Fitness tracker choices

Map My Walk or Map My Fitness. I set it up to sync with MFP.

I hope it's OK to ask an additional question in this thread! Do you prefer a stand alone tracker, such as a FitBit, or just the phone trackers like Endomondo or MapMyWalk?

My wife bought me a fitbit and Its ok. It has a good app and a fantastic comunity behind it. competing with your friends can be fun and semi-rewarding. Most of all it lets me know by the numbers how lazy I've been. Mine is the charge HR and it reads my heart rate which seems to be fine for regular daily activities byt weight lifting or anything that causes my wrist to flex a lot doesn't register well.

I bought a polar m400 gps running watch because where I live there is one cellular tower for the entire town and theres no triangulation of any cellular towers for accurate gps. I used runkeeper before and compared to the gps watch its off 3/10 of a mile over a 3 mile run and if your training for a race or event that could really add up over some more substantial distances. The m400 has activity tracking built in and does what I feel is a better job of it than the fitbit but none of my friends or family have a polar product. It uses a chest strap based heart rate monitor for exercise and its companion h7 monitor is widely known as a good accurate unit. The polar unit is substantially larger than the fitbit but seems to be of a good build quality with far more adjustment in the band.

Neither of these products make you more fit but both cause you to be aware of what you did or did not do that day.

kvp7338 wrote: »

Please kindly tell me which tracker you use, why you use it, what you like about it and what you don't like about it. Thank you.

As far as day to day tracking I like Garmin Products. I use the VivoSmart HR. It's an all day activity tracker, HR monitor. The Heart Rate Monitor I've tested, against a Garmin HRM, and Whaoo Fitnees HRM ...which I've found to be accurate. It tracks my sleep and Stairs, but I think the Stairs feature is a bit off. My wife uses the Forerunner 25 which is a All Day Step Counter, Sleep Monitor and running GPS.

The Garmin Connect is a bit "Meat and Potatoes" though it's very much number based which I personally like.

As far as Workout Tracking I use a Mixture of Garmin Connect, Strava, and Training Peaks. Which all three are very much numbers based for the endurance athlete. And I cannot begin to explain the difference just Strava has made for me in my cycling world. If you're wanting something a bit more easier to understand and easier on the eyes I would HIGHLY recommend Endomondo.

Map My Fitness - you can use it to map just about any activity.
i use it for walking, kayaking, and swimmin...and will usie it for bike riding onde i get my bike fixed

kvp7338 wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

To get a meaningful answer, other than a list of what people have then it would help to understand what's driving your question, what you hope to gain from having some form of tracker and what sort of activities you're hoping to track using it.

I asked because I am curious. I don't understand why people use a tracker. I am trying to determine if I too would find some value in utilizing a tracker of some sort.

Thanks, useful context.

I have:

• Garmin VivoSmart HR - Wrist worn step tracker, it counts steps, flights of stairs, activity minutes and tracks HR. The step counter is interesting, but of limited value to me as an endurance runner. The most useful aspect is that it tracks my resting heart rate so that I can see fitness improvement, and indeed judge whether I may need to ease back on training. Activity minutes are also a bit nebulous for me.
• Garmin Forerunner 310XT Triathlon watch - Gives me a GPS trace and performance metrics for running, cycling and outdoor swimming. It also links to both the VivoSmart HR or a dedicate HR monitoring pod to include my HR in my training. The latter point isn't something I use much as HR data isn't a huge contributor to my training.
• Garmin Edge 520 cycle GPS for tracking my cycling, whether road, trail or turbotrainer. Connects to cadence and speed sensors on the bike as well as either the VivoSmart or a dedicated HR pod. Again it gives me geographic tracking to allow me to analyse performance on my various bikes.

You'll note all Garmin so it feeds into a single ecosystem, which integrates all of the sports performance data into a unified picture.

I share the data with Strava, Endomondo and MFP. Strava has good analysis tools and Endomondo gives me my training plans for endurance running, so allows me to build my actual training into the adherence to the plan.

I also use the PolarM400 but only wear it during intentional bouts of physical activity such as taking a class, working out at home, biking, hiking, etc. I don't use it for the activity tracker function personally because tracking my daily steps is not of interest to me. I specifically wanted something with a chest strap HR monitor for better accuracy especially bc the wrist ones would always stop working when doing things like burpees or lifting when I tried. I really like this tool -- agree wish more people had it so for the community sense most people seem to be on the FitBit!

kvp7338 wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

To get a meaningful answer, other than a list of what people have then it would help to understand what's driving your question, what you hope to gain from having some form of tracker and what sort of activities you're hoping to track using it.

I asked because I am curious. I don't understand why people use a tracker. I am trying to determine if I too would find some value in utilizing a tracker of some sort. And then I would use the input from those that have kindly answered to determine what I would trial.

Thank you to those that have kindly answered my questions.

• I use a tracker in conjunction with MyFitnessPal for a number of reasons. I have the Negative Calories Adjustment tuned on so the more sedimentary I am through the day the the less calories I have to eat through the day.
• I have several fellow MFPers on my Garmin Connect account and every week it pits up together in a step contest to see who can get the most steps in one 7 day period. So with that in the back of my head it keeps me active.
• Mine has a HR monitor on it so i can judge my activity level though the day based on HR. And I can adjust my diet or activity levels accordingly.
• Mine also has a sleep tracker. So I can adjust my Sugar and/or caffeine later in the evening to help me sleep better.

Are they a NEEDED item. Heavens no. But they do help you get a better picture of what you're doing when your not exercising.

Garmin Fenix 3. I like that everything is built into a single, good-looking package. I use the GPS every day, and love having it with me any time I ever need it. Use the GPS to trace my routes, which is hugely helpful (it can explain a lot of the data), to know how fast I'm running, and to know when the sun will rise and set. It talks to the power meter on my bike, records my swims, measures the altitude and shows the air pressure history which lets me predict storms in the backcountry, and even counts my steps through the day. But I really like that it goes beyond step count.

I have a Garmin 235. Love it. The resting HR measure seems a bit off, but the HR during workouts seems fine. GPS is spot on, it syncs with MFP and Runkeeper. It tracks running, biking, etc. and is waterproof.