The Ultimate Guide to Fitness Trackers

Choosing a fitness tracker that is right for you can be more daunting and overwhelming then training for and racing an ultra. As every seasoned runner knows, it’s always best to have a training plan and to choose one that suits your lifestyle and fitness level. We offer the same plan for selecting a digital wrist partner that will guide you through miles of running and walking bliss (also see our comparison chart):

BEGINNER

Polar M400 – $183.73

Activity Tracking: Registers your daily activity at different intensity levels continuously for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Counts daily calories and steps. Get your daily activity goal and how to reach it.

Sleep duration and quality: Sleep and required amount of rest are very individual and affected by several factors such as training load, stress, body’s condition and individual differences. Polar Flow mobile app and web service tell you how much you have slept and how restful your sleep has been. By following your sleeping patterns you can see if they’re affected by any changes in your daily life and find the right balance of rest, daily activity and training.

Activity Benefit: Activity Benefit gives you daily, weekly and monthly feedback on the benefits of your activity and on the effects of sitting. The more you move, the greater the health benefits are. Check out how you’re doing in Polar Flow mobile app or view the detailed information on health benefits in Polar Flow web service.

Activity Intensity Levels: Your Polar device tracks your daily activities at five intensity levels: resting, sitting, low, medium and high. Check out how active you’ve been from Polar Flow web service and mobile app. You can also compare different activity intensities: the higher the intensity, the faster you’ll reach your activity goal.

Inactivity Alert: Sitting for long periods of time is not good for your health – even on those days when you train and gain enough daily activity. The device reminds you to get up after 55 minutes of sitting and helps you to add active breaks to your daily routines. After one hour of sitting you will get an inactivity stamp, which is visible in Flow app and web service.

Training Features

Personal best, audio alerts, interval timer, interval trainer guided workouts, manual and automatic laps, sport profiles (adjustable), user configurable displays

Indoor/Treadmill Use

Purchasing an additional foot pod is required for indoor/treadmill tracking

Mobile App Features

Compatible with iPhone 4S and later, and with selected Android devices using Android 4.3 or later.

Synchs automatically and displays training data instantly.

Explore new routes and find your way back home with “Back to Start.”

Train at the right intensity within your personal heart rate zone.

Supports smart notifications: receive alerts and notifications from your phone to your training computer. (iOS only)

Track your total calorie intake and expenditure by connecting with the MyFitnessPal app. (iOS only)

Data Transfer

• Compatible with PC Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, and later
• Compatible with Polar Flow web service via standard micro-USB cable
• Compatible with Polar Flow mobile app via Bluetooth Smart

Compatible with Mac OS X 10.6, OS X 10.7, OS X 10.8, and later

Garmin Forerunner 15 – $139.99

Activity Tracker: Counts steps and calories and reminds you when it’s time to move!

Treadmill/Indoor Tracking: Pair with optional foot pod, which attaches to the laces of your shoe, to accurately record time, pace and distance indoors and on the treadmill.

Web App: Save, plan and share your activities at Garmin Connect, compatible with Mac or PC. There, you can see your run on a map, get more detail on each mile, see a daily summary of activities and share with friends. You can also join online challenges and earn virtual badges for extra motivation.

GPS: tracks pace, distance, heart rate (with additional strap/monitor) and calories. The lap function automatically alerts you when you complete each mile, giving you a friendly beep and backlit screen that flashes your time for that mile. When you complete your run and save it, you can see a summary of how you did, including your total time, distance, average pace and calories. You will also be alerted to personal records like your fastest mile or longest run to date.

INTERMEIDATE

Garmin Vivoactive – $250.00

Activity Tracking: Built-in sports apps track your progress even when away from your phone. Simply swipe the screen to the options menu to choose among GPS-assisted running, golfing and cycling apps plus swimming and activity tracking.

In tracking your steps, it will learn your current activity level, and then assign an attainable daily step count goal. As you meet your milestones, the device will adjust your goal for the next day. The red move bar appears on the display after one hour of inactivity and builds when you’ve been sitting too long. Just walk for a couple of minutes to reset the move bar. Set the sleep mode when you go to bed and vívoactive will monitor your rest. It also tracks your calories burned.

Running Features: In additional to the basic GPS features, you can set up vibration alerts for heart rate (strap separate), pace and run/walk intervals. Other training features include Auto Lap and Auto Pause.

Web/Phone App: Automatic synch with Garmin Connect Mobile gives you post-run summary, including calories burned and if you scored any personal records such as your fastest or longest run.

Smart notifications: Vivoactive gently vibrates to alert you to incoming calls, texts, emails, and calendar reminders from your compatible Bluetooth enabled device. Simply touch and swipe the screen to read more or, clear the screen with the press of a button.

You can also control the tunes on your music player, locate your phone and let your friends know your activities in real time with Live Track.

Custom Apps and Watch Faces: Personalize your watch with free downloads from Connect IQ on Garmin Connect. Add data fields and widgets that provide stats at a glance, boost functionality with additional apps and customize the display with a variety of watch face designs.

Treadmill/Indoor Functionality: The built-in accelerometer and wrist-based speed and cadence trackers eliminate the need for a separate foot pod while running on an indoor track or treadmill and also when GPS is unavailable.

Garmin Forerunner 225 – $299.99

Activity Tracker: Step counter, auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal), move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it), sleep monitoring (monitors total sleep and periods of movement or restful sleep).

Performance Features: Built-in heart rate monitor, foot pod (optional), Auto pause (pauses and resumes timer based on speed), Auto Lap (automatically starts a new lap), Auto Scroll (cycles though data pages during workout), Advanced workouts (create custom, goal-oriented workouts), pace alert (triggers alarm if you vary from preset pace), interval training (set up exercise and rest intervals), heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customizable screens and shock resistant.

Treadmill/Indoor Functionality: The built-in accelerometer and wrist-based speed and cadence trackers eliminate the need for a separate foot pod while running on an indoor track or treadmill and also when GPS is unavailable.

Web and Phone App: Synch with Garmin Connect online community where you can analyze, categorize and share data. Automatically synchs and transfers data to your computer.

ADVANCED

Tom Tom Cardio Runner – $229.99

Features:

• One-button control helps to easily navigate though menus.
• QuickGPSFix helps you find your watch location quickly so you can get going faster.
• TomTom MySports mobile app synchs your watch automatically.
• Built-in heart rate monitor, with five heart rate training zones, to better match your specific goals.
• Set your own interval-training program to improve fitness and speed.
• The extra-large display is easy to read and allows for real time running information at a glance.

Indoor/Treadmill Running: No additional equipment is required for indoor activity.

Suunto Ambit3 Sport – $315.99

• Multisport Functionality:
• 15h battery with 5 sec-GPS accuracy (1 min-accuracy: 100h)
• Speed, pace, distance and GPS altitude
• Route navigation and track back
• Compass
• Heart rate in swimming**
• Bike power support (Bluetooth Smart)
• Multiple sports in one log
• Interval workout planner*
• Interval workouts with voice guidance*
• Activity based recovery time
• Quick recovery and sleep recovery tests (Firstbeat)**
• Movescount training programs on the watch
• Extended feature set through Suunto Apps
• Languages: EN, CS, DA, DE, ES, FI, FR, IT, JA, KO, NL, NO, PL, PT, RU, SV, ZH

Connectivity:

• Upload and share your moves instantly*
• Customize your watch on the go*
• Time and GPS satellite data up to date on the go*
• Use your phone as second watch display* (Add an extended battery pack for your smartphone to support even longer adventures.)
• Integration with Strava and TrainingPeaks

Social Media and Sharing Features:

• Take photos during your workouts showing your current speed, distance, and more*
• Create a Suunto Movie of your workouts with 3D map, key metrics and images*
• Share your experience instantly to your social media networks*

*With the Suunto Movescount App

**With Suunto Smart Sensor

Indoor/Treadmill Running: No additional equipment required for indoor activity tracking. 

ELITE

Polar V800 – $338.99

Activity Features: 24/7-activity tracking, sleep duration and quality, inactivity alert, smart calories, steps and distance, activity benefit, activity goal and activity intensity levels.

Heart Rate Features: Heart rate in beat per minute / percentage, heart rate zones, heart rate in water, training benefit, fitness test and smart calories.

GPS Features: Distance, speed/pace, race pace, running index, back to start/finding feature, route guidance and power save mode.

Barometer Features: Altitude, ascent and descent, temperature and inclinometer.

Technical Features: Water resistant to 30m, gorilla glass window, high resolution display, tap gestures, vibration and audio alerts, updateable software, display texts in 13 languages, data transfer via custom USB cable or Bluetooth smart via Polar Flow mobile app, memory capacity 60 h training with GPS and heart rate, rechargeable battery with up to 13 hours training time, Polar Flow web service compatibility with Mac OS x 10.6, OS X 10.7, OS X 10.8 or later and PC Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 or later.

Indoor/Treadmill Running: No additional equipment needed to track indoor activity.

Garmin Forerunner 620 – $349.99

Running Features: Virtual pacer (compares current pace to target), VO2 max estimate, recovery advisor, race predictor, running dynamics, and personal records achieved.

Cycling Features: Bike speed/cadence sensors.

Performance Features: Heart rate monitor, foot pod, virtual partner (train against a digital person), Auto Pause (pauses and resumes times based on speed), Auto Lap (automatically starts a new lap), Auto Scroll (cycles though data pages during workouts), Advanced workouts (creates custom, goal-oriented workouts), pace alert (triggers alarm if you vary from present pace), time/distance alert (triggers when you reach a goal). Interval training (set up exercise and rest intervals), heart-rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, training effect (measure impact of an activity on your aerobic fitness), customizable screens.

Connectivity: Use Garmin Connect compatible online community where you can analyze, categorize and share data. Automatically synch and transfer data to your computer via Bluetooth smart app.

Indoor/Treadmill Running: Accelerometer calculates distance for indoor workouts, without the need for a foot pod.

All of these watches can be used indoors and on the treadmill, however, only the Garmin vivoactive, Garmin Forerunner 225, TomTom Cardio Runner, Suunto Ambit3 Sport, Polar V800 and Garmin Forerunner 620 can be used without additional equipment.

Based on your needs, and how much data you like to see, your options are many (also see our Fitness Tracking Comparison Chart). Choose wisely and start tracking your success!