Things to Keep in Mind before Purchasing a Fitness Tracker

Advancement in technology has helped fitness trackers in evolving into one of the biggest trends amongst health enthusiasts who wish to keep a tab on their activity level at all times. Starting from measuring sleep quality to caffeine intake, the fitness trackers are opening up newer possibilities with each passing day. Whether you are running on a tight budget or have a bulky wallet to cater to your requirements, a large variety of fitness trackers can keep you covered at all times by offering you motivation to kick start your workout plan and stick to the same. Today we shall discuss in detail about some important pointers which should be kept in mind before purchasing a fitness tracker.

Purpose

While proceeding with your purchase decision of a fitness tracker, you need to ask yourself its purpose in the first place. Multiple reasons could be existent but figuring out your sole cause can help in narrowing down the selection from the bulk of models available. Fitness trackers are known to boost up our confidence meter making it easier for users to set their goals and proceed towards the same by achieving milestones on a daily basis.

Display Screen

Fitness trackers having a built-in display make it easier to keep tab on time and in turn your ultimate fitness goals without having to reach out for your phone application time and again. Trackers equipped with a 16 colour OLED display can serve as the perfect aid whenever you proceed with guided workouts. However, a proper display is bound to add a few more pennies to the ultimate price tag of your fitness tracker. Thus, you should take this decision after a thorough consideration of whether you actually need one. Some fitness trackers which are not equipped with adequate displays resort to clever ways of relaying information to its user such as LED lights, subtle vibrations etc.

Water Resistant

Being resistant to water can prove out to be a topmost priority for your fitness tracker if you are planning on wearing the same round the clock. Physical activities might cause you to sweat profusely and sometimes you might even feel like heading out for some water aerobics to break the monotony of your daily workout plan. Different wearables come with different water resistance ranging from 2ATM to 5ATM thus specifying whether you can wear them in the shower, use them during your outdoor workout in the rainy season or take it along to log your swimming sessions.

Hardware Sensors

Modern day fitness trackers offer a wide variety of sensors such as accelerometer available in digital and analogue form to help with trekking and accurate step counting. Some other sensors are UV sensors, light sensors, thermometers, Bioimpedance sensor, Galvanic skin response sensors, optical heart rate monitors and GPS for location tracking. Typical fitness trackers can keep tab on the approximate distance covered, number of steps covered and many more whereas the ones with built-in GPS can map the exact route taken while running or jogging with the help of GPS coordinates. You can thus plan out your session by syncing this data with the map. Effectiveness of GPS relies to a large extent on satellite signals. Thus, it might be cumbersome to lock signals if you are working out in inclement weather conditions.

Fitness Tracker Applications

Fitness trackers usually come with a companion application which reveals your synced data while others allow users to log in the workout details manually once you are done with the same. This can especially be of help if you are juggling with different forms of exercises and wish to demarcate between them thus making your calorie burn data more accurate. Some applications can even track your quality of sleep and offer you the flexibility of changing the same manually just in case the automatic-sleep tracking attribute of your device isn’t perfect. Food logging is another important feature wherein you can input all the food and drinks consumed in a day for keeping your diet on track by keeping tab on your calorie count. The graphical interface needs to offer clean typography, intuitive charts and layout to make it easier for users to understand the data recorded and displayed.

Compatibility, Notifications

Fitness tracker purchased by you needs to be compatible with your specific smartphone. Although most of these gadgets work in sync with Android and iOS platforms, you need to be aware of exceptions such as the Apple fitness tracker which is compatible only with iPhones.

Apart from tracking your fitness data it can also be useful if your smart-band can mirror notifications in a resource efficient way. It would be wrong to expect full blown functionality as your fitness tracker will not be able to restrict notifications, filter out crap mails or respond to the same in most cases. Thus, if you are most likely to receive tons of notifications and mails throughout the day, they it is advisable to turn it off.

Battery Life

Battery life has a pivotal role to play in determining the effectiveness of a fitness tracker especially if you are into camping or extreme sports. A tracker which shall last for only three days won’t be of much help if you are thinking of going on a week-long hike. In such cases, you might be required to invest in a higher valued model. It is imperative to note here that features like OLED display and heart rate monitor have a tendency of consuming more power than the ones lacking these attributes.

Fitness trackers and bands have had a smooth transition from being an utmost luxury to a bare necessity over the past couple of years. Given the increasing affordability and plethora of available options, a large chunk of people have been investing in fitness wearables lately. While the older models offered sleep and step tracking, the new ones come stacked with more accurate sensors, built-in heart rate monitors, GPS, waterproofing and Smartphone notifications. However, with the vast array of brands plying the market, making the ultimate call might prove out to be an extremely gruelling task. But our Fitness Tracker Buying Guide is sure to keep you covered in such a scenario.