4 Things To Consider Before Buying A Fitness Tracker

Let’s talk about fitness trackers and the things to consider before buying one.

The technology surrounding fitness tracker is changing at a staggering pace! They are all fun novelties when you first buy them, but you can soon become disappointed when you learn that the new toy dangling from your arm doesn’t track your heart rate, play music while your run, or isn’t waterproof like your best running buddy’s watch.

The first tracker I bought was the Nike Fuel Band years ago.  One year later, I was over it and wanted a more sophisticated Garmin watch.

Avoid buyer’s remorse.  Here are 4 things to consider before buying a fitness tracker: budget, purpose, metrics, and style.

4 Things To Consider Before Buying A Fitness Tracker

Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to fund my coffee drinking habit if you use these links to make a purchase. You will not be charged extra, and you’ll keep me supplied with caffeine. It’s a win for everyone, really.

Budget

The first thing you want to consider when buying your next fitness tracker is your budget. The price range can vary greatly. Expect to pay somewhere between $100 to $1000.

For the most part, when it comes to fitness trackers, you get what you pay for.  The lower end variety will count steps and maybe estimate calories.

More expensive versions might collect more metrics than you care for to know.

Purpose

The next thing before deciding on a tracker is to think about what your activities are.

Are you an avid walker, but don’t engage in many other activities? Then a low-end Fitbit would do the trick.

Are you a wannabe triathlete who’s gearing up to train for your first triathlon? If yes, you might want to consider a multi-sport watch that is specific to swim/bike/run.

Do you want to leave your phone at home and run hands-free? If yes, you’ll need a watch with a stand-alone GPS.  

Are you outside, exposed to the elements often? You definitely need to consider water resistancy.

Do you want it to double as a smartwatch as well, or would you rather avoid receiving distracting notifications while out on a run?

Do you hate fiddling with buttons? If so, you might want to consider a touch screen. You should have the answers to these questions before you decide on buying an activity tracker.

Metrics

Once you’ve set your price range, and you’ve narrowed down the purpose of buying a fitness tracker, you’ll want to consider what types of metrics you’ll want to have collected. 

If your budget is lower, you might have to sacrifice some features, such as heart monitoring.

All fitness trackers will count steps, however more advanced trackers will monitor much more, such as your heart rate, your cadence, or even your VO2 Max.

The most technologically advanced trackers will even provide comprehensive navigation. The list of data to be collected is quite long, but here are some you might want to consider:

• Steps count
• Pace
• Elevation
• Activities
• Heart Monitor
• Calories In/ Calories Out
• Cadence
• VO2 Max
• Sleep

Style

Since you’ll be wearing this novelty timepiece on your wrist, you’ll also want to consider its style.

Will you be wearing your activity tracker instead of a watch? Will it be appropriate for your work environment?

Some fitness trackers such as Fitbit offer stylish bracelet-like options that will look good even when you wear a dress. On the other hand, that really fancy, expensive Fenix 5 by Garmin wouldn’t quite pair well with heels.

Some fitness trackers come in bright colors, others come with changeable watch faces and wrist bands so you can configure your watch to match your mood, or outfit! What’s important to you?

Here some of the most popular fitness tracker around:

Fitbit Charge: The Fitbit Charge features a GPS tracker, heart rate monitor, sleep tracking and built in Spotify control. It has a 7-day battery life, which is important if you don’t want to be waiting for it to charge to do a workout. You can even use it for secure “tap to pay”.

Garmin Instinct Solar: This type of watch is more for the hard care fitness junkie, triathlete. It’s a smartwatch that has a super long 24 – 54 days battery life because it’s solar. It comes with lots of preloaded fitness apps like swim, bike run, and hike. The Garmin Instinct Solar tracks your heart, pulse, stress. It has navigational GPS and also controls music from your smartphone.

Apple Watch: The apple watch is for the less hard-core athlete that still wants to track various parameters like heart rate, step count, calories, sleep, etc.

The apple watch is full on Smartwatch with fitness tracking as a bonus. If you get it with cell data you make calls, send texts, stream music, set reminders, and get notifications from your favorite app-all with just your watch.

4 Things To Consider Before Buying a Fitness Tracker

To sum up, this article, before you rush out and buy at fitness tracker, do yourself a favour and consider budget, your budget, the purpose for a fitness tracker, the metrics you want it to measure, and style is also very important.

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