Which fitness tracker for my needs?

dalekcake · October 2015

Hi,

I own a Withings WS-50 smart body analyzer which I have connected to myfitnesspal and runkeeper. It keeps track of my weight, body fat percentage and heart rate (heart rate while weighing myself).

Currently, I track my steps with a Mi Band and the Mi Fit app. A huge disadvantage of Mi is that it does not sync to any other services except Google Fit; however, I do not want to use google fit.

Can somebody please suggest a fitness tracker meeting my criteria?
MUST

Track steps / walking
Track exercises (i.e. running and cycling)
Monitor pulse/heart rate automatically (during exercises as well as every X minutes throughout the day)
((At the moment I do a lot of physical labor, which cannot all be broken down into different exercises, so it'd be nice if the gadget would just keep monitoring and giving me an estimate of burned calories when I am done)
Analyze sleeping patterns
silent alarm depending on sleep phase

OPTIONAL

GPS
Ability to track swimming / water proof

Is there such a thing?

I really like the Withings Activité Pop; it tracks steps and other activities (swimming included), analyzes sleep and provides silent alarm. However, it does not measure heart rate and/or pulse at all. If it did, that would be the perfect gadget for me. Also, it looks quite nice.
Also, it is another Withings product so it would perfectly sync with my Withings scale and their app. I am not sure if this is a good thing because this way, all my data lies with Withings.

Then there are the Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge. Besides doing everything the Pop does, they also continually measure heart rates; the Surge even does GPS tracking. However, you cannot swim with them and they do not look anywhere near as good as the Withings product.

All these products sync with runkeeper and myfitnesspal, which is another plus.

I have done some research but could not find a satisfying answer. Is there even a product with all those specifications I would like to have? And if not, which product would you recommend to me?

Honestly, I am totally leaning towards the Activité Pop, simply because I could wear it all the time. During workouts, casual, going out, even swimming. It looks just like a simple, regular watch. However, GPS and heart rate monitoring are important as well - on the other hand, I do own a wahoo BlueHR heart rate monitor and usually always carry my phone for music when working out, so heart rate and GPS would be covered.

This is difficult. But maybe there is a product that I just haven't found and somebody can tell me about it now

Thanks in advance.

ScubaSteve1962 · October 2015

Try this site, Polar and Garmin have products to fit most of your needs, but not as stylish as the Pop

http://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/

Mrscanmore · October 2015

I got my partner the Garmin actofit (I think that's what it is called). It comes with an optional chest strap. So, you would probably only get heart rate while you are working out because you wouldn't want to wear the cheesy strap all day. I think it is water resistant for swimming. It looks like a watch and you can change the face of it and buy different straps. It had GPS but uses more battery when it is on. One of the main pros when I was looking is battery life is better than many others. It was a surprise for his birthday. He had no idea it was coming and he loves it!

rbakedq · October 2015

I started with Withings (great customer service in my experience) using their Smart Body Analyser Scale, then added the Pulse o2 for step/activity trackeing. When I started working out again, I got the Wahoo TickrX HRM. The TickrX is waterproof so you can swim with it. On my iPhone for exercise tracking I use Runkeeper, Endomundo and Wahoo Fitness. All for different reasons. No one app does everything I want. I suppose I could drop Runkeeper, but it is the one I started with and it just works. If you have any questions on this let me know. Before I go on I want to say that I really like the Withings Dashboard and the sleep tracking on the Pulse o2 is very good. However, I have switched from the Pulse o2 to a Fitbit One for one main reason. Because the Withings dashboard is not able to record any activity other than from the Pulse o2 and pass it on to MFP, if you do any other exercise that is not step based (cycling in my case) you have to turn off negative calorie adjustments in MFP. This is not a problem with the Fitbit dashboard because it does allow you to import or manually add non step activities that are then passed on to MFP. I did compare the Pulse o2 and the Fitbit One side by side for a few weeks, and both work very well. I do prefer the sleep tracking with the Pulse o2 though.

Ignaziu · October 2015

For newbees like me. This is just way too complicated.

ScubaSteve1962 · October 2015

Ignaziu wrote: »

For newbees like me. This is just way too complicated.

I've used a HRM for about 2 years, I got my first one just to fit my basic needs, and the one I have now fit's my basic needs. I don't worry about whether it's 100% accurate, but it does give me close enough figure for me. It has all the bells and whistles, and I don't worry about whether or not the gps is 100% accurate, it's close enough for me. it works underwater. So in short, figure out your basic needs and go from there, you will get a lot of recommendations and long OPINIONS as to why they are no good, and a waste of YOUR money. But the only time you waste YOUR money is when you don't spend it the way you want to, but on someone else's opinion. Try this site and pick out some of your basic needs. I prefer Polar because they link with most gym equipment to display my heart rate on the machine, plus controls the levels and incline of it to help keep it at a steady rate.

http://www.heartratemonitorsusa.com/collections/activity-monitors

rbakedq · October 2015

I am sorry if my explanation was too complicated for you. I was trying to point out to dalekcake an issue he might have if he goes with the Withings Activité Pop. I admit that I overcomplicate my workouts, but in the end you can do what you want to do (based on your post in another thread) by using a fitness tracker, the Fitbit One in my case, a HRM again in my case the Wahoo TickrX (which will track you HR while swimming), and an app for your phone.

Which fitness tracker for my needs?

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