Could there BE anymore fitness tracking devices? Probably... ha I have used my fair share of them. From pedometers to heart rate monitors to arms bands to watches. You name it. I have probably tried it. That is why I thought it may be fun to take a trip down memory lane and see how far fitness trackers have come and weigh the pros and cons to determine which one is the "best fitness tracker" on the market.
I remember when my parents first started their weight loss journey. They came home from WeightWatchers with a pedometer. I thought, "Mmm... that's pretty cool. It can track every step you take just by attaching it to your shoe." This was back in the day when diets or weight loss programs finally realized fitness was just as important as food. They were just trying to get people to move. So what better way to do it than by attaching a counter to your shoe? Great idea!
In college, I had a fancy watch that tracked my runs. It had GPS so it knew where I was on my run AND it had a heart rate monitor so it could tell me exactly how many calories I was burning on my runs. This was SO cool. Now I knew the exact amount to eat without going crazy... Not like I cared. I was in college, remember?
But after college, I was in Washington DC, watching my favorite show, The Biggest Loser, and my idol, Jillian Michaels, was wearing (and had her contestants wearing) this white arm band. I thought, that is the coolest thing I have ever seen. She was able to take the data collected from this [what seemed to be] tiny armband and know exactly where they stood in their weight loss journey. I had to have one! This band was called the Bodymedia Fit. I wore this thing religiously. Tight shirt with a bulge on my arm? I didn't care. I was cool because I had a fitness tracker and the same fitness tracker as Jillian Michaels. It was great until the band began to turn yellow because of sweat. You could not wash that thing enough. It eventually just stained and became disgusting. This disappointment happened while my brother was working for Garmin. He said, "Garmin has this new thing that is a watch and a calorie counter and I can get you a discount because I work here." A calorie counter for under $100?? YES, please. So I got the Garmin Vivofit.
This tracker was great (and still is)! It was just like a watch with a watch battery. Never needed to be charged, the bands were interchangeable. It was small (smaller than the Bodymedia Fit band). It tracked my steps, calories, told me when to move and tracked my sleep. I could get all of this AND it synced with my Garmin running watch so when I went out for a run, I did not need to wear my Vivofit. They would sync and my fitness tracker would know I worked out and would count my steps. BONUS!
While I loved this tracker, I kept hearing everyone talk about this Fitbit. What the heck is a Fitbit and why was everyone so crazed about it? I really wanted the Apple Watch. It had just come out so the price was ridiculous. So my parents gifted me with the Fitbit Blaze. It looked like an Apple Watch but it was a Fitbit. I could change the bands, it tracked everything my Garmin did and allowed me to get app notifications and texts on my watch. I could not respond buttt I got the notifications. Pretty cool. The only thing I did not like about this watch was the fact that you had to charge it almost every other day. I wanted to wear it to sleep in because it tracked my sleep cycle. This was the coolest data to see.
Then for my birthday this year, my husband finally got me the Apple Watch I had been asking for for over two years! He let me go to the store, pick out the band I wanted and the watch face. I was thrilled. And still am.... But, I am disappointed in the tracker. I definitely think out of all the fitness trackers I have had, the Garmin Vivofit was my favorite. The Apple Watch, to me, is more of another gadget. It has great features for fitness tracking and I am loving them. But there are sooooo many other apps that I can respond to texts. I can set a timer. I can check the weather. I can go for a run. The only thing that I do not like is that it has to be charged every night. There is no skipping a night of charging because it will almost always die the next day. If it's a watch, shouldn't it have a battery like a watch??? I am sure having all the other stuff on the watch makes it not as simple as I think it should be.
All in all, I am happy with my Apple Watch. I LOVE watches in general and have tried just about every watch imaginable but that is for another blog post. Anyways, back to our original purpose. The Apple Watch has everything all my other trackers had but in one device. If you are looking for just a simple fitness tracker, I would highly recommend the Garmin Vivofit. It requires NO CHARGING! Huge plus in my opinion. Fitness trackers are here to stay and new ones are coming out all the time. What would you like to see in a fitness tracker? What fitness tracker to you use? What are your favorite features? What are things you wish they would change? Tell me in the comments below.
Cheers,
KPD
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