Fitness monitors... yay or nay?

I'm 5.5 years out, but I'm really focused on getting fit for some hiking and backpacking expeditions next summer and some winter sports next winter. I know there's a bunch of these little devices, and I'd love to have something that gives me information on my daily fitness, heart rate, distance, etc. A super smart pedometer, I suppose. I was looking at the MyTrak Smart Coach and the the Polar FT40. Thoughts?

I USE THE FITBIT ONE, its very cool. I've also used the Bodybugg in the past, it works great but has a fee. There is a cool smartphone App that has GpS interaction called Endomondo

Hope this helps!

Gonna go look all that up, thanks!

I am currently using Animal Pump, but can't really tell any difference with it. The caffeine is nice in the morning but the pump does not last long and i personally don't think it is any more intense than when not taking it.

I LOVE my Fitbit and feel nekkid without it. I've worn it almost every day since first getting it in January of this year. You have to buy the hardware itself and then there's an optional online component to pay for--depends on how much information you want. I went for it all and track my daily steps, daily flights of stairs, calories burned, hours slept and efficiency of sleep (i.e. how much you toss and turn, get up, etc. overnight), miles traveled (by walking/running). There's a food log and weight tracking component that I don't use because I log all that in My Fitness Pal and have the two accounts linked--MFP reads the data from the Fitbit and vice versa. It's pretty slick.

The Fitbit will track effort to an extent, based on the amount of movement it senses. But will not track heart rate or pulse so cannot tell you if you are exercising in a target heart rate zone or not. You need a separate piece of equipment (like the Polar FT40 and the like) for that.

Hope this helps!