Advice on which activity tracker to purchase

I love my Fitbit Blaze.

I love my Fitbit Charge HR. I've had it for about 9 months. Recently, the side button came loose and fell off- they replaced it with zero trouble (I didn't even have to return the broken one or send them a picture/receipt- it was the most hassle-free return experience of my life).
I think the Fitbit app is awesome and it helps me stay on track/analyze my exercise data (I'm an admitted spreadsheet nerd so I love looking at all the info). Also, I use it to track my walks/runs instead of MapMyFitness- I switched over when I received my Fitbit. I miss the gear tracking aspect but other than that I find the Fitbit app to be great. I've had zero troubles integrating Fitbit and MFP. Together, they are helping me maintain a 60+ lb weight loss.
When it's time to upgrade in a few years (their newest models look pretty slick!), I plan to purchase another Fitbit.

I've got the Garmin VivoSmart HR+. It's got good and bad sides to it, and that's all related to what @HRKinchen said above.

I'm using it to track my heart rate, calories burned, and steps taken over the course of the day. For heart rate, the other tools I use expect to receive the data via something known as ANT+ (similar to Bluetooth, loosely speaking). I want this data to be automatically uploaded to my phone so that I don't have to do anything manually. Finally, I want all of this to integrate with MyFitnessPal and Strava (which is what I use for most of my bike ride tracking).

So, how does this tracker stack up with my needs and wants? Well, it tracks all of the above, and quite a bit more (sleep time/quality, stairs climbed, has a GPS, and can display notifications from my phone). It uploads automatically to the phone using Garmin Connect, and Garmin Connect uploads to both MFP and Strava for me. It even supports sending heart rate via ANT+, so I can see that on the other tools I use (not going into them here because they derail this post by a lot).

Sounds like all is perfect in paradise, right? Not quite. The MFP integration, when it sends my calories used over the course of a day, is wildly off. When I started, it was claiming about 4000 calories burned over the course of a day. When MFP was doing those adjustments, it meant that I would *never* consume enough calories, and I couldn't track things very well. In the end, I had to turn that integration off entirely. Because of that, I don't have steps (and the calories from those steps) making it into MFP, which throws things off a bit for me.

In addition, the automatic upload to the phone is only *mostly* good. There's times when something goes haywire, and I have to reboot the phone entirely (about once/week). That's not limited to the Garmin, though. Other bluetooth devices have similar issues, so I think it's the phone and not the tracker. I haven't confirmed, though.

All in all, I like the device, and would recommend it if it meets the goals you have. Just be sure to check out what it does, and how you will use it, before you get it (whatever device you go with).

I hope that helps out. TTYL.

I have used multiple Fitbits in the past and now I wear a Polar A360.

Just like @HRKinchen said above. It depends on what you want to use it for.

I started out with a second gen Fitbit years ago just for the pedometer. I used the pedometer part for about a month. Add in a few more years and a few more Fitbits, I moved on to the Fitbit Charge HR. I wanted the Heart rate part without having to always wear my polar chest strap. I found inaccuracies with it in regards to my heart rate, and it just became a watch I wore. I also wore my Polar FT7 when working out and my HR was way under with the Fitbit. Last year I changed over to the Polar A360. Mostly because it was waterproof and my Fitbit broke. It gives me my heart rate which is the only thing I care about now when working out. The Polar A360 seems a bit more accurate, although I would not call any of them perfect.

If you have Android, the polar app, polar flow, will not link to MFP...only downside. I even tried a back way by linking polar flow to google fit then to MFP, but it will not send my info to MFP. MFP will send all my data to google fit though.

A lot of cool gadgets in this thread! I am a cheap SOB and so I took the plunge on a $15 knockoff from China called the i5 Plus it took 3+ weeks to land Stateside, but I love it!



It is water resistant (went to a pool party with my 18m old son and never had to take it off, despite multiple splashes), tracks my sleep (light sleep, deep sleep and awake) and counts my steps. It is paired with my phone via bluetooth so I also get text/email/call alerts. There is a sedentary alarm, and you can set additional alarms for whatever time you want. It doesn't make noise, it just vibrates, but it's strong enough to wake me.

It's nice not to be completely tethered to my phone all day (especially with a toddler, don't need him to see me constantly checking messages), and I only need to go find my phone if my wristband alerts me to a message that's important to me (you can choose the app that it pushes notifications for). Battery life is about 7 days, it's a USB dongle inside a wristband so you plug it straight into a USB port to charge it, and it charges fully in about 30 mins.

Downside: MFP doesn't directly support it, BUT I have the band synced to Google Fit. And MFP does support Google Fit, so MFP picks up my steps from there. Like a weird technological 3-way. It does not have an HR monitor, but I'm not fussed about that - I believe they have a heartrate tracking wristband for around 25-35.

I also had an issue with bluetooth disconnecting/resetting my steps, but I got in touch with the manufacturers and they emailed me some solutions that appear to have worked (no resets at all today so far). So very good tech support IMO. My FitBit friends laughed at how cheap I am but honestly I feel like I'm getting more features than they are!

emmarrgh wrote: »

A lot of cool gadgets in this thread! I am a cheap SOB and so I took the plunge on a $15 knockoff from China called the i5 Plus it took 3+ weeks to land Stateside, but I love it!
[lots of helpful stuff snipped]

Well you sold me, I just found one and ordered it
I wasnt sure if a tracker was for me or not, but for that little money, its worth trying and if dont like using one, no big deal! I paid for a quick shipping, but we'll see just how quick it really is, but under 3 bucks added for shipping is less than what you normally pay for the slowest shipping! Reviews seem good, although online reviews can be questionable, i know yours is valid Too many people say wrist HRMs are worthless so no need to pay for that. Just a good way to get my toes wet and see if I will even like having/using one or not.
Thanks for the input!!