We hope that you understand our articles and find them useful and informative.
If you want to give fitness tracking a try (but without a wearable), start by using a mobile app, android phone, that counts your steps .This method requires little to no investment and could be of interest.
The
Coros Safe Sound Helmet is another interesting solution for cyclists that integrates your phone's GPS to track your rides and uses bone-conduction audio to let you hear directions, music, and phone calls without blocking your ears.
2. GARMIN FORERUNNER 45S
Garmin’s newest watch combines top features from the popular Forerunner 25 and 35 to create one of the best easy-to-use GPS watches available.
The Forerunner 45 comes in two sizes – the Forerunner 45 and smaller Forerunner 45S. Clearly Garmin is aiming for some gender roles here with their band’s color schemes. But the small size and slim design make it a good fit for women, especially if you have thin wrists.
Like other Garmin watches, this one records running, walking, and cycling using GPS to track time, pace, and distance. A built-in activity tracker counts steps, sets daily goals, and monitors sleep. An all-day stress monitors keeps tabs on your daily wellness.
The Forerunner 45S is Garmin’s first basic watch that has a color screen. Improved resolution makes it easy to read. A nice 13 hour battery (with GPS), wrist heart rate monitor, and lightweight design add to the features.
This is the first Garmin watch that includes safety functionality. If you find yourself requiring help during a run, push the assistance button and a text and email are automatically sent to chosen friends and family. They’ll instantly be alerted of your location. There is also an incident detection feature which does the same thing, but automatically if the watch detects a crash during a bike ride.
Like earlier Garmin watches, Live track is included which allows friends and family to follow your progress in real-time. This is great for both safety reasons and to locate you during large events
GARMIN FORERUNNER 35
While being phased out with the release of the 45S, its predecessor – the Forerunner 35 – is still a great option. It can often be found on sale for about $100. It’s primarily marketed as a running watch, but it can track distance and speed for almost any outdoor activities.
The built-in activity tracker means you can wear all day and it counts steps, creates daily step goals, and monitors sleep.
We like it for women because it’s one of the smaller GPS watches on the market. And like the vivo active 4S, it offers Live track so your family can monitor your location when exercising outside.
The Forerunner 35 also provides smart notifications. Every time you receive a text or other type of phone notification, it appears on the watch. And activities can be uploaded easily to a phone or computer.
For heart rate tracking, it has an optical wrist sensor to monitor heart rate without a chest strap.
4. SUUNTO 3 FITNESS
Contrary to many fitness watches on the market, Suunto 3 Fitness provides adaptive training guidance, which is basically a 7-day training schedule that can drastically improve your fitness.
One of the great benefits of the adaptive training guidance is that it will automatically adapt to your regular exercises, so you don’t ever need to worry about updating it.
The adaptive training guidance is successful because it’s based on your training history and fitness level, and the planned exercises are extremely easy to activate.
While you are completing the planned exercises, make sure to check your watch periodically so that you remain at the right intensity.
Every person that works out knows that maintaining a good night’s sleep is vital to optimal health, and the Suunto 3 Fitness makes getting the proper rest every night easy. The watch offers innovative tools to track your sleep, including stats on the duration of your sleep and how well your sleep promotes optimal recovery.
Plus, the watch will also track your stress levels throughout the day to ensure that you are balancing activity and recovery appropriately.
To keep you updated on your important sleep, activity, and fitness trends, the product can log all of your activities on the new Suunto App. With the use of your mobile device’s GPS, the app can also track your distance, speed, and route.
When you connect the product to the Suunto App, you can also interact with other users in the community.
6 APPLE WATCH SERIES 5
There is no denying the Apple Watch is a versatile and nice looking watch. And now the Series 5 is even more fitness-oriented than the original.
It’s hard to fully run-down everything the Apple Watch can do. Especially because 3rd party apps further enhance its features and capabilities. But some key takeaways include: GPS tracking along with the step-monitoring of a fitness tracker. On the go music and phone notifications. And wrist heart rate.
The Apple Watch can also be purchased with cellular service without a phone. This is pretty awesome since it lets you text, make calls, play music and talk to Siri without carrying your phone.
Unlike Garmin watches, there is no way to broadcast your runs and rides to let friends know where you are. But it does have the SOS emergency feature. Basically, you can call 911 directly from the watch.
The biggest downside to the watch is its poor battery life. You’ll be lucky to get 5 hours in GPS mode. This compares to 10-15 for every Garmin. You’ll probably need to charge it every couple of days. Without GPS it does better – up to 18 hours.
In the end, this might not matter. Our recommendation, if you are really serious about outdoor activities, is go with a Garmin. But if you want a watch that’s capable of a lot more than just working out, go with the Apple Watch.
7. FITBIT IONIC
The Fitbit Ionic, like a lot of Fitbits out there, is more activity tracker than GPS sports watch. But it fits the bill for both even if the GPS functions are a bit weak.
The Ionic really shines as an all-purpose fitness watch. It’s great for people who do a variety of activities from running to strength training to hitting the gym. It can be worn all day where it tracks steps, heart rate, distance, floors climbed, and active vs stationary minutes.
And when you decide to head outside, use GPS to accurately track your runs including distance and pace. The Fitbit Ionic also tracks swim workouts. And it counts reps when doing strength work at the gym.
It’s a fairly small form watch, so it fits nicely on thinner wrists. But unlike Garmin’s watches, there is no way to send live updates of your run or bike to friends and family.
Similar to the Apple Watch, the Ionic has some nice features for everyday wear. This includes phone notifications and wireless payments made directly with the watch. It also stores up to 300 songs that can be played through a set of wireless headphones.
The biggest downside to the watch is its poor battery life. You’ll get about 4 days when it’s used as an activity tracker. And only 10 hours in GPS mode.
BEST FITNESS TRACKERS FOR WOMEN
Fitness Trackers – also called activity trackers – are mainly used to count steps and monitor sleep. They can be used for running, cycling, or the gym, but don’t have the full set of features of a sports watch.
But they are smaller and less expensive than GPS watches. The downside is they aren’t as accurate or have displays that are large and easy to read.
Most don’t have GPS, so they usually can’t beam out your location to family while you are running or cycling outside.
Here are our picks for the best activity trackers for women.
8.
GARMIN VIVOSPORT
The vivosport is one of the few activity trackers that has GPS. It’s the best option when you want a small, lightweight watch with the option to accurately track outdoor activities.
When not using GPS to track walks and other outdoor activities, the activity tracker counts steps and records indoor activities.
The vivosport comes pre-loaded with gym workout profile. It counts reps when lifting weights.
There’s an easy-to-read color display with a 7-day battery (although only 8 hours when using GPS). The wrist heart rate monitors heart rate all day. It even monitors stress levels allowing you to better understand the triggers that cause you to stress out.
And because there is GPS, the vivosport does have Livetrack allowing you to broadcast outdoor activities to friends and family.
When you feel like nerding out, the vivosport provides VO2 Max (an indicator of your overall fitness) and fitness age – an estimate of how old you are based on your fitness level.
To further customize the watch, the vivosport comes in two sizes with two different color option
How Much Should You Spend on a Fitness Tracker?
Fitness trackers can range from $40 to $500 or more. Some less expensive trackers lack a display, so you can't see how many steps you've taken unless you look at your smartphone.More expensive trackers usually include built-in optical heart rate monitors and GPS, and often, these features are tailored toward athletes and exercise enthusiasts. Don't get suckered into buying an expensive tracker if your primary activity is walking. If you walk and don't do much else, there are great options in the $20 to $100 range.
If you work out a lot and want ample fitness-tracking options, we recommend spending at least $100, as that's the price point where you'll start to see the features that are useful to very active users.
Do You Want Heart Rate Monitoring?
Heart rate monitoring sounds like the best feature ever, but there are different kinds of heart rate monitors, and frankly, some people don't need it at all. A built-in heart rate monitor can drive up the price.
Optical heart rate monitors are the ones built into the device itself. Some very good fitness trackers don't have a heart rate monitor but can pair with a chest strap.
if you're interested in knowing your resting heart rate, you don't need to buy a tracker with an optical heart rate monitor to find it. Many smartphone apps let you take your heart rate in about 15 seconds using the phone's camera. Check your pulse once or twice a day, and you're good to go.
For more, see The Best Heart Rate Monitors.
Will You Track Sleep?
Many fitness trackers record your sleep. When they do, they generally watch for movement using a three-axis accelerometer to a more sensitive degree than they do during the day. Some devices report graphs showing the times when you were in light sleep and deep sleep based on motion.
There are also dedicated sleep trackers out there that attach to your mattress, but we haven't found them to offer an appreciable advantage over wrist-based trackers. And wearable trackers can do a lot more than simply track your rest. If you don't like the idea of wearing something on your wrist to bed and need a new mattress, you can always spring for the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed
Go Sport-Specific
Swimmers will want a waterproof tracker, but keep in mind that not all water-safe trackers actually track swimming. Runners will probably want a watch that shows time, distance, pace, and lap time, at the very least. If you want good accuracy for those metrics without having to carry a smartphone, you need a runner's watch with built-in GPS—see our picks for The Best Fitness Trackers for Running.
Also consider the display. If you want to see your stats at all times, or simply use your tracker as a wristwatch, look for one with an always-on display. How you control the tracker is also important. If you like to run in the cold while wearing gloves, you may want to steer clear of devices that only have touch-enabled displays.
Cyclists have even more considerations. There's a difference between tracking how many miles you pedal and calories you burn versus monitoring your power and cadence. If all you want is the former, you can find a few fitness trackers that supports bicycling as an activity. More serious cyclists will want a device that can pair with additional bike equipment, like a cadence sensor, and should look at devices from sport-specific companies, like Garmin and Polar.
Smartwatch vs. Fitness Tracker
Several fitness trackers have some smartwatch functionality, and some smartwatches have fitness features, too.
The Apple Watch Series 5 places more of an emphasis on health and fitness tracking than any other smartwatch we've seen. It even has an FDA-approved electrocardiogram (ECG) function that generates a PDF of your heart rhythm you can share with your doctor, which is a feature you won't find on any of the other trackers listed here. But as its name implies, it's first and foremost a smartwatch. See our list of The Best Smartwatches for recommendations in that category.
