A Beginner’s Guide To Choosing The Best Fitness Activity Tracker (Quiz Included)

If you don’t need the non-health-related capabilities like receiving calls, then a Fitbit is an affordable, easy-to-use, attractive, and well-loved fitness tracker option. I believe that the Charge 4 is the best in the entire line of Fitbits because its built-in GPS is extremely accurate and can track almost anything you can think of including steps, floors climbed, calories burned, Active Zone minutes, and more. It also offers advanced sleep-tracking features to monitor the quality of your sleep. Women can use the Fitbit app along with the tracker to view where they are in the cycle. It’s also waterproof and tracks your swim, so go ahead and bring it to the pool with you.

The Inspire HR is quite similar to the Charge 4 with only a few differences. The first is size. The display is almost half the width of the Charge 4 and is much more lightweight. Since the screen is smaller, it won’t display the same detail of goal metrics and notifications as the Charge 4. Another noticeable difference is that the Inspire HR tracks active minutes instead of a new feature called Active Zone minutes, which is tracked by the Charge 4. Active Zone minutes is tracking the amount of time you spend in the heart rate zone and not just the minutes you exercise in general. Essentially, this helps you take your fitness activity to the next level. But overall, the Inspire HR is a great pick as the most affordable option while getting great tracking features.

For runners, this is the best activity tracker that gives you tracking metrics a running professional will track. This includes run cadence, pace, as well as elevation changes. It also tells you if your run was intense enough to improve your endurance or if your intensity level is too high which might make you at risk of overworking yourself. If you’re a music lover, hear this. You can store up to 500 songs on this fitness watch so you don’t need to stream it on a device or bring your phone with you on your run. This watch is on the pricier end but for runners, its level of accuracy and fitness capabilities is hard to beat.

I like to call the Apple Watch a lifestyle watch. Its fitness features are less advanced than Fitbit watches or the Garmin watch, but the features it has are more than enough for those who work out recreationally. The main activity metrics it tracks are steps taken, distance traveled, and calories burned. It also reminds you to stand when you’ve been sitting for too long. Its heart rate tracking technology is far superior to any other with its ability to detect an irregular heartbeat. The Series 6 has a new Noise app that tells you how loudly you’re listening through your headphones and how the levels may be impacting your hearing. Not to mention, this watch syncs up perfectly with your iPhone to receive messages, use Apple Pay, and much more.

This fitness watch has a very sleek, clean design while offering plenty of fitness features. You can track over 40 workouts and see the breakdown on the Samsung health app or right there on the watch display. It also provides seven running programs and gives you audio and visuals guides during your run. It almost acts like a running coach and tells you to run faster or slower and even tells you hilarious motivational words like “Try to smile if you can.” Its heart monitor is also very accurate, although not as advanced as the Apple Watch. This watch is also the best for swimmers and has a water-lock mode which prevents accidental taps on the display.