Best Fitness Tracker Wrist Band + why?

Hi Everyone

I am looking to get a Fitness / Exercise Tracker wrist band type. Ideally one with a HR monitor, but not essential.

There are a few on the market. Does anyone have any views / experience of these and can recommend any. Which one's look the best and have the best accompanying app that is useful.

Thanks in advance.

J

 

Waterproof is an excellent consideration, as swimming is one of the best (in my opinion) forms of exercise. However, I still haven't figured out why these health trackers are necessary. Does it improve your workout in some way? Allow you to take breaks at exactly the right times?

 

They're basically about encouraging people to exercise more, by beating their own figures, e.g.:- (x-time>y-time, etc.), i.m.o. As is most sport related stuff. No, I don't have/want one. Not just no,but Hell no!.:-D

 

I have a FitBit tracker, got it for Christmas. I like it and the function it fills for me is to break my day down into tangible data. Calories burned by laying comfortably on the couch all day, vs calories burned a day spent taking care of post-holiday shopping, for example. It also tracks what I'm eating and shows nutritional contents, not just calories, which is a big help towards what to eat, and what to avoid. Calories aren't just calories.

But the biggest benefit for me is that it tracks my sleep patterns. I put it to sleep mode before going to bed, and it measures how many hour i sleep, how many times I woke up during the night, and how many total minutes of restless sleep I had, broken up into number of instances. I'm not an insomniac, but I have had difficulties with getting restful sleep for years, and I'm looking forward to using the FitBit data to change that.

And my tracker armband is waterproof, I shower with it. The manual only mentions showers, not swimming, but multiple reports from users in the FitBit forum say you can swim with it, though it won't track your distance if you do.

ETA:
I have the FitBit Flex.

 

The mobile app interface is very easy to work with (though I've used fitness tracking apps before, which probably helped me). The PC Dashboard interface took some tinkering to get used to, but that's probably just because it was new to me.

Once I got used to it the dashboard is pretty straightforward and data is easy to both find and log. You can customize which shortcuts you want to see on your dashboard and which ones you want hidden. The food database is big and easy to search as well.

 

Hi Guys

In answer to the original question a while back now:

What smartphone do you have?.....Android Samsung
2. Do you want a fitness tracker with screen?.....I'd prefer one which actually showed the number of steps I had achieved that day
3. Ballpark price willing to pay?....$100-150 approx (or more for the right one)
4. Do you want it swim proof (as swimming is good exercise)?....Would be good, however not essential.
I also need it for sleep tracking.
I'd prefer one that looked nice, not massive and bulky, something that looked OK to wear everyday. A bit trendy maybe.
Also, I'd like one which has a long time betweeen charges, not one you have to recharge every other day.
I am looking to get one, as I have quite an addictive personality, so I want to get addicted to it, something positive rather than other negative behaviours!
Anyway, would be interesting to hear what people thought would be my perfect tracker.