Fitness tracker

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Jod1eC
Jod1eC Posts: 35 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
hi all I'm looking at getting a fitness tracker ideally I would like the tracker to track calories, sleep, and exercise including cycling/spin.
Does anyone have any recommendations currently I'm looking at the i-fit of the Fitbit although the Fitbit is a bit pricey for the one that records spin.

Thanks

Replies

  • Jod1eC
    Jod1eC Posts: 35 Member
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    Oh and heart rate.
    Thanks
  • Jod1eC
    Jod1eC Posts: 35 Member
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    Anyone ?
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    Try this site, but go to Amazon for better prices

    http://www.polar.com/us-en/products
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    Do you do anything besides spin?

    The issue for a tracker with spin is that it lacks multiple important data points when doing calculations including cadence and resistance.
  • Jod1eC
    Jod1eC Posts: 35 Member
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    Yep I do body combat, body pump, circuits, cycling (outdoor), circuits, swimming, yoga and I'm trying to learn to run and breathe at the same time (an issue for me, for some reason lol)
  • lemonblossom
    lemonblossom Posts: 17 Member
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    I have a vivofit, it does not have a spin setting but I put it in my shoe when I ride my bike! A pretty good app for a smartphone is run keeper and they have a cycling setting.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Jod1eC wrote: »
    Yep I do body combat, body pump, circuits, cycling (outdoor), circuits, swimming, yoga and I'm trying to learn to run and breathe at the same time (an issue for me, for some reason lol)


    Besides running, no tracker is going to accurately estimate calories for those activities. The closest are cycling and swimming ... both of which are best served by specialized trackers. Yoga does not translate well to HR based caloric activity ... neither do the intervals well.

    For outdoor cycling, a GPS coupled with a HR and cadence sensor produces the best result.
    Swimming requires one of a limited number of devices that count laps and/or HR ... BL and ANT sensors don't work through water.
  • Jod1eC
    Jod1eC Posts: 35 Member
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    So would you suggest a dont bother Brian? or do you have a suggestion for the best overall tracker. The polar loop mentioned above seemed ok and reasonable.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    There isn't a single tracker that will accurately do everything you want. Figure out which activities you do the most and match tracker capabilities to them. Accept that some activities are not accurately tracked by any device.

    Outdoor running and cycling = GPS + maybe HR and cadence. There are cadence sensors you can wear on your shoe for spin classes.
    Swimming = limited choices of lap counters, Polar HRM using Gymlink protocol, or a HR strap that stores data for syncing later ( new Garmin swim HR straps, Wahoo Tickr, some Suunto devices).
    Yoga, nothing really tracks it nor estimates calories.
    Intervals, HR doesn't work for caloric estimation.
    Step based trackers are best for tracking overall, all day movement trends.

    Assess your activities, compare them to what trackers can really do (not pure marketing hype), then decide if there is a device that works for you and meets your budget.


  • shoofly435
    shoofly435 Posts: 74 Member
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    Check out the Amazon reviews etc for BodyMedia Fit armband. I just got one and the amount of info it provodes
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    Jod1eC wrote: »
    So would you suggest a dont bother Brian? or do you have a suggestion for the best overall tracker. The polar loop mentioned above seemed ok and reasonable.

    The loop doesn't track heart rate when swimming. For activity trackers, the A300 and V800 do.

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