One of the easiest ways to improve your health and push past the dreaded workout plateau is by tracking your fitness. But without a stopwatch, a scale, a physical trainer, a doctor, and a pencil and piece of paper to count every step you take, that can be difficult. Thankfully, there are fitness watches, which make it easy to measure your daily sleep, step, and activity numbers and provide you with a comprehensive and detailed breakdown of your physical well-being. And that’s just the tip of the fitness watch iceberg.
We’ve included three fitness watches below that can improve your health and fitness regardless of how active you are currently. The watches are all-day trackers that record your heart rate throughout the day, providing an in-depth picture of your heart health, stress level and whether you have too many or too few periods of intense activity.
Fitness watches, including the models we’ve highlighted below, track sleep patterns, which can help you to understand why you’re feeling sluggish during the day. They also provide preset sport modes and in some cases step-by-step workouts, which helps to take the guesswork out of working out on days when you’ve had a good night’s sleep and are ready to tackle a new fitness obstacle.
The three watches can also be paired with smartphones, including iPhones and Androids, which allows you to connect to your phone’s GPS for more accurate readings on distance, pace, speed, and calories burned during workouts. This helps to bring down the price of the watch, with GPS-enabled watches coming with a much higher price tag.
Connecting to your phone also means that these watches can notify you of incoming calls, texts, emails and more when you’re in range of your phone, which keeps you focused on your workout and not having to pause every few minutes to check your phone.
Pick up one of these three fitness watches below and take the first step in taking back your health.
1. Fitbit Charge 2 Watch
Follow your fitness and health all day with the Fitbit Charge 2, which monitors sleep patterns, heart rate, steps walked and more to get a daily Cardio Fitness Score. Use the connected GPS to get accurate run or walking stats and receive call, text and calendar notifications to keep you connected at all times.
Pros: Use the Fitbit Fitness app on your phone to see the impressive amount of data collected by the Fitbit Charge 2, including sleep patterns, steps, heart rate, distance walked, active minutes and daily activity for a Cardio Fitness Score. The Charge 2 has a SmartTrack that automatically recognizes different activities like running and biking and records your progress. The Charge 2 will notify you when it’s time to take a guided breathing break and has a vibrating alarm to wake you up and remind you when it’s time to move. The Charge 2 works with iPhones and Androids and is compatible with more than 200 apps. Depending on usage, one charge can last up to five days.
Cons: Unlike the Versa, the Charge 2 isn’t waterproof and can’t be worn in the shower or while swimming. Users will receive call, text and calendar alerts but notifications are one way and responses must be made on the phone.
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2. Fitbit Versa Smart Watch
Have a personal coach on your watch that guides you through workouts with the Fitbit Versa Smart Watch, which has 15 workout modes, an all-day activity tracker, and storage for up to 300 songs that will keep you pumped up.
Pros: The Versa is an improvement on the Versa Lite, with the addition of storage for 300 songs and on-screen workouts that take you step-by-step or stroke-by-stroke, with the waterproof Versa counting laps swam and stairs climbed. The all-day activity tracker follows your heart rate, sleep stages, steps taken and more. Connect the Versa to your phone’s GPS for a more accurate picture of distance and pace, access apps and receive calls, text and calendar notifications when your phone is within range.
Cons: The Versa has a shorter battery life than the Charge 2 and can only last up to four days on one charge depending on use. Pre-programmed text and email responses can be sent, but only for Android users. Customers note that wrist tattoos can interfere with the Versa’s ability to read heart rate. Customers note that swapping the bands can be tedious.
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3. LETSCOM Fitness Tracker Watch
With all the features of its more expensive competitors at a fraction of the price, the LETSCOM Fitness Tracker Watch is an affordable option for anyone who wants a fitness tracker that can track heart rate, monitor sleep schedules, connect to a GPS, receive text and call notifications and more.
Pros: The LETSCOM has the best battery life on the list, lasting up to seven days on a single charge. Boasting most of the same features as the two Fitbit options above at a fraction of the price, the LETSCOM has all-day activity tracking for heart rate, steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and more. The watch includes 14 sport modes and can connect to your phones’ GPS for more accurate workout readings and to receive cell, text, email, and social media notifications. The waterproof and sweatproof watch can easily be charged through a USB port and features a sedentary alert to remind you to keep moving.
Cons: The LETSCOM doesn’t come with a USB charger, but it fits into any USB port. Customers note that the initial setup can be confusing because of the manual.
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