The best fitness trackers have a very simple purpose of keeping you pacing towards your health goals. Depending on the person, those objectives can range from improving your sleep regimen, getting your daily steps in, or hitting peak Schwarzenegger-level physique. The latest class of fitness trackers have advanced way beyond your grandma’s OG Walk-A-Matic. Sure, these wearables will count your steps, but now they’ll also give you a pretty good estimate of how many calories you burned, the amount of flights you’ve scaled, and even your walking asymmetry (a pretty neat stat that tells you how your legs differ during your walks). All of this data comes together inside these fairly tiny devices to let you know just how well you’re doing health-wise. They’ll even help you make better, smarter life choices to live longer, better lives.
The crowded wearables marketplace can make it really tough to figure which are truly the best fitness trackers, though, especially since each new model seems to pack in more features than the last (do you really need to know you blood oxygen saturation levels?). But we’ve used our intel on the market, findings from our own testing and previous reporting, plus winners from GQ Fitness Awards of the past to pad out these recommendations. Sound good to you? Here are the best fitness trackers to get you back on, ahem, track.
The Best Fitness Trackers, at a Glance
In This Guide
The Best Fitness Tracker Overall: Garmin Forerunner 245
At $300, Garmin’s Forerunner 245 sits nicely between the low-budget fitness trackers and the wildly expensive super computers that are sized like a watch. The 245 is a lightweight, workout-ready fitness tracker for basically everyone. It boasts an impressive battery life—up to seven days—and even with the GPS running, it’ll go on for up to 24 hours. On the daily, you can get exercise programs tailored to you, and if you have a real-life coach, they can even sync their custom workouts to your device so it’s like your trainer is with you IRL.
Runners we’ve interviewed in the past love the Forerunner 245 for its lightweight feel. And anyone who’s training for a marathon or race can appreciate the 245’s training status monitor, which ensures you’re not overdoing it on activities, and the recovery time advisor that cautions you to ease up before tackling another big sweat session. For those who prefer to run without their phone on hand, the GPS will let you stay on the radar without the added baggage of a device.
The Best Budget Fitness Tracker: Fitbit Charge 5
Fitbit is arguably the most recognizable name in the fitness tracker game, and its Charge 5 is lightyears better than its previous iteration. First, it has a crisper, cleaner display, alongside a more streamlined design that sits subtly on the wrist. It’s not as beefy or jam-packed as our top pick, the Forerunner 245, but it does feature a surprisingly robust fitness tracking library for such a compact device. A lot of the greatest gimmicks are locked behind a membership ($10 per month) which is free for the first six months with your purchase, like a daily readiness reading—which tracks your sleep, heart rate, and previous workouts to determine your preparedness for a workout today—and a stress management setting to help you better manage that tension you feel coursing through your body.
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