Hi, I just wanted to get a general feel for all the different fitness trackers people are currently using and their thoughts on them.
I previously used the Basis B1 and upgraded to the Basis Peak when it was released.
Still waiting for the perfect tracker, stuck with a Fitbit Charge HR for now.
What are some pros/cons in your opinion of the Charge HR?
Cons: It takes up valuable real estate on my wrist that I’d rather use for a more functional watch…
Pros: I got it for “free” 
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It all depends on what you’re trying to monitor, your budget and how much of a tech person you are. Most fitness trackers don’t have it all. Take for instance, some trackers will give attention to HRM (heart rate monitor) accuracy and suck when it comes to step, calorie or sleep monitoring. That’s just the way it is. If you’re familiar with Fitbit, a new product is coming in to market come March. Fitbit Alta… People are kinda anticipating, and hopefully it will do a better job than Charge.
If you’re on low end budget, then you should check out the Garmin Vivofit fitness band, it’s low priced and has some great reviews.
If you can wait…check out our Fitti guard.
It´s nearly perfect for tracking your activities and environment.
Because of HRM I just decided first not to add PPG Sensors to the wristband. But open speaking it´s a must have feature.
You can trust me there is no HRM Sensor on the market which is able to count HR with high accuracy while you are moving. If you are not moving the HRM Sensors should have an accuracy which is OK,
The Fitti guard will have an HRM newest technology we will see whats going on if we make our running tests.
Regarding activity: the Guard will have a neuronal network stack. Means it can learn your exercise movements. After it learned that movements it differentiate between the movements and recognize what activity is done automatically. The activity recognition is crowed based and will be more and more accurate if more and more learned movements are stored in the cloud.
Interesting isn´t it
Forgot to say: There is a communication protocol description soon available. So you can work with the sensor raw data and develope your own APP. Also you can change the sampling rate of the sensors and a lot more
This sensor watch is a kind of a swiss knife for QS and QE 
For more information see www.fitti.fit
rgrds
Bill20002
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In terms of simple step tracking, i am quite happy with my Pebble Time (upgraded from the original Pebble) and syncing that with the Misfit app. Since I am new to the quantified self (i’ve just been a data hoarder to this point) i haven’t yet looked to export/integrate/correlate the data with other sources yet…
After crowdfunding it over 2 years ago, I finally just received my Angel Sensor. It’s an open platform with an SDK so you can build your own apps/tools off of it.
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Bob, that looks like quite the nice array of sensors. You’ll have to give us your impressions once you’ve had the chance to check it out.
I want a sensor that can be placed on the skin
My Fitbit HR works well and I would recommend it if you do not mind the fact that it takes valuable real estate from your wrist. I think that it would be better and more practical if a tracker was in the shape of a small ring.
There’s something like the Oura Ring. Though I don’t have any personal experience with it.
What sort of things do you track with your Fitbit?
@QuantifiedBob so glad you received your Angel Sensor. What have your impressions of the hardware and development kit thus far? We’re aggressively developing firmware updates. In fact, we just released our first public iOS SDK on Github. We’re so excited to see what you can build
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Got amazing list here.
Can anyone recommend a sensor that is able to track Blood Pressure, Sp02, Heart Rate. Any other measurements would be a bonus. Need to gift it to my dad.
-Abhi
Hi
Just a brief side comment here – I started with a fitbit
IMHO fitness trackers are OK and certainly walking more is going to get you more fit but structured exercise is what really takes you to the next level and for that Garmin devices are the dominant tools because they have a lot of capabilities for structured exercise routines esp endurance sports.
And I would be very remiss if I failed to mentioned DC Rainmaker’s Blog / Review site which is pretty much the gold standard for what I can tell for reviews of fitness oriented measurement devices – everything from the Apple Watch to the Fitbits to the Garmins, Polars and Suunto
Now as an enthusiast cyclist I measure the following items to track fitness (and yes my friends think I am an obsessive nutcase but I find it fascinating and very empowering). And it takes a lot more than one sensor to do this.
- Heart Rate
- Watts Generated at the pedals
- Cadence of bike pedals
- Speed of bike
- Elevation
- Duration of the exercise
- Blood Oxygen Saturation (not happy with that device)
- Heart Rate Variability
- Sleep length and Quality
- Muscle quality and body fat
- Diet
I’ve worked my way through fitbit - polar watches and sensors-- wahoo iphone stuff – and now mostly garmin stuff. My bike has 6 sensors on it now (if I counted correctly).
Much of this is feed into a mathematical model of exercise stress and fitness
Using an Open Source tool
http://www.goldencheetah.org/
And an automated AI coaching program
Which dynamically plans my workouts and estimates my fitness level, recovery state, etc. and works pretty darn well I think
And no way am I way clever enough to figure all this out – its basically a shadow copy of how the professional cyclists train and so this technology has trickled down to the likes of me.
But there is a sort of breakpoint between a Fitbit Blaze which my wife has and is only so-so for exercise IMHO vs the dedicated fitness devices e.g. Garmin Forerunner, Garmin Edge, Suunto Ambit etc. and the like … so if you see a gym or running or cycling or rowing or strength training in your future please take a look at DC Rainmaker’s website.
Best
George
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Coggan Performance Management Chart
AKA a graph of my current fitness level over 6 months with estimates of Fitness the upper blue line with the linear fit, acute exercise stress (upper purple line), Training Stress Balance (how recovered I am) the lower yellow line etc.
(sorry the color descriptions were incorrect before because I had f.lux running – duh)
Cool stuff I think! But pretty much par for the course for competitive cyclists (which I am not).
Hey George,
I would agree that Garmin’s tend to be the best bet for structured endurance activities at least from all the reading I’ve done and from others feedback.
I don’t have a good feel for what the best devices/trackers are for resistance training on the other hand. It seems like one needs a totally different set of metrics.
Sergey
Hi Sergey
One of our members Shannon Conners blogs about measurement (absolutely puts me to shame) and describes using a Push
She also has a post about the different strength training gizmos she looked at
Push is described here:
PUSH is the first scientifically validated wearable device to provide true objective insights about your performance in the weight room. Our patent-pending algorithms are able to detect every repetition you perform and provide actionable feedback during and after each set to let you know whether to keep pushing or to hold back.
PUSH was built with the best in mind and is actively used by over 50 professional teams across the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, EPL and AFL. PUSH is used by athletes in over 25 countries across 6 continents. Coaches and athletes at the elite level struggle with the same challenges all of us go through, they need to know when to optimize their time in the gym and reduce their risk of injury due to overtraining. Leveraging Velocity Based Training as well as a suite of advanced screening tests, coaches can establish baselines for their athletes and monitor their progress in real-time towards their goals for each phase.
Sounds way cool but since I am more of an endurance guy probably won’t pursue it.
Reminds me of the smart tattoo on Fitnesstracker24.com
Scientists of MIT and Microsoft had developed a temporary tattoo that is placed on your skin and will measure for example your skin temperature. Moreover it should work as a “user interface” that will show your current mood (red if you are angry ) or could work as an NFC tag.
And the smart tattoo is considered to be fairly cheap because standard materials and cheap equipment can be used for the production process.
http://fitnesstracker24.com/smart-tattoo-duoskin-on-skin-interface/
The only thing i was wondering is, if the connection to the the smartphone will also be wireless? Because I wouldn’t like my arm to be wired to my phone 