Fitness Tracker

[CliveW]

My wife recently suffered a heart attack and although she has made a remarkable recovery after having three stents fitted, she has been told to exercise more. She was advised to buy a fitness tracker to monitor heart rate, calories and distance walked etc. She doesn't want to spend a massive amount on a brand name such as Fitbit etc as they seem to be over engineered for her needs. She doesn't require notification of phone calls and the like, just the basics for an Android. Looking at Amazon there seem to be plenty in the £20 - £30 range such as the Letsfit P67 and P68. Does anyone have any experience with these or any recommendations of others she could consider.

Many thanks.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Effectively, you would get what you pay for. If you want something to be accurate, then it needs extra money spent on it.
Fitbits are not that expensive really, and would be my first choice if I was in the market

 

[Capella]

I bought a cheap one (about 50 €) off Amazon about a year ago. Don't remember the exact name of it, but they basically all seem to be the same model sold under different brand names anyway in that price segment. It looked a lot like the Letsfit. It was complete and utter crap. Espcecially the heart rate monitor was ridiculously off compared to counting it out or to what my blood pressure monitor measured. The step counting was rubbish as well. Don't know what exactly it counted as a step, but the results were totally bogus. It was one of the very rare occasions that I sent an article back after trying it out.

I am normally not someone who goes for brand names, but I think with fitness trackers you really have to if you want to find something that works with any kind of reliablity.But even the best fitness tracker won't make you excercise more. You have to do that yourself. Just going for a brisk walk or bike ride every day is a good start. No tracking needed.

 

[Wolf]

My wife recently suffered a heart attack and although she has made a remarkable recovery after having three stents fitted, she has been told to exercise more. She was advised to buy a fitness tracker to monitor heart rate, calories and distance walked etc. She doesn't want to spend a massive amount on a brand name such as Fitbit etc as they seem to be over engineered for her needs. She doesn't require notification of phone calls and the like, just the basics for an Android. Looking at Amazon there seem to be plenty in the £20 - £30 range such as the Letsfit P67 and P68. Does anyone have any experience with these or any recommendations of others she could consider.

Many thanks.

Thought i'd chip on this for you, I work in the fitness industry & do a fair bit with GP referrals with cardiac patients, if she has been advised to get something to monitor her heart rate but your looking at a budget, i'd recommend increasing your budget only a little up to around the £50-£60 region where you can pick a brand new fit bit flex 2. They're more like bracelet type fits rather than watches you get an app for use on your android phone and will tell her things like heart rate, both active & resting, will help monitor sleep patterns etc. With regards to exercise what does she currently do.

Simple things like walking start slow and increase pace, incline walking is the best on a treadmill where you can control the gradient better. Or if she likes swimming this is a great way of getting fitter without any stress on the body, she could swim a length at her own pace then water walk back to where she started (literally just walk in the water) then go again. Could even build up to Aqua classes, which would not only help (despite the stigma of them) and would create a social environment with like minded people which helps the mind and lowers cortisol levels the benefit of this less stress on the heart. If you do ever need any advice drop me a message i'd be happy to help however I can.

 

[CliveW]

Many thanks, we managed to get a Fitbit 2 at a great price which is ideal. Unfortunately swimming isn't really an option as we are too far away from a public pool but walking is the best alternative.