I’ve mentioned before that due to arthritic hips, Fudge can no longer walk as far as he once could. From around Christmas, our daily walks have been much shorter, and mainly along the flat terrain of Rochdale Canal. Since then, I’ve been noticing my fitness levels are slowly going down and my weight slowly going up.
Luckily, I’ve never had to watch what I eat – I love to eat! But I think the time has come that I either need to watch my portion control or do some extra exercise… or probably both!
I’ve started looking into fitness and activity trackers – I’ve no idea if I’m getting my recommended 10,000 steps per day. I do know that I spend quite a lot of the time that I’m not out walking the dog sitting on my behind with the MacBook on my lap.
I need to start setting myself some targets – but I need to know what my baseline is. We live in a 3-storey house and I know I’m up & down the stairs quite a lot but how many calories am I actually expending? I’ve no idea!
There are quite a few different fitness and activity trackers on the market and I’ve whittled my choice down to a short-list of three. Though most of them have no end of bells & whistles, there are a few features that I’d insist on having. I don’t necessarily need a watch or alarm – I have other devices that serve that purpose. I don’t want to know about how many calories I’m consuming, even if I should! I tend to graze during the day rather than having 3 square meals, I spend my entire day inputting food & drink data into tracker.
What I do want is one that has a decent battery life – I don’t want yet another thing that constantly needs charging (I’m talking about you iPhone!). I’d like it to track my sleep – sometimes I think my sleep isn’t as good as it should be – I often wake up exhausted after a full 8 or 9 hours. I want to know all about my movements – it has to track my steps, the distance travelled, heart rate (resting & active), calories burned… and how much of the day I spend sitting down.
They all come in different colours but I prefer plain black, I wouldn’t want it clashing with my clothes! The Jawbone UP3 would be my 1st choice. It does everything I need and I think it’s the most attractive of the trio. I’ve made a little chart below including each of their features.
- Withings Pulse Ox: £59.99, Currys
- Jawbone UP3 heart rate activity and sleep tracker – Black Twist: £61.41, Amazon
- Fitbit Charge HR wireless heart rate, activity and sleep tracking wristband, black: £99.95, John Lewis
| FEATURE | Pulse Ox | Jawbone UP3 | Fitbit Charge |
| Watch |  |  | |
| Battery life | 2 weeks | up to 7 days | 7-10 days |
| Sleep tracking | | | |
| Steps | | | |
| Distance | | | |
| Idle time | | | |
| Heart rate | | | |
| Calories | | | |
| Alarm | | | |
| Syncing | Bluetooth | wi-fi | wi-fi |
Price | £59.99 | £61.41 | £99.95 |