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Need help picking a fitness tracker

Former Member over 3 years ago

Hopefully, that is ok, I'm interested in getting multiple perspectives with Venu 2 being my primary interest so far.

General
My wife got a Fitbit Charge 3 about six months ago and loves it. It motivates her a lot to move more and eat better. I am now interested in getting a fitness tracker, but my needs are a little bit more than just general health tracking, so I am looking for input/help.

What I'm Considering

Fitbit Sense
Garmin Venu 2
Galaxy Watch 3/Active 2

What I Have
I have a Polar chest strap that I use for heart rate tracking. I know Garmin can pair with it. I've heard other devices can pair with it through 3rd party apps, but I don't know if that is worth doing.

My Use Cases
My preferred way to exercise is in the gym. This differs from my wife who prefers to focus on walks around the neighborhood/town. In the past (before COVID-19) I would go to the gym 4-5 days a week. I will be starting up membership again and want a device that complements, enhances, and motivates my exercising.

At the gym, I traditionally use the stair machine, treadmill, and pool for cardio. My favorite is a pool, followed by the stairs. I'd love it to have a watch that could count my pool laps and strokes. I'm curious how accurate each device is on this front.

I also do weights, but I'm happy enough just manually entering my reps. I don't expect more than that (is it even possible?).

Other
Rewards: Fitbit has animations that make you feel good for hitting 10,000 steps. I don't know how much this would affect me, but it helps motivate my wife and I like the concept.

Calorie/Food Tracking: I would love this for cutting fat and tracking my portions of energy sources (carbs, protein, sugar, etc). I don't know if I would keep with it or only use it when actively cutting/losing weight.

Additional Thoughts
Currently, I'm leaning towards the Garmin Venu 2, closely followed by Fitbit Sense. I've used Samsung health in the past (2 years ago) on my smartphone and was really underwhelmed. I would also like a battery that can last 3 days.

Any recommendations, thoughts, insights?
Thank you!

0 CindiL over 3 years ago

Hi, I don’t know if you’ll find many users here with knowledge of all 3 devices. There are lots of YouTube videos out there though that do compare the trackers. As far as the basics, the Venu 2 gives rewards, you can track calories through myfitnesspal app and can pair it (if you want). It does have activities for the pool, stair stepper, treadmill etc and should be able to count your pool laps just fine. With strength training, it comes with a few pre-loaded workouts including the steps and rep counts but you can also create a custom one with the app and sync it to the watch. It will appear under the weight training activity along with the others.

0 4895503 over 3 years ago

Garmin watches are software locked to their model which makes Apple watches a better in choice in many ways. The only advantage of a Venu 2 is the GPS data is more accurate. Be careful everything you need would be on the Venu 2.

Samsung is quite lacking last I checked when it comes to real training.

I really wish Garmin had something like the fenix series features in a Venu 2 form factor.

Garmin executives! Open up the app store to paid Garmin add-ons at least You might actually make some more money.