Exercise is vital for your health, your longevity, and for controlling your weight. But, do too much or work too hard, or fail to work long or hard enough, and you could miss out on a lot of the benefits on offer.
But how do you know if you are exercising at the right level of intensity and for the right duration?
Until relatively recently, you would have had to take your pulse manually at your neck or your wrist or wear a dedicated heart rate monitor. Taking your pulse isn’t easy, so that left heart rate monitors.
When I first started running, I had one of the earliest heart rate monitors and it was big, expensive, and only display your heart rate. That meant I had to wear my heart rate monitor on one wrist, and my watch on the other. I also had to wear a chest strap which was comfortable enough, but it meant I had one more thing to remember to wear before I went out for a run.
Thankfully, technology has improved a lot and heart rate monitor prices have come down too. Better still, a lot of fitness trackers can monitor your heart rate. You don’t even need to wear a chest strap, as you do with a lot of heart rate monitors. This makes them much easier and convenient to use.
With so many fitness trackers with heart rate monitors to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start if you are thinking of buying one. To make it easier to make a decision, I’ve selected and reviewed three of the best.
1. Fitbit Charge 2
Fitbit’s Charge 2 does everything a good activity monitor should, including measuring the distance of your workout, how many steps you’ve taken, and how many calories you’ve burned. It also checks your heart rate and will sound an alarm if you are outside your personalized heart rate training zone. This ensure that your workouts are as productive as possible, without being harder than they need to be. It also recognizes different types of exercise such as biking, running, and walking, and tracks them in the Fitbit app. However, the Fitbit Charge 2 is not waterproof so it’s not suitable for swimming.
The Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband scores an impressive 4.1 out of five stars, with 65% of users awarding it the full five out of five.
- PurePulse continuous, automatic wrist-based heart rate tracking to better measure calorie burn all day
- Maximize your workouts using simplified heart rate zones (Fat Burn, Cardio and Peak). Splash proof. Do not shower with the device or submerge it in water
- See call, text & calendar notifications on the OLED display; Automatically track how long and how well you sleep and wake with a silent vibrating alarm. Reminders to move
- Get a better understanding of your fitness level and see how you can improve over time with a personalized Cardio Fitness Score; Use Connected GPS during run mode to see real-time stats like pace and distance on your wrist
- Track all-day activity like steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed and active minutes;Find moments of calm throughout your day with personalized guided breathing sessions based on your heart rate, Like all heart rate tracking technologies, accuracy is affected by physiology, location of device, and different movements.
2. Lintelek Waterproof Tracker
Available in five colors, this fitness tracker is very budget-friendly and offers a wide range of features including heart rate monitoring. It can be linked to the GPS on your smartphone for very exact distance measuring and route recording. It’s also waterproof so you can use it for swimming, and has 14 pre-programmed sports settings for accurate measurement of calories burned, distance, steps etc.
If you are looking for a great value fitness tracker and heart rate monitor, the Lintelek Waterproof Tracker with Heart Rate Monitor and Connected GPS Fitness Tracker is a good choice. Scoring 3.9 stars out of five, 52% of users award this tracker the full five out of five.
- Note: Don't need the usb charger cable. Track your daily steps, calorie consumed, distance, monitor continuous heart rate, record the duration of exercise, average pace. Show the notification of the incoming call, message and SNS from Social Media Software.
- Monitor your daily sleep quality, tell you how long and how well you sleep during the night. Set alarm and sedentary alert can silently remind you to wake up, take medicine or do some exercise.
- Map your sports route in the app by following the connected GPS tracker, you can see average speed, activity distance, workout route, energy consumption in the app. (Only for walking and running.)
- 0.96 big OLED Screen with 4 customized clock faces. Comfortable, fashionable, adjustable anti-lost strap for lovely kids, sporty men and business men.
- 14 sports modes for specific activity can meet your needs the whole day. 24-hour real-time continuous heart rate can give you tips for exercise. Support Android 4.4 and above, iOS 7.1 and above only for smartphone
3. LETSCOM Fitness Tracker
The LETSCOM has a whole lot of features at a very reasonable price. In fact, it’s less than half the price of many of its competitors while offering many of the same functions. With 14 pre-programmed sports modes, this tracker can differentiate between running, hiking, tennis, and basketball, etc. It also has a sedentary alarm to remind you to get up and move and will monitor your sleep.
Scoring four out of five stars, 63% of users award the LETSCOM Fitness Tracker with Heart Rate Monitor five out of five stars.
- ["MiFang Net US" is an authorized seller of LETSCOM products, products purchased from a non-authorized seller/distributor may be fake and will not be covered by our warranty] Activity Tracking All Day and Night: All-day activity tracking counts heart rate, steps, calories and intensity minutes when you are moving, records sleep data when you are sleeping
- Smart Connectivity: Get call and message notifications from your phone right on your wrist with a glance
- Extra Features: Reminders to move, silent vibrating alarms, remote camera control, target setting and more
- Premium Design: Slim and lightweight body with 0.86" OLED screen, wrist sense design, cable-free charging with built-in USB plug, and long battery life; all to make your life easier
- Works with VeryFitPro App: Tracks your all-day activities with or without your phone, but we recommend you use it with app for detailed data and more functions
Which one is right for you?
If you want one of the best fitness trackers with heart rate monitors around, and don’t mind paying for it, the Fitbit Charge 2 (Available at Amazon.com) is for you. Reliable and easy to use, this is a quality product that will be a joy to use.
If you want to wear your fitness tracker for swimming and want to measure your heart rate while you exercise, the Lintelek Waterproof Tracker (Available at Amazon.com) is a very budget-friendly choice. It’s loaded with many of the features normally found on more expensive models.
If you want a cheap, easy to use fitness tracker that is loaded with useful features, the LETSCOM Fitness Tracker (Available at Amazon.com) comes highly recommended. It’s one of the highest rated budget-friendly fitness trackers with heart rate monitor on Amazon.com.
More Fitness Trackers
To target specific workouts there are different fitness trackers. We cover mostly all types of fitness bands available in the market. Find more on this page.
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Last update on 2019-03-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
