HikeArizona.COM

Ok, I"m looking for a fitness watch that will give heart rate, distance, and calories burned. I was just wondering if anyone uses something like this, and can give me their opinion on bad vs. good. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Happy hiking!

I know a couple fitness fanatics who wear the bands that go around your torso to monitor heartrate and displays it on a watch they wear, I think it collects a log they can dump onto their computer. They seemed to like them as they wore them on every trip.

I don't personally find tracking calories and heart rate that important. I think Joe's new triplog features could help to estimate calories based on distance on your weight/pack.

I've been using a garmin forerunner 305 regularly for several years and have had only good experiences with it. It has held up very well. I haven't noticed any drop in battery life. The elevation calculation is very inaccurate, but I think distance is moderately accurate. I usually subtract about 10% off the distance reading, and rely on other sources for the elevation. I ignore the calories reading, and am sure it is extremely inaccurate for hiking. When I was using it jogging, the calories numbers seemed consistent with polar heart rate monitor I'd been using previously.

Garmin is the most popular used by most of the folks I hike and bike with, not sure how accurate the calories and elevation but folks are pleased with their unit.