War of the wearables: Smart watches vs fitness trackers

FITBIT AND ITS ILK HAVE A MAJOR NEW COMPETITOR – THE SMART WATCH. BUT ARE THE LATTER REALLY ANY BETTER FOR TRACKING YOUR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?

Fitness trackers have evolved. The Fitbits and Jawbones of not-that-long-ago are now much more than pedometers, they’re now one part of an ecosystem to measure and report your metrics, as well as encouraging you to get up out of your chair and move around.

The science on regular exercise is clear. Dr. James Levine, director of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions Initiative, coined the phrase “sitting is the new smoking” in relation to how much a sedentary lifestyle is harming us. So what to do, and how much? Perhaps you already have an idea, but you’re looking for more? Here’s where this round-up comes in.

The majority of these fitness trackers — a catch-all phrase that refers to step counters, sports watches and smart watches with sports functions — will prod you to get up (or glide around in a wheelchair, in some cases) if you haven’t moved for an hour, vibrating and lighting up. Some can be customised, along with a goal step count for the day, along with setting a target for ‘intensity minutes’ so you can raise your heart rate for a specific chunk of the day, or aim to burn a certain number of calories.

To that end, you’ll probably want one with an optical heartrate monitor. They’re a smart piece of tech to have, especially those that feature 24/7 monitoring. This provides a great indication of how well rested you are after walking, running, cycling and so on, as well as seeing what’s going on when you’re really pushing it. Most of the devices here work passively, tracking the number of steps you take throughout the day, and some will also tell you how long you slept for — a good night’s rest aids recovery, after all — and feeding all of this data into their companion apps.