Training for Baby: Calorie counting monitors

After seeing a few people at the gym with heart/calories monitors, I started to wonder if maybe I needed a special device to tell me how many calories I am burning.

Sometimes I feel like a truck ran me over – that’s usually about 20 minutes into my kickboxing class – but I keep going and I assume that means I am burning even more calories.

Is the amount of sweat on my brow directly equal to how many calories I am burning? I mean, I was a puddle after my strength-building class this week.

I am a little concerned though. If I get a monitor that tracks the amount of calories I’m burning and it doesn’t show that I burned as much as I thought I had, will I be discouraged?

Probably, but knowing how hard I am working will help me gauge when I need to step up my workout more or chill out for a bit.

I did a little research on the devices this week and they aren’t all created equal. Some have optional personal trainer programs online and others just track your heart rate. I don’t want a watch that tells me to run faster. That’s what Trainer Anthony does.

I am more interested in the amount of calories burned and my heart rate.

Has anyone tried one of these monitors before?

I wish I had a monitor that told me how many calories I was taking in each day. It could have an alarm that said “Put down the fork, Kathy!”