Lets Talk About Activity Trackers

[Northendzone]

after looking at a bunch of options and alternative, I ultimately decided that I did not really like the look of any of these fitness trackers so I opted to return my gadget and ordered up this watch instead as I really liked the look of it:



only downside is that it was a little fun to compete with my daughter to see who got more steps in.

[taco.vidal]

Any updates from anyone else?

[Slava]

I have a fitbit surge. When I ride my motorcycle it calculates a huge number of steps and flights of stairs. In general I think the tracking is a little spurious, but I don't mind it. There are some days where I don't find myself as active enough and it can point where in the right phone days.

[Ironhorse]

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?

Same here. I bought Mrs. Ironhorse a Garmin 910xt for her triathlon training, but that is all she uses it for (plus it has a fairly large display). Closer to subject, the Garmins are nice pieces of kit no matter which one you buy.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Slava

I have a fitbit surge. When I ride my motorcycle it calculates a huge number of steps and flights of stairs. In general I think the tracking is a little spurious, but I don't mind it. There are some days where I don't find myself as active enough and it can point where in the right phone days.

My son did our yard and the neighbor's yard with the push mower and his tracker logged over 20 000 steps.

[Fuzz]

Looking for something that is cheap, allows you to start and stop a workout and battery lasts a long time. This isn't something to wear all day, just when working out. My wife currently has on old Polar with the chest strap. We basically want to replicate that, but with wrist monitoring. Having trouble finding something that fits the bill here, any suggestions?

[cracher]

Been wanting one for a while. Do they make activity trackers that are not watches? I wash my hands 35 times a day (at least), the moisture under a watch beats my skin up. That and I can't stand anything on my wrist during golf or biking (thin wrists, watches either slop around or are too tight).

[Buff]

My wife recently received a Fitbit Flex for her birthday. She loves it. It doesn't have a display so you need to connect to the app, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal. There is an indicator "display", that has 5 dots, and once you reach 5 dots it means you've reached your goal for the day, so you can tell generally how close you are.

Since we had a tonne of airmiles, we decided to order one for myself. I think it will be fun to compete against each other to see who gets their steps in, and I need something to remind me (or force me) to get off my ass and away from the desk.

It certainly won't help my with my workouts because I do DDPYoga, but I have a heart rate monitor for that.

Flex doesn't track your HR, but it does do steps, and even your sleep. I'm interested in how that will look.

[JohnnyB]

I've had both a fitbit Force and a fitbit Charge HR. I've really enjoyed each of these devices and found them to be quite reliable in their measurements, but each of them has ultimately broken down. My Force lasted a little less than a year before the wristband detached and the battery on my Charge HR has totally died out after about 14 months of use. With my charge hr having died more than a year after purchase there's no replacement offer from fitbit, but they have offered 25% if I buy another one. Given the failure rate though, I'm not sure I see it as worth buying another one even with the 25% discount. The customer service has been prompt in replying throughout, but the problems seem too regular to consider the devices as reliable beyond a year.

[pgsieve]

Suunto Ambit will be the best bang for your buck. A little more, but will give you so much more in the long term