If you are going to buy a HR monitor, save yourself the headache and get a
Bodybugg * click for direct link* - its 99.8% acurate at calculating your caloric output. If you take full advantage of the food planning system that comes with it via online entry - and using the meal planning tools that come with it it's impossible to not loose body fat and weight. 60-80% of ALL body changes are directly related to your dietary habits, could be eating too little, too much, or eating just right to maintain but not loose weight. People over estimate the amount of calories burned by about 20% and underestimate the amount of calories eaten by about 20% - If you combine both you set up for a failure because you end up at an even platue.
Oh and ya low carb is bullshit, especially in the long run because you tend to gain the weight back.
As for loosing the work outs, how long have you been doing these work outs? PX 90 is a fairly decent system, but if you are using the gym - why spend more money on something that you could honestly get the same results from in the gym. I think the most impactful thing you could do is interval training for cardio. 1 min high intensity 1 min recover 2 min moderate intensity - do this for 25 min or so and then cool down for 5 min. It boosts the metabolism for a longer period of time and over all burns more calories.
IE: On a stairmill at a moderate pace I burn around 500 calories in half an hour (lvl 11). During interval training, 45 seconds lvl 20, 45 seconds lvl 6 and 2 min at lvl 11 I burn on avg 660 calories. The after effect of intervals is anywhere from 6 hours to 36 hours depending on your body and lvl of fitness ( where your body burns a higher amount of calories ) The effect on regular moderate intensity cardio on avg is 2-4 hours.
Imo, btw if you couldnt tell by this post im back in the gym industry I would try the following steps:
-Skip the HR monitor and PX90, spend the same amount and get a bodybug -I maybe able to get you 100.00 off of one if you need.
-Go to full body circut style work outs for weights, if you need some advice on this let me know and I'll post a full work out.
-Add in intervals to your cardio once or twice a week
-Document food intake - its tedious and boring, but those that do see better and faster results.
-given your weight and height I would assume you should be around 3500 or so calories a day to maintain, this is a very rough estimate.
-Eat better carbs, dont cut them. Fruit / oats / whole wheat / veggies are outstanding - there are now some decent choices for wheat and rice based pasta's out there btw.
-seriously take advantage of a trainer at your gym - if you havent had a free work out yet with one, just do it - pick up on some ideas even if you dont ever plan on buying training use that hour to just ask question after question after question on form, ideas, whatever.
-if you are not using a gym, PM me with your zipcode I can hook you up super cheap in most parts of the US now.