Best Monitor?

Do you have a favorite heart rate monitor or way that you track calories?

I want something that will track most accurately track my calories lost. After searching, I'm at a loss as to what is a GREAT and ACCURATE heart rate monitor and calorie tracker. I feel that I need a heart rate monitor.  When I looked online I found over 2,900 results in the Sports and Outdoor section on Amazon alone! When I sorted those by four (4) stars and up, the results were still over 700! When sorted by low to high, 506 results came up, but not all were monitors. The Health and Personal Care department had over 1,900 results.

What heart rate monitor do you suggest? The top one on amazon is the Omron HR-100C Heart Rate Monitor. It has a 4 star rating with 1,103 votes giving it that rating.  Are monitors with a chest strap, like the Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor better or more accurate? It also has 4 stars, but only 428 votes.

Any suggestions or ideas on which monitor will work best would be greatly appreciated.  Feel free to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or send me a tweet via twitter @84days84lbs