After losing about 20 pounds, I started exercising daily. Right now I am doing 30 minutes everyday on a treadmill. After 37 days in a row, I was/am ready to start going to the gym. I spoke with a trainer, who I am going to start training with today, and she recommended that I get a Heart Rate Monitor to aid with exercise.

I wanted to know if anyone had a heart rate monitor to recommend. Specifically, one that has a large chest strap to monitor heart rate. My chest is about 54 inches. Been doing some research on those, but almost no one give the chest strap size.

Garmin is the best ! WMart has some sportsline but not as good as Garmin!

I've had a polar heart rate monitor that I've loved from the beginning. However it's like 6 years old or so and lately I don't trust it very much. Though I just think it's time to replace it, it was excellent for years. I've been toying around with getting a bodymedia fit , same as body bugg, but haven't done it yet. The polar has a chest strap, theyhave men's and woman's models so I assume the men's strap is larger. At my heaviest I could wear it it was just stretched (don't know how big my chest was though) I've been noticing I have to keep tightening it more, yay!

Even at my largest my Polar fit fine. My Garmin does also but if you are going to be using it at the gym mainly then you may want to go with Polar, as that is what most exercise equipment uses. My Garmin chest strap does not read on the machines there but my Polar chest strap picks up the heart rate without me wearing my watch.