Survey: Which connected fitness gear do you use:

I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3 (and Garmin chest belt) that replaced a lower-end Polar HRM watch (recently deceased) and chest belt, plus old Garmin Forerunner 205 that I was using for GPS pace/distance data (mainly for rowing). Desire was to get most of the functions I care about (immediate HR monitoring during exercise, GPS pace/distance recording for rowing that I can review post-row; and more casually, speed/distance for biking and walking). I'm so old that I always wear a wristwatch, so I wanted one that was functional for that, too, and not excessively grotesque or cutesy.

I use the chest belt for intentional exercise, because wrist-based HR has a reputation for being wonky during rowing (probably too much crazy arm movement) and purely out of habit for spinning, my other regular exercise.

I don't sync to MFP because, for me, the VA3 all-day calorie burn data is Just Wrong (TDEE/NEAT calculators tend to be wrong for me, too, and by approximately the same proportion; dunno why). I normally use the calorie estimates from on-water rowing and spinning to log exercise on MFP for lack of a better source, though I do pay attention to the rowing machine calorie estimates (after weight adjustment) as a double check. If anything, based on experience, the exercise estimates may be a little lowball for me, but that's OK.

I haven't tried to figure out whether the step counts are accurate (I don't walk all that much, and super rarely for exercise), but they seem proportionally rational, i.e., if the VA3 says I walked twice as many steps as usual, that seems subjectively reasonable IME.

The sleep tracking is laughably inaccurate. I don't think it's just me, or just this device: Overall, trackers have that reputation. The "flights of stairs" estimate is imaginative, too.

Too often, it seems to me that people think of these devices as sources of deep, mysterious, personal technological insight, when they're really just tiny, kinda-complicated bundles of algorhythmic estimation.

Fun and useful, despite the limitations, though.

Fitbit charge 3. Loving it and the battery lasts 8 days on one charge.

Garmin 920xt with Garmin Connect & Strava. I wnet for the 920 based on its multi-sport capabilities (it has a built in triathlon setting) great battery life and display that even my decrepit old geezer eyes can read without glasses.

BrianSharpe wrote: »

Garmin 920xt with Garmin Connect & Strava. I wnet for the 920 based on its multi-sport capabilities (it has a built in triathlon setting) great battery life and display that even my decrepit old geezer eyes can read without glasses.

That's one of the first things I noticed with the 5x. I could actually read the screen. If I put more than 2 fields on my old 630 I couldn't read it when I was running. With the 5x I can see all 4 fields. Finally, a watch made for old farts.

Just started using the Fitbit Charge 3. Couple of niggles. I think the calorie count is quite high I am quite sedentary most days and it tells me I have been up more flights of stairs than I actually have. I do drive up a very steep hill every day and I think it might be registering this as several flights of stairs.

Otherwise I like it a lot. I got it as it is waterproof and I shall be using it swimming and it syncs with MFP. I like the sleep function. HR seems fairly close so happy with that as well.

garmin vivoactive3-no music
they seem pretty accurate. no weird data

Withings Pulse 3D, turned Nokia, turned back to Withings.

I'm on my 2nd Garmin Forerunner 35 and I love it. The price is more affordable than other watches I've looked at and it literally does everything I need it to. The battery only needs charging every 4 days or so and it's completely waterproof. After drowning 2 fitbits this is very important to me. I have it connected to MFP for exercise and calories consumed. The phone app is very nice and gives a lot of detail. It has a nice HR monitor that works most of the time. Occasionally, it just doesn't get going but I'm pretty consistent HR wise and so I'm not too worried about it. The only time I look really closely at the HR function is when I'm running uphill............LOL At my age I have to be somewhat careful that I don't bust my heart right out of my chest or something.

It's a great product in my opinion.

I have the Garmin Vivoactive 3. I've only used it indoors at the gym (I got it just as winter started) but so far I love it. It's surprisingly good for strength training; you can design a workout, transfer it to the watch and it will tell you what exercise to do next, count your reps (not super accurate) and time your rest periods. Calories burned on cardio machines seem to be estimated well. The hr monitor seems accurate too, except on some weight lifting exercises where I flex my wrist muscles a lot. I have my calorie target set to my RMR in MFP and the extra calories that Garmin posts to MFP seems to bring the total to the ballpark of my daily burn. It has a built in GPS which I look forward to trying when the weather gets warmer.

I've been using Sleep As Android as a separate app to track my sleep. It works way better than the other ones. Unfortunately, there's a bug in the Garmin version that the developers have been struggling with for the past while so I can't use my watch for that yet.

Garmin Vivofit2. Bought it because it was inexpensive. Kept it because it works! It tracks sleep and steps. Mine is about 3 years old and they have upgraded them with HR monitors etc. What I like about my model is it uses a watch battery which is good for 1+ year. No daily recharging. It syncs with MFP.