Wearable Fitness Trackers

The baroness is considering getting one.

Does anyone here use a wearable fitness tracking device? What one do you use? Is it helpful/worth it? What features do you use the most?

The feature she's thusfar mostly noted interest in is sleep cycle tracking. She also wants one that will work when playing roller derby: not going to be broken by falls/hits, and won't gouge other players.

I have a garmin forerunner 235.

It has bluetooth, GPS, heart rate monitor, configurable data screens and does everything from marathon training, swimming to cycling to sleep, calorie or step tracking.

The rechargeable battery will last a full ironman and then some if you need but... mostly I charge it once every 5 days. More if I workout more because the GPS uses more power.

It's got time prediction, V02 max, recovery timing and you can run programmable workouts so it leads you by time or heart rate.

It integrates with Garmin Connect, Myfitnesspal and Strava for sharing/tracking/etc if you like that sort of thing or compete with friends at stuff.

It ain't cheap but it's not terribly expensive either if you are working to a performance goal of some kind.

For me, it's perfect. I run and cycle mostly but I also use it to track rowing and other workouts. YMMV.

Fitbit Charge 2 user here. Love it, used mostly to track runs and bike rides, but also like the hourly nagging on work days that helps me remember to walk around more during the day. I fon't wear it at night, so sleep tracking is not done for me, but it will do that if you wear it to bed. Pretty durable do far, but I did put an aftermarket screen protector film on it (to be fair).

Huckleberry wrote: I have a garmin forerunner 235. It has bluetooth, GPS, heart rate monitor, configurable data screens and does everything from marathon training, swimming to cycling to sleep, calorie or step tracking. The rechargeable battery will last a full ironman and then some if you need but... mostly I charge it once every 5 days. More if I workout more because the GPS uses more power. It's got time prediction, V02 max, recovery timing and you can run programmable workouts so it leads you by time or heart rate. It integrates with Garmin Connect, Myfitnesspal and Strava for sharing/tracking/etc if you like that sort of thing or compete with friends at stuff. It ain't cheap but it's not terribly expensive either if you are working to a performance goal of some kind. For me, it's perfect. I run and cycle mostly but I also use it to track rowing and other workouts. YMMV.

I run the baby brother Forerunner 35. I like the built-in heart rate monitor and the battery life. The fact that it's a slightly smart watch (it'll alert you to phone calls and alerts on your phone) has proven to be surprisingly welcome. It's a reasonable size so you can wear it all day without looking like you have a computer on your wrist. The sleep tracking seems to get confused if you read in bed, but overall it's been pretty solid.

My wife also uses one on her marathon training, and the live tracking feature is really useful if I want to know where she is on one of her long runs.

I was wearing mine when I crashed my mountain bike and partially disassembled my shoulder, so based on that test it's tougher than I am

The Garmin Vivosmart HR will do what she's looking for for about $130.

It doesn't t have GPS, but does do HR, sleep tracking, activity monitoring, stair tracking, workouts, phone integration for notifications and music control, and integrates with Garmin connect just like the higher end models.

I replaced a Garmin vivofit HR, which was the previous model of the vivosmart, with an Apple Watch recently. I really like the Apple Watch, especially GPS and being able to play music from it to BT headphones, but miss the battery life of the Garmin and the better integration for fitness.

I use a Fitbit Blaze (Ok, they were on sale at Costco...), specifically for sleep tracking. It also shows me how much of a lazy barsteward I am. I like the battery life - a lot of smart watches don't have good battery life, this thing holds a charge for 3-5 days, depending on how often I sync the data to my phone.

Mind you, I'm not sure if the build (relatively thin metal frame, the watch pops into the frame) is something I'd want to wear while playing roller derby.