Body fat percentage & heart rate monitors?

Hi all -

Would any of you be able to tell me how to go about finding out my body fat percentage?

Also, anyone know of a GOOD heart rate monitor?  I really don't trust the ones on the machines at the gym - they go from saying my heart rate is 150 to 69 in literally 30 seconds, lol!

Thanks!

Any good gym could measure your body fat % for you. I don't have a membership to a popular gym, as my work has it's own for only $10 a month. So I gave Good Life a call to see if they could do it for a non member and they said sure. It's part of a fitness accessment with a bunch of other things they can tell you like resting heart rate, fitness tests, etc for $35.

As for a Heart Rate Monitor, I just bought a Polar F11 and already LOVE IT to death. Gym machines pick up the heart rate on the machine so it's handy to me on the treadmill. I can set my watch to show my heart rate % and still see the actual number on the machine. I'm in Canada and they run for $170-190. You can definitely get cheaper ones like the Polar F6 or F4.

to the first question, you should be able to get a caliper test at a local gym.  they're pretty accurate, provided that they're done properly (i've seen people here talking about buying calipers and doing it themselves; that doesn't work.  your muscles have to be relaxed to get accurate readings, so reaching around to try to measure yourself isn't going to give you good numbers). 

immersion tests are more accurate, but expensive, and it's harder to find a place that has the facility to do it.

i have a scale with a conductivity body-fat measure; they're not very accurate (mine can fluctuate up to 4% from one day to the next), but strictly as a baseline it can be useful.  you just have to be okay with the fact that you're getting a range, not a precise measurement.  even so, it's been helpful to watch my range drop significantly.

most everyone recommends polar heart rate monitors.  the different models have different fitness features.  i didn't want to spend a pile of money, so i bought a sigma.  compared to the similarly priced polar, mine has the advantage of a replacable battery in the band (with some of the polar monitors you have to replace the whole band when the battery dies).  mine works fine, but all it does is keep time (chrono, countdown, and stop watch) and show me my heart rate.

I bought a Polar F6 last week. So far I am loving it. I got the F6 because it also calculates calories burned in my workouts. At first I was disappointed to see that the F6 gave me a lower calorie count then the machines were giving me, but realized that I am better off with a more accurate number. I say more accurate, because all the machines were going by was my weight. With the F6 I had to put in my birthday, gender, weight and height, which is all used, along with my heart rate to determine my calorie burn. With the lower calorie burn from my HRM I have adjusted my calories I am consuming, hopefully I will see better results on the scale.

I have a scale that also gives me a body fat percentage. I know that these are not accurate, but will take a BF reading once a week, although I weigh myself every morning. I can see that it is consistantly lowering. I think if I were to take my BF everyday I would see a great varied readings.

I just bought an Omron Fat Loss Monitor at Academy yesterday for $30. Tells you your BMI and Fat percentage using the electrical pulse thing (can't remember what it's called right now). Works very well. I know many doctors and gyms use this even in place of a caliper test. This is not on a scale, and the readings for me only change by .2%, so pretty accurate and stable.

Hmm...I don't have an answer to the first question but I'll tell you my free way of measuring heart rate.  When the timer on whatever machine I'm using hits a number ending in 0, I start counting my pulse until it hits the 9.  I then multiply by 6.  I do this every few minutes to make sure it's staying about the same.  I pretty much do cardio to the point I am heavily breathing to judge my workout but use the heart rate to make sure I'm still "in the zone."  Hope this helps!

Edit: By the way, I use this site, HR Calculator, to estimate the calories burned during my workout sessions.

Thanks for all the info!  I took tater's suggestion and got the Omron Fat Loss Monitor from Academy yesterday.

While there, I was looking at all of the different heat rate monitors.  I was originally looking at the Polar brand, and then saw the MioMotiva.

Has anyone had any experience with this heart rate monitor?

Thanks!

I had a Mio watch and it broke easily; I got another and it did, too. So I don't know about their other products.

I love my Nike Imara (i think that's the name) as a HRM/calorie counter. It doesn't have a stopwatch, but that's about the only function it doesn't have--does cals, average heart rate; you can turn on a beeper to warn you if you go above or below the heart rate range you've targeted. I love it; very comfortable!

Best of luck.

I purchased the Polar F6 for women and I really like it. It sets your target heart rate based on your age. Gives you alories burned, how long you worked. Keeps track of your workouts for a week and up to a month. I have the same problem where my treadmill at home would say that I burned 600 cal running for 1 hour and my Polar F6 puts me a 500+. I think that having the heart rate monitor is more reliable and realistic. It takes out the guessing from the workouts you have especially if you use a lot of DVD workouts; you will get an accurate calorie burn. My treadmil did the same thing jump my heart rate all over, down to 49 when I was really sprinting. I purchased mine for $99 at a sports store here in AK. Judy