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Will one of these help with fitness, weight loss etc..? If so what do I do with one?
It lets you measure how much you're exerting yourself, once you work out your resting and maximum heart rate.
If you're happy pacing yourself without one it's certainly not necessary, but it's useful for training with specific goals in mind.
If you're really into training, be it for weight management, to improve times or especially to get race fit, heart rate tells a lot of stories when considered alongside pace, feel and food.
It's just a part of the whole analytical system and a very good tool.
Suppose you could just go by the RPE scale and judge roughly how you feel etc but heart rate is easier to record and keep for both history (to see improvements) and to forsee colds and over training etc.
Or, you could just use it as simply as I do. I'm crap, fat, old (ish) and slow. However I know that if I stay around 120 - 130 bpm I can ride all day. It's difficult to gauge this in terms of effort without the HRM as I tend to go to fast and blow up.
Ultimately it depends what you want to do, not what can you do with it.
Will one of these help with fitness, weight loss etc..? If so what do I do with one?
Wear it, 24/7, over your cake hole. Your breathing will be restricted which will mimic the effects of an altitude training camp. You won't be able to consume anything, unless it's through a straw. Family, friends and co-workers won't be able to hear you banging on about fitness/heart rate/weight loss/future fun runs. A benefit to all involved.
They can help monitor your own fitness over time and exertion during a ride, apparently not as good as power meters (partly due to the lag in heart rate), but yet to try one myself.
I like mine for gauging my effort on climbs - I know where my 'red line' is, HR-wise, so can pace a climb so I don't blow. While it's not a training thing for me, it's useful for sitting just below my threshold and deliberately wasting my riding mate who doesn't realise what I'm doing and is busting himself to keep pace...
Knowing your HR metrics will help understand your body, get the most from it and identify changes in fitness.
You probably know the processor speed of your computer, the bhp of your car and the memory of your phone but havent got a scooby about your own body.
Lol @ DT
I'd heard that steady HR is better for calorie burning.
I'd heard that steady HR is better for calorie burning.
Yip.If it's steadily low I don't get out of breath whilst jamming donuts down my gullet.
They will tell you when to ease off because you are going to hard. Slow and steady wins the weight loss game.
Get a Powercal and it will tell you approximately how much power you are exerting. For any exercise. Any at all. Allegedly. 😳 . So I've heard.
A HRM is a good idea if you know how to use it. If you are unlikely to learn how to do so I suggest it would be a waste of money.