The Best Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers can give you a better idea of how and how much you move your body throughout the day and night. They’re for people who want to set goals to increase daily movement, exercise more often, and improve sleep habits. These trackers (and their apps) are also for people who want a place to log their diets, hydration, and even menstrual cycles to gain a broader picture of their health. The differences among these trackers are principally in the number of sensors—and therefore features—they offer and, most important, how easy they are to use. The lines that separate GPS running watches and smartwatches from dedicated fitness trackers are blurrier than ever. GPS watches can now track your activities all day and your sleep at night. Smartwatches can now capture your movement with automatic activity detection and built-in GPS. Some people may still prefer a dedicated fitness tracker for several reasons, though. For starters, fitness trackers are much less bulky to wear than GPS running watches, and they usually cost a lot less. Unlike smartwatches, they can run for up to a week between charges (whereas you generally need to charge a smartwatch daily). And the latest generation of trackers goes well beyond just counting steps and recording workouts: They include more smartwatch features than before—from interactive notifications to third-party apps—and additional sensors to provide more granular detail on movement and sleep.