Fitness Trackers Mayhem

As an avid fitness enthusiast and technology junky, I am often asked for advice on the latest or best gadgets to try, by friends and colleagues.

Health and Fitness is a multi- billion dollar industry, one which is peppered with all kinds of experts... anybody who loves to exercise, or achieved a personal gold of losing impressive amounts of weight is trying to make a living sharing their knowledge in the midst of thousands of personal coaches, fitness instructors, personal trainers etc.  
Along with that comes the need for monitoring and sharing our achievements.  Living at every level happens multidimensionally... in real life and virtually thorough social media, which requires software and hardware that monitor, advice, allow us to compete and share our feeds...

For most of us navigating through the plethora of offerings at hand is a minefield of confusion...
Through this post I will attempt to clear out some of the confusion using my own experience and unbiased opinion.  It is important to state that I am not associated with the health/Fitness industry nor do I have anything to gain by the advice I am offering here.  
Furthermore, on this post I will only cover fitness trackers and not smart watches with fitness tracking capabilities, nor the apps.  I will do a separate posts about these topics at a later time.

When it comes to fitness trackers, one size doesn't fit all and not all of them are made equally or priced similarly.

The first question one might want to ask once they have decided to invest on a fitness tracking device is what they need it to do.  For most people, when starting out, this seemingly simple question is actually the most difficult one.  What I most ofter hear is "what do you mean?"... What I mean is:
- Do you want it to count your steps and tell you how many steps you have done through the day and calculate an average calorie burn?
- Do you want it to monitor your sleep patterns?
- Are you planning on pairing it with the many health monitoring apps, such as iHealth, Google Fit, Fitness Pal, Edomondo, RunKeeper...?  At this point most of my friends are looking at me with a glazed look.

I have found it's far easier to separate the available options under the following categories:

1. Beginner/Basic User - This person is either starting out on their fitness quest or they are only interested in monitoring and capturing basic data such as steps and calories burned
2. Intermediate/Wkd Warrior- Someone that works out 3-4 times a wk and is interested in capturing their work outs in addition to steps and calories burn as well as getting some personal coaching
3. Advanced/non professional Athletes/Fitness Enthusiasts- Someone that is very serious about their health and fitness, however they are not a professional Athlete.  Someone that works out 4+ days a wk and is interested in accurately capturing moment, caloric burn, heart rate as well as getting personal coaching

Category 1 - Beginner/Basic User

The fitness tracking world has been historically dominated by the likes of Fitbit, Jawbone and Nike  Fuel band to name a couple.  Which are all great devices, however in my opinion a bit pricey for someone that is starting out and is interested in something more basic.  Both Fitbit and Jawbone offer basic models one my look at such as:

• Fitbit Zip (retailing at £49.99 - https://www.fitbit.com/uk/zip)
• Jawbone Move (retailing at £39.99 - https://jawbone.com/store/buy/upmove)
• MisFit Link (retailing at £13.00 - MisFit) - however in the UK we can buy the Misfit Flash only which prices start at £38.50
• Xiaomi Mi Band (retailing at £11.98 - Xiaomi Mi Banda at Amazon)

All of the above fitness trackers will allow you to track your steps, calories, sleep and some like the Xiaomi Mi Band also offer smart notifications for emails, and social Media as well as smart alarm.  My personal recommendation for this category is Xiaomi Mi Band.  You can't bit the price and the features you are getting with it, is what you would get on Category 2 for 3-4 times the price.

Category 2 - Intermediate/Wkd Warrior
The below trackers offer, step, distance, calorie, sleep tracking, time,  smart alarms,  smart notifications and coaching via their apps.

• Fitbit Charge (£99.99 - Fitbit Charge - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Caller ID, Alarms)
• Jawbone UP2 (£89.99 - Jawbone UP2 - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications, Smart Alarm, Inactivity notifications, smart coaching)
• MisFit Flash and Shine  (£38.50- 65.30 respectively - MisFit -  Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications, Smart Alarm, Inactivity notifications, remote control, waterproof)
• Garmin VivoSmart (£119.99 -Garmin -  Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications, Alarm, Inactivity notifications, smart coaching)
• Polar Loop2 (£94.50 -Polar Loop2 - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications & and heart rate monitoring when paired the Polar chest strap, coaching)
• Xiaomi Mi Band (retailing at £11.98 - Xiaomi Mi Banda at Amazon - steps, distance, calories, sleep, smart notifications, smart alarm)

Category 3 - Advanced/non professional Athletes and Fitness enthusiast 
The below list is really a mixed bag and there is a good reason for it.  There are a couple all rounders such as the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Polar Loop 2.  However, I have included a couple more serious fitness devises not the mix such as Moov, Adidas Mi Coach Fit Smart and the Mio Fuse as well. The later are useful for more detailed workout data and coaching.

• Fitbit Charge HR (£119.99 - Fitbit Charge - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Caller ID, Alarms, heart rate monitor)
• Jawbone UP3 (£129.99 - Fitbit Charge - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart Alarms, Inactivity alarm, Resting heart rate monitor)
• Garmin VivoSmart (£119.99 - Garmin- Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications, Alarm, Inactivity notifications, smart coaching)
• Polar Loop 2 (£94.50 - Polar Loop2 - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, Sleep, Smart notifications & and heart rate monitoring when paired the Polar chest strap, coaching)
• Adidas Mi Coach Fit Smart (£110.00 -Adidas - Steps, Distance, Calories, Time and heart rate monitor using the Mio wrist technology, coaching)
• Mio Fuse (£108.30 -Mio Fuse Steps, Distance, Calories, Time, training, Wrist heart rate monitor, water proof
• Moov (£40.00 - Moov -  is a different kind of sport tracker.  It tracks movement with a 3 sensor and provides data and coaching while you are moving, tracks daily activity

I personally use the Adidas Mi Coach Fit Smart watch to track my workouts as it uses the Mio Wrist heart-rate technology which is the best available wrist heart-rate monitor and comparable to the chest straps, in my opinion.  I also used the Xiaomi Mi Band more resently for my everyday tracking.  Prior to that,  used , fitbit, Polar Loop and Jawbone.  At the moment I am using my smart watch for everyday tracking and have been investigating what my next gadget will be. I am leaning toward the Microsoft Band 2, as I haven't used it before and I would like to test it out once it's out.  I am also looking at Moov as it offers a different kind of monitoring.

Every review I have read this year recommends the Fitbit Charge HR as the best all rounder.  It is indeed a fantastic tracker and if your budget allows I would recommend it.  If heart-rate monitoring is not something you care much about then my all rounder recommendation is Xiaomi Mi Band, as you can't go wrong for the price and the features it offers.  When your budget is not restricted my favourite is Jawbone UP2 and for something a bit more flexible in terms of how you use it then Misfit Shine2 as it allows to use when swimming as well.

Of course this list wouldn't be complete if we didn't include the smart watches which offer fitness tracking as well.  This however I will cover on a different post.

Till next time ciao ciao...