The wearable fitness tracker has unquestionably become a leading product in the fitness market. People mostly use it for its ability to read heart rate, measure distance, pace, and kcal burned.
For those who still do not have one of these, we’ll briefly explain the pros and cons to inform your buying decision.
The pros and cons of fitness tracker
Pros
1. Heart rate reading — Very valuable data that allows you to know whether you are in the fat-burning or cardio zone. Not just that, it’s the most useful for people with CVD(cardiovascular disease). Those should strictly watch their HR due to the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other complications.
2. Distance and pace — Excellent tool for anyone doing cycling, swimming, or running. If you want to improve your pace, this will help you track the time needed for each mile. It’s helpful as a motivational tool to give more effort and break the plateau.
3. Kcal expenditure — Not very accurate, but will give you a rough estimation of burned kcal in your workout. This makes it easier to calculate your daily needs and helps you manipulate better your weight loss/gain.
4. Connection to apps — Most of the wearables has a Bluetooth connection to your phone and health apps. This is useful when integrating data, and displaying your progress. Some wearables allow you to manipulate your messages, calls, and music player on your phone. This is great if you want to maintain your pace without searching through your pockets.
5. Alarm — Whether it is the sound alarm for passing a certain threshold or just a reminder for your planned workout, it is a useful assistant to your targeted behavior.
6. Motivation — Often people can join communities and competitions inside the brand’s ecosystem. This can be very exciting and motivating you to work out and enjoy it more.
Cons
1. Accuracy — Technology has yet to improve in this field since your kcal tracker is not 100% accurate, more like 80%, and your distance tracker can sometimes lose GPS signal if you’re moving between tall buildings or large trees.
2. HR detection delay — Again, wearables on the wrist just can’t be accurate as chest strap monitors which are more consistent and accurate especially while running. It could miss your heart rate by 30%
*You can test this by simultaneously checking your pulse on the carotid artery and comparing it to the one shown on your tracker
3. Price — You get what you pay for. Wearables with greater accuracy and a number of features could be quite expensive. You can also find the cheaper varieties( 20–40$ ) with fewer features, but it’s up to you which ones are necessary.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
First pick fitness trackers:
3. Fitbit Versa
Useful inexpensive fitness trackers:
1. Huawei Band
3. Honor Band
First, read reviews thoroughly, don’t pay the high price unless you want to use most of the features. But we agree this is a good investment.
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