Fitness tracker suggestions

Merkavar

I was looking to get a new fitness tracker, previously used a Fitbit but it’s old and broken and battery issues.

But I have heard some bad things about Fitbit, like models discontinued, not being as good, owned by google or something.

if a Fitbit still a good buy for tracking steps and calories and other basics like heart rate?

or is there another popular or quality brand you would recommend.

thanks

AnnPT77

I like my Garmin, but they tend to be more expensive than Fitbit, though both companies offer a range of price points. The Garmins I've had have been nearly bulletproof, and I don't baby them. It's only a wide generality, but people with athletic hobbies trend toward Garmins for the variety of workouts they'll give sport-specific stats for, and the integration with other fitness apps. If you're not a recreational or competitive athlete, they may be a too-expensive option.

Any tracker's estimate of calories needs to be treated as a hypothesis that requires personal testing and validation through experience before it's fully rational to trust it, IMO. If syncing it to MFP the issues are different from using the tracker just for workout calories one manually enters, too.

rsccore

I second the Garmin, but mine is the higher end (Epix Pro). I wore it 24x7 during the diet and an HR chest strap during workouts and even tested it against a mask, and it did a great job. Still always an estimate, but it was very consistent and did very well in measurements of diffient activities relative to other activities. Their main advantage is the Firstbeat Analytics algorthms they use to estimate intensity via heart reat variabilty. I've tested apple series 8 and series 10 as well as Galaxy, and while they do "ok" at the simple stuff like walking or running on flat ground, beyond that they really don't come close. I raise the incline or do anything to raise the intensity, the Garmin picks it up. And as Ann said, the range or activities covered is impressive, and the algorithms are tuned to each activity. It turned out to be the equal to MFP on the activity side of things, in terms of counting calories.

Also, as Ann said, my reliance on the Garmin was through comparing its estimates to other sources, such as this calorie calculator or to the scale while I was in the diet …

ExRx.net : Walk / Run Metabolic Calculator

I trust it so much now that if I pick up a new workout, I wear it (and the chest strap) to get an idea of calories burned relative to my other workouts. I also did that with a VO2 mask, but the Garmin is good enough and all I use. And you know as well given the degree of sweat/breathing/HR at the end.

"if a Fitbit still a good buy for tracking steps and calories and other basics like heart rate?"

Steps and HR, maybe, but from my experience calories can be all over the place. As you become conditioned, your HR can drop quite a bit, but that doesn't mean you are doing less work (burning less calories) only that your heart has become much better at pumping blood (oxygen). That is where the Garmin has an edge using the HRV algorithms and being able to get a better true estimate of intensity.

That being said, if your activity is intentional walking on a treadmill or outside or at an incline, or jogging / running in the same way, that calculator above gives really good estimates. Having a watch that keeps up with that calculator through the day is easier, but that calculator is a good reference to check against or simply use. My walks and workouts are pretty structured, i.e. 30 minutes at 12% incline, 3.5 mph, 300 calories, 20 minute brisk (3.7 mph) walk outside, 100 calories.

I wish my Apple was nearly as good because as a smartwatch, Garmin doesn't come close. But I guess if they weren't as good as they are in the Fitness domain, they wouldn't even be in the watch business.

yirara

Here another Garmin fan. So far Garmin has not restricted data to non-premium users compared to Fitbit and others.

Merkavar

Well Garmin winning so far :D

most of my exercise has been walking on treadmills or similar gym machines or walking outside on tracks in forests etc

or kickboxing years ago where I can’t wear a watch anyway.

ShowPoodleGirl

I have a garmin forerunner 55 (the least expensive of the 'running' watches) and I'm enjoying it so far. Only had it since friday but I like it's battery life and like not having to have my phone on me for steps.
But with all fitness devices a lot of what it does is estimates, especially for things like calorie burns. It may give you a broad idea, but I mainly use the watch for steps and distance/pace for my running/biking and most of the other stats are taken with a grain of salt and more curiosity than taken as fact.

DesertDuck68

Garmin seems to be winning. My wife has one, it's so fancy! Hahaha. We live in SE Asia, so there are all sorts of Chinese/Huawei products. That's what I started with, a GT2 at the time, and liked it until it got crushed in an accident. Now I've got some Thai/Chinese knock-off that's already messing up after only 1 year, calorie burn is way, way off reality, and the Android App isn't good either.

Now considering/reading reviews on the Samsung Galaxy watch line up, which will be more expensive but the upside is the SS watch will connect seamlessly to the SS Health App AND MyFitnessPal, which has never been possible for me with Huawei wearables, or this thing I've got now. 😒⌚️