4 Types of Gadgets and Apps For Tracking Your Health
Let's confront it, Information technology doesn't have much more than a pair of eyes to notice that life in the mod world is having a negative touch on on our wellness. Many of us sit behind a desk-bound for 40 hours a week, eat nutritionally bankrupt convenience foods in outrageous quantities and spend our free time watching TV and browsing the spider web for adorable pictures of cats, yet we cannot embrace why skilful health seems to be alluding us. Here are some technological tools that we tin can use to get a handle on our health and gainsay the obesity epidemic.
Wearable Activity Trackers
The best activity trackers are those that work passively, without any interaction on the user's part, and for this reason, nosotros recommend bracelet manner trackers higher up those that clip to your clothing. Case in point, one of my friends owns a stride counter that he has to manually put on every morning time, and while he and I live similarly active lives, I consistently trounce his weekly step count because he inevitably forgets to wear his at least a couple of times per calendar week, whereas my bracelet style tracker never leaves my wrist, I sleep with it and vesture it in the pool and shower.
While there are several options available that fit the bill, ii of the most widely used devices are the Fitbit Flex and the Jawbone UP24. Both devices are fairly similar, they track footsteps, calories burned and sleep quality and they both break downwardly that information into useful metrics and graphs. Hither's a breakdown of what sets each device apart:
Fitbit Flex – $99.99 (from Fitbit)
Pros
*Syncs automatically in the background (via a Bluetooth dongle on your computer and/or built in Bluetooth functionality on the iPhone and select Android devices)
*Larger userbase, better adventure that some of your friends utilise a Fitbit (which opens up the door for some friendly step-count competition)
*Brandish allows you to see approximately how far through your selected goal yous currently are
*Comfortable bracelet design with several swapable band colors available
*Waterproof (I wear mine while swimming 3x a calendar week)
Cons
*The ring has a tendency to crack from removing and reinserting the bodily fitbit unit of measurement
*Only syncs with a handful of Android devices (Compatibility list here)
*The mobile app is adequately simple and lacks a few features that are available online.
Jawbone UP24 – $149.00 (from Jawbone)
Pros
*Mobile app is excellent, undoubtedly ameliorate than the current iteration of the Fitbit mobile app
*Wireless Background syncing (with recently added Android support) and manual syncing via your phone's headphone jack
*Subjectively, many feel that the UP is a more stylish device that looks more like a bracelet and is slimmer than the Fitbit Flex
Cons
*Expensive
*At that place have been some anecdotal reports of syncing issues
*Band color is not changeable
*Somewhat limited Android support (Compatibility listing here)
Bottom Line: Buy the device that fits your fashion sense and upkeep. Other trackers to keep an eye on are the Nike+ FuelBand and the Withings Pulse O2. Personally, I own the Flex and have been very happy with information technology, especially since it syncs with my Fitbit Aria smart scale. Speaking of that…
Smart Scales
While it is true that weight is merely a number, taking regular measurements are a great style to estimate progress and stay motivated.
Aria Smart Scale – $129.95 (from Fitbit)
When my wife bought me the Fitbit Aria smart scale for our final ceremony, I received a plethora of comments to the effect of, "That'due south awesome…. merely I bet she wouldn't have been as well happy if y'all bought her a scale, lol." Outdated gender stereotypes aside, this scale is fantastic and whatsoever gift that helps your loved one to improve their wellness is a sign of true affection.
So, what makes this scale then smart? The Aria syncs to your WiFi network and updates your weight and body fat percentage to the Fitbit dashboard, which, if you take another Fitbit product, you are already using. Information technology can besides sync to popular nutrient tracking apps like MyFitnessPal. The Aria can automatically recognize up to 8 different users and rails their weights, uploading the measurements to the correct accounts, the user needs to do nada more than stride on the scale with barefeet (necessary to measure body fat). Visually, the Aria is gorgeous, with a sleek minimalist design that looks great in whatever bath.
If the Aria isn't for you, check out the Withing Smart Body Analyzer.
Diet Tracker
Nutrition is arguably the most critical single factor contributing to a person'southward overall health and well-beingness. Much equally carefully tracking your spending can, in and of itself, aid to avoid making unnecessary, high price purchases, the conscientious tracking of your caloric intake can help to avoid binging on high calorie, depression nutrition foods.
MyFitnessPal – Complimentary (Bachelor on about mobile platforms)
Having tried virtually food trackers currently available, I can say with a fair caste of conviction that MyFitnessPal is the nearly consummate and comprehensive pick bachelor. MFP has a very big database of foods, making it possible to quickly input your meals with a loftier level of accuracy. Yous can speedily scan in premade foods via their barcodes, create and save your own frequently eaten meals and even manually fix your macro nutrient goals (Protein, Fat and Carbs). In improver, MFP syncs with a ton of other fitness apps, including most of the popular activity trackers and smart scales.
If MyFitnessPal is not for you, bank check out Noom.
Exercise Tracker
While a habiliment tracker like the Fitbit Flex or the Jawbone UP24 are fantastic for tracking general action, they are not platonic for keeping rails of your progress while engaging in do activities like running, biking, hiking and the like.
Runtastic – Free for basic version, $4.99 for Pro (Available on all major mobile platforms)
Runtastic is capable of tracking a host of physical activities and providing useful feedback. Runtastic maps your activity, provides a breakdown of your pace, allows you to easily challenge yourself or others using the app. Runtastic tin can also sync with your music library, and so that you can listen to your conditioning playlist while nonetheless receiving informative and encouraging prompts from the app in the form of a passenger vehicle that speaks to you through your headphones based on your personal preferences. You tin can fifty-fifty set a Powersong that the app will play when you demand a boost. Overall the free version of the app provides some excellent features, but I think the Pro version is well worth the money.
Don't love Runtastic equally much as we do, check out Runkeeper or Endomondo.
While ownership a couple of products and downloading some apps is not going to automatically transform you from Chris Farley to Channing Tatum, accurately tracking your activeness level and progress might exist just what you need to become off the couch and start improving your life. Check out this crawly article for vii means to sneak exercise into your decorated schedule.
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/4-types-gadgets-and-apps-for-tracking-your-health.html
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