As fitness technology gets smarter, it’s becoming easier than ever to track your everyday habits.
There’s no shortage of fitness wearables in stores these days, and our experts work hard in the lab to see which fitness trackers and fitness watches are worthy of Best Buy status.
So as our tech gets smarter, how can we use it to better ourselves? Keep scrolling for the details.
Best Buy fitness trackers – a personal trainer right on your wrist
How can technology help you stay in shape?
1. Keep moving
Most fitness trackers on the market can track your step count and distance travelled, which is really useful if you’re trying to push yourself to stay active. You can set your own daily goals and see how close you are to hitting them, and if you wish, get daily updates throughout the day and encouragement to do more. However, our expert testing proves that some fitness trackers are more accurate than others when it comes to step-tracking, so it’s important to shop around before you buy. For more information read all about how we test fitness trackers.
2. Eat right
Keeping track of what you’re eating can help you stay in shape. And one of the best ways to make sure you’re sticking to healthy food on the move is a blender. Devices like the Nutribullet 1000 are handy because they double up as an easy-to-carry juice bottle, but cheaper models, like the AEG Sport Mini Mixer, can do the same. Is it worth paying more?
Many of the most popular fitness devices around let you scan food and drink barcodes – either through the dedicated app, such as that provided with the impressive Fitbit range, or by connecting to another app, such as the popular MyFitnessPal, to send your calorie data across.
3. Monitor your workouts
Many of our tested gadgets log calories burnt by different types of exercise, with the list including swimming, cycling and running. If you’re regularly doing laps of the pool, take a look at our guide on the top three best fitness trackers for swimming.
More into hiking or pilates? You might want to consider the Samsung Gear Fit 2, as this wrist-worn tracker can be set to record a range of different activities. The recently tested Garmin Fenix 5 is expensive, but has a database of over 25 different activities, including swimming in open water, mountain biking, and even parachute jumping, and tracks steps, distance and calories.
4. Watch your weight
Watching your weight isn’t much fun, but you’ll see how much of an impact regular exercise has on your body.
We’ve tested a range of wi-fi-equipped smart bathroom scales in our test lab. Unlike regular scales, these smart alternatives monitor muscle mass and BMI, and they’ll send that data straight to your smartphone. This means you can keep track of weight loss progress at the same time as monitoring activities, meals and calorie data – and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to track some great progress based on your efforts elsewhere, all in one place. Our bathroom scale reviews can help you choose a smart scale that connects to your phone or tablet, with models from Fitbit, Withings and Beurer. Many are impressive enough to be Best Buys.
5. Get enough sleep
After a long day working out and tracking your progress it shouldn’t be too difficult to get a good night’s sleep, but if you don’t, it could have a serious impact on achieving your goals. Having a snooze helps your body repair and reset, and tech can even help you keep an eye on your progress here as well. Lots of fitness trackers now feature sleep tracking, which offers information on your sleep patterns throughout the night as well as tips to improve it, with some using a heart rate monitor to improve accuracy on things like how much ‘deep’ sleep you’re getting.
The latest health tech in our lab
If you’re planning on using tech to help you stay fit this summer, you’ll find plenty more help and advice on the Which? website.
If you can’t decide what type of wearable to splash your cash on, head over to our guide on choosing between a fitness tracker and a fitness watch.
Bathroom scales now vary more than you might think, but our guide to How to buy the best bathroom scales explains all you need to know.
We also have an in-depth guide on whether to buy a blender, juicer or smoothie maker that also explains whether it’s really worth spending more on a Nutribullet.
Lack of sleep holding you back? Find out how to buy the best mattress to see if it’s time for a change.
