best heart rate monitors for calorie readings?

[catcrawf3]

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for good, reasonably cheap (£20-£60) HRM that give a relatively accurate calorie reading.

[RhonaL]

Polar is a very reliable brand for heart monitoring and some have calories burnt. If you have a smart phone endomondo and most of the running apps have calories burnt and are free.

[catcrawf3 Graduate]

I've got some running apps on my phone but i just don't trust them when it comes to calculating my calories :\

[andystev Graduate]

I wouldn't trust any of them for an acurate calorie figure I'm afraid. At best they're all so much guess work.

Everone's different, has a different metabolism and processes energy in different ways. The only reliable measure of the calories you're burning is measurement and some fancy maths. You need a good baseline of weight, fat% and muscle% and a comprehensive diet diary. And it's a whole load of faffing about.

Frankly, the amount of energy burt during exercise is quite small compared to the amount of energy potentially not consumed by changing diet. So I think that's the place to focus measurement on.