Activity tracker suggestion

FitSeachely

I think it’s time for my FitBit and I to break up. Although he was instrumental in getting me started to a healthier me, 15 months was how long it took him to have enough of me. He really was not made to come to work with me however, how good would he be if he was there for me all the time. He got one too many blow to the side and I’m afraid the 2nd coat of glue will only be a short lived fix. He also didn’t shrink with me so getting a heart rate became increasingly challenging during my workouts and quite frankly, I questioned his accuracy every time he did give me information.

So the big question now, what’s next? At this point in my health journey, I don’t feel I need to track my steps anymore because my daily workouts usually don’t amount to much; the bulk of my steps are work related and that will not change anytime soon. I would like an accurate heart rate monitor more than anything for my HIIT sessions, is a $50 one good enough? Can a free app on my phone be just as effective?

What do you guys have for activity trackers? What helped you get to the next level?

Crochetmama84

Im looking for one too but mainly for a reminder to move more.

mowu

I just got a Garmin Vivosmart 3 for general fitness tracking.

But as I researched which tracker I was going for i continuously found that any tracker which measured the pulse using optical sensors (worn on your wrist) would fall short of the quality of puls rate measure with a strap type sensor (including the one I bought - but it still fit my needs best). Especially they lagged in picking up rapid changes in the heart rate which I think you will experience in HIIT.

So you should determine what is more important to you - a general tracker with pedometer and so on....and then an okay pulse rate measurement with some shortcomings or precise pulse measurement during HIIT.

For good pulse measurement a bluetooth strap-type sensor can be paired with a phone app.....but it typically does not come with all the quality-of-life measurements an armband-type tracker is packed with.

enickma1221

Been using a Garmin VivoSport, and pretty happy with it. I dig that it's water-proof. I turn off all the stupid phone app notifications, set the vibrate to low, and the battery lasts like a week. It can automatically detect when you're doing certain exercises, and will auto-create activity enries in the Connect app. Mowu is right, optical wrist trackers are bad at certain types of training. From what I've read, they're bad at tracking short bursts of heart rate changes. If you just need something to track how long your heart rate is elevated during standard cardio, however, the VivoSport works well. I also like the wealth of data you get out of Garmin Connect, and how you can drill down into it.