Lets Talk About Activity Trackers

[Northendzone]

So who has such a device and what type of device do you have? and what are your pro/con lists?

Yesterday my daughter bought herself a Fitbit Blaze - so on the spur of the moment I picked myself up a Fitbit Surge; however, I have to admit I really love the look of the Garmin Fenix but the price is $600'ish and I am not sure I want to spend that much on this device.

[Lubicon]

Fitbit Charge

I like the device but the App is not reliable on my phone (Blackberry Z10) since they came out with an update about a month ago. It takes forever to sync - assuming it syncs at all. Works great though on my iPad. Just wish the device itself had a battery level indicator to let you know when it is low and needs charging. By the time you see it on the app it's too late.

[Bigtime]

Fitbit Charge.

Works great, but I've had two and both of them have had the part of the strap near the display start to come off after about 8 months. However both times with a quick email and info to their support team they were replaced free of charge.

It lasts about 6-7 days on a full charge.

Syncs no problem on IOS, and I enjoy having other friends with it on the app so you can see how you are doing against them. Newer updates have been adding neat features like tracking if you took at least 250 steps per hour in a time frame you can specify. I also like the sleep tracking.

[The Yen Man]

I recently lost my Garmin Vivosmart, so I'm looking to replacing it. Did a bunch of research, and the one I'm going to get is the Garmin Vivoactive HR, which is due out in the next couple of weeks. It has the best of both worlds with a wrist based heart monitor, but I can still pair it up to my Garmin chest strap when I hit the gym.

[iamajai]

I use a Pebble Time watch which tracks steps and sleep (no heart rate monitoring though), but can provide notifications from my paired phone and has watchfaces with weather and traffic.

[psyang]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I recently lost my Garmin Vivosmart, so I'm looking to replacing it. Did a bunch of research, and the one I'm going to get is the Garmin Vivoactive HR, which is due out in the next couple of weeks. It has the best of both worlds with a wrist based heart monitor, but I can still pair it up to my Garmin chest strap when I hit the gym.

100% agree. I think the vivoactive hr is the best bang for your buck hands down. The only other activity tracker that has gps, is fully waterproof, built in heart rate monitoring, and has swimming and golf modes (my two main activities these days) is the Fenix3, which is double the price.

Unfortunately, I read recently that release isn't until June. Can't wait.

[fredr123]

My wife has a Fitbit Charge HR she got for Christmas. She seems to like it. Takes a while to sync with her iPhone. It has a hard time picking the correct activity for her sometimes (one time on a bike ride it thought she was on a treadmill). Seems to work okay otherwise.

Worst complaint is that if the battery goes completely dead, she has a hard time getting it to charge and turn on again. You have to hold buttons down to restart the device, sacrifice a small animal, and say a special incantation and even then you might have to try it a few times before it works.

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Fitbit Charge.

Works great, but I've had two and both of them have had the part of the strap near the display start to come off after about 8 months. However both times with a quick email and info to their support team they were replaced free of charge.

It lasts about 6-7 days on a full charge.

Syncs no problem on IOS, and I enjoy having other friends with it on the app so you can see how you are doing against them. Newer updates have been adding neat features like tracking if you took at least 250 steps per hour in a time frame you can specify. I also like the sleep tracking.

Thanks for the info. I have a Fitbit Charge HR, and this is just starting to happen about 7 months in. I'll see if I can maybe snag a replacement.

[Bill Bumface]

Not helpful to the thread, but am I the only one that doesn't get the point of these things at all?

I do activities because they are fun, not to stare at my wrist and check my stats the entire time.

If I'm getting fat, the mirror seems to be cheaper and more effective.

Is it more of a leading vs. lagging indicator thing?

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Not helpful to the thread, but am I the only one that doesn't get the point of these things at all?

I do activities because they are fun, not to stare at my wrist and check my stats the entire time.

If I'm getting fat, the mirror seems to be cheaper and more effective.

Is it more of a leading vs. lagging indicator thing?

For me, I think it was just random sense of accomplishment. Plus the game aspect where you try not to break a multi day activity combo helps give that extra push on certain days too.

A way to somewhat quantify activity per day is nice too. Reaching 100% jiggling feels better than ticking off activities to do each day (ie: 30 pushups a day for a week).


I used to use an up24. Then it stopped syncing properly and I never bothered replacing it.

[bossy22]

I had a Garmin vivosmart. I never used it to keep track of fitness. I liked that it linked to my phone and would vibrate when my phone rang. I found this useful in the night and if I got a call from my kid/s for a ride after some pops, the phone wouldn't wake my wife. I could also quickly see who was calling or texting if I was busy and wouldn't do the obvious check my phone. But for a fitness tracker, I didn't use it. I just gave it to my brother who had surgery and his dr wants him tracking his walking.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Not helpful to the thread, but am I the only one that doesn't get the point of these things at all?

I do activities because they are fun, not to stare at my wrist and check my stats the entire time.

If I'm getting fat, the mirror seems to be cheaper and more effective.

Is it more of a leading vs. lagging indicator thing?

Really, it's just another toy to play with. I like having neat gadgets to play with.

I'll admit though, I do like having a heart rate monitor. When I'm on the treadmill, I do intervals, and I use my heart rate to monitor rather than time. I start each interval cycle when my heart rate dips down to a certain level. Didn't think an HR monitor was that big a deal until I started using one. Now, I can't seem to gauge it properly without one.

And to be honest, I really hate exercise. It is definitely not fun for me. If there was no health benefit, I'd never do any type of exercise ever.

[kermitology]

I had/have a vivosmart, which I love, but I've killed two of them now and I don't think I'll replace it.

Used it similarly for notifications and as a watch, as well as the 1 hour idle notification and the personal alarm.

But I killed the display on two of them somehow, so I can't recommend them anymore on the basis of poor quality.

[The Yen Man]

Yah, my Vivosmart s display also started kind of going after awhile. We all got one at work for free for our company's 40th anniversary, but not sure I would pay retail for it.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Yah, my Vivosmart s display also started kind of going after awhile. We all got one at work for free for our company's 40th anniversary, but not sure I would pay retail for it.

We work at the same place

[Robotic]

On the topic of activity trackers, can anyone recommend a tracker that shows your heart rate? My girlfriend needs to keep her heart rate under a certain bpm, and is considering buying a device.

[Cube Inmate]

Recently got a fitbit blaze....

Good:
Looks like a semi-stylish smart watch
I love having 24hr heart rate tracking
Motivated me to move, even though I know the targets are arbitrary.
The app has pretty useful info, and I find it more useful than mapmyrun, which I used a couple of years ago.

Not great:
Syncing is pissing me off
Smart watch features are hit and miss, per the above.
Needs a custom charger (can't use standard USB micro)
Linkage to phone for GPS tracking of workouts is sketchy.

Overall, I love it. My resting heart rate has dropped >10bpm in the last 4 weeks because I'm motivated to move. And I find the graph of heart rate very motivating by itself.

Feel free to ask if you have more questions about this particular tracker.

[Northendzone]

I think I am going to return my Fitbit surge and I may get a blaze, or may get nothing.

My issue is I don't really like the look of most of theses watches. I do like the look of the Fenix 3 - but the price is more than I am willing to pay and suunuto also has a nice looking product; however, it ultimately seems I don't much care for the look of most of these watches and the ones I do. Like, need an external heart rate strap of something

[Kybosh]

I have a Fenix 2, which I like quite a lot. It doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles of the latest devices (no HR monitor for example), but I mostly use it for tracking distance and pacing. The battery lasts a long time too (when not using GPS anyway) and only used about 65% of the battery on a 3 week trip in Ecuador (the device already being almost 2 years old by that point).

Most of the devices now seem to have HR monitors, but I've yet to see an actually accurate one from wrist measurements. My main problem with most of these devices is they're basically useless for the vast majority of exercises I do. Hitting a step count just doesn't do it for me.

[nik-]

what's the best for calorie burn tracking during exercise?