Best Fitness Tracker Topic

Andygeekboy 06/06/16
Ok, so I know this is a VERY subjective question.

I'm looking for everyones thoughts on tech that they own and use regularly.

Thanks,

Andy

Cajartina?? 06/06/16
That's actually a totally awesome question. I'm wondering that myself. Anyone have any suggestions?

RainbowEater 06/08/16
I've been using Fitbit for a year and a half. I started with Fitbit Flex and focused on counting my steps. One good thing about Fitbit is great customer service - if your device won't charge any more you email them and they just send you a new one. When the Blaze came out in March I upgraded. I wanted a device that would track my heart rate. The Fitbit Blaze is much more accurate with heart rate than other trackers. It is always with 3 bpm of what my doc says. Also there's only a 1-2 bpm difference between my Blaze and my Withings digital scale in measuring HR. I chose the Blaze because I wanted the best fitness tracker and did not care about getting text messages etc on my wrist so I turned off notifications. I also like how well Fitbit syncs with MND Max.

Justjennie 06/09/16
I suggest you do your own research and figure out what will work best for you and what you want to use it for. For me I just care about how hard I'm working when doing my cardio and the calories burned. I don't need anything fancy.

I don't have a fitness tracker but I did just buy a Polar Heart Rate Monitor that I've been using during my workouts. I like it because it helps make me work harder. It also gives how many calories burned and the percentage of max and minimum HR and how long I was in each "zone".

I'm not too keen on fitness trackers, mostly because I have known people whose Fit Bit has counted "steps" when they were sitting in a car. Plus the normal every day things that I do shouldn't count towards calories "burned". I also don't feel that the wrist monitor is as accurate as the chest strap. Plus it was found that the Fit Bit was off by at least 20 beats for heart rate! That's HUGE!!

Sunshine&Berries 06/09/16
The new iPhones have the Health app built into them and will synch with mynetdiary. MND also has an app that works very well. So, I'm covered for walking. I really like those, enjoy seeing the lines of where I was, having the automatic update and charts and stuff. It's fun. :)

I tried wearing devices, but I just don't like it. Plus, the health and MND apps do all the fun stuff I really enjoy. So I quit the wearable thingies.

Willikampmann 06/17/16
If you've got an iPhone, it counts steps automatically and fairly well. The Health.app interface is very crude, though. A rather good tracking app is Withings HealthMate, which also integrates with the Withings scale (MND has paid integration with that scale as well, don't know if over the cloud or via app exchange) and other Withings health products. Another great app is Zombies, Run, which lets you experience a zombie apocalypse through an interactive audio book, by walking or running. It's not really an everyday tracker, but for longer walks it is a lot of fun.

One of the best fitness trackers in my opinion is the Apple Watch. It counts steps, but more importantly it also reads your pulse and makes sure you don't sit for too long. Its tech is not perfect, but for me it's a valuable fitness tool that has more to offer and better usability than traditional fitness bands—though admittedly at 3–4x the price.

Cajartina?? 06/17/16
Willikampmann, how does the Heath app track steps? I've been trying to get it to do that forever. (Without upswing a separate step tracker app) I simply cannot find a setting that works. Do you have experience with this? If so, please help!

Dietitian 06/17/16 replied to Cajartina??
Hi Noskcajartina, this is a good description of how to track steps using your iPhone (and loading data into Health app): http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/08/track-fitness-health-app-iphone/

FYI, you need an iPhone version that has the motion coprocessor (5S or higher).

Willikampmann 06/17/16
If your iPhone doesn't count steps in the background, that's either because it is missing the motion processor, or it doesn't have the authority to collect that data. Only the iPhone 5s, 5se, and all of the 6 series have that motion processor. It's basically a low-power chip that analyzes all of the sensor data, so that the main processor doesn't have to do that. Back then it was the main reason for me to upgrade from a 4s to the 5s.

If you do have a compatible iPhone, it might be that step counting isn't authorized. The first time you either setup your phone or open the Health app (I'm not exactly sure when), you will be asked if you want your iPhone to actually collect that data. Go to settings, then privacy, then activity & fitness, then make sure that fitness protocol is checked (the terms might be slightly different, my iPhone isn't set up in English).

You should check that setting even if you don't want to use the mediocre Health app, as many other apps can access this step data.

If you don't have a compatible iPhone, you have to use an app that uses its own step counting algorithm. Main problem here is that they consume more battery power. I used to love the app "Moves"; "Striiv" is another quite good app with proprietary step counting. However, I don't think they can write that data into the Health app.

Cajartina?? 06/18/16
That explains it... So no 5c

Best Fitness Tracker