, the chest strap has a long singular strip electrode that covers so much more surface area than a watch on a wrist, I'd be willing to bet it works through your tattoos.
Also, I use an organic balm under the strap when running to prevent chafing, and it works flawlessly through that balm.
I'd give it a shot. They're on Amazon, which I find to have the easiest returns out there when needed.
If you do get it, make sure you wash that strap before you use it. My skin didn't like it right outta the box. I also hand wash every time, and every so often throw it in the washing machine.
@ms7dc Isopure is pretty much pure protein without the fillers. 25g of protein. 1g has about 4 calories. Isopure is 100 calories. So just protein.
Transparent labs is also good. Has a little more calories if you get flavored. Mine has 28 g of protein and like 120 calories. If it was completely protein it would be like 112 calories. Even so, it's pretty good.
@ms7dc OP, you don’t need a heart rate monitor and you don’t buy protein powder until you know you need it.
Download an app to track your calories and aim for a daily calorie deficit of 500 calories.
For your diet, eat more vegetables and fruits (don’t listen to any nonsense about it being full of sugar and bad for you). It is very hard to over eat fruits and vegetables.
Limit alcohol and non-diet drinks. It is really easy to drink your calories.
Eat plenty of protein, 1g per pound of bodyweight per day. If you struggle to meet this total, then get protein powder.
@liberty7732 Yeah took me a while to figure it out. People swore it doesn't cause break outs but it was the only thing I changed in life when it started happening. So I came to reddit and found others that had the same issue so I switched to pea protein (tastes bad but works) and cleared right up
@ms7dc HR monitor: Apple Watch. It’s the only one on the market with an excellent app ecosystem, support and Apple has done a ton of research partnering up with Stanford to develop their fitness products incl the watch.
Protein: Any whey protein should do the job. I go with Kaged isolate, which is a bit on the pricey side but it’s worth the money and tastes great.
Diet: Stop eating bad food. It’s just that simple. There’s no shortcuts and you’ll have to actively think about what you’re consuming for a few weeks until it becomes 2nd nature. You’ll have to put some effort into it but it’ll pay off. Track your calories to understand what you’re consuming and iterate from there.
@blacksheeprunner I would have argued for how good Garmin's app is/was, but after the latest update to it they totally torpedoed it.
Another vote for Kaged here, probably the best tasting "clean" protein I've found...just for whatever reason lately they don't seem to have any 3 lb. tubs in stock.
@dowthut That’s one of the reasons why I willfully lock into the Apple ecosystem. Your accessories, devices, everything will last a long time and you have the peace of mind of Apple not tanking the UX significantly over small updates.
Re Kaged, yeah, that’s weird. I’m pretty sure I ordered a 3lb tub not too long ago and almost all the flavors were in stock.
@blacksheeprunner Yeah a few months ago I was totally happy with Garmin. I have the Instinct Tactical watch, it's built like a tank, been able to use it hiking, skiing, etc. goes under water, amazing watch with pretty accurate HR tracking as well(compared to my at home BP monitor and chest strap), and prior to the update their app was really good. Now you basically have to use the website to get the same functionality the app had prior to the recent update. They are getting 1* review bombed for it and there were a couple feedback threads on their reddit where the majority opinion was for them to revert the changes, but I doubt they will. It's like they just paid someone to "innovate" for no reason.
@dowthut Ouch, that sounds terrible. Sorry to hear that. Hopefully Garmin reverse courses. It’s crazy to think that after paying for a product and a set of features, it’s ok to nullify those because a decides it has a “better” way to do things. There has to be consumer protection laws that protect against featureset regression such as your case.
