Fitness and fashion go together like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and wearable tech has improved over the years with more colours and styles on offer than ever before. Let’s face it, we all love accessories and one that makes us feel healthier has got to be worth it, right?
Today’s fitness trackers work in harmony with your body and can do all sorts of cool stuff. Like telling you when it’s time to switch off Love Island and head to bed, remind you to take a screen break at work, and tell you when your BFF is calling to tell you about her date. Oh, and it can also help chart and shape your fitness progress too, and keep you on track to achieving your goal, whether it’s couch to 5k or training for a triathlon.
Get one with guided breathing sessions to help you stay calm in times of stress – you can also learn more about your body and monitor your cycle. Want something to coordinate with your little red dress? Just change the strap on your Fitbit. Love staying connected? Blow the budget on an Apple Watch.
To help you improve your fitness journey and smash those goals out the park, we've hand-selected the very best fitness trackers currently on the market. Shop our top picks below.
Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission for purchases made through our links, we never allow this to influence product selections.
SHOP: The best fitness trackers 2022
1 of 11Fitbit Inspire 2 Health & Fitness Tracker
Fitbit is a popular brand in this market, and for good reason. This sleek fitness tracker gives you all-day activity tracking, heart-rate monitoring, sleep tracking and calorie burn, with reminders to move and automatic exercise recognition. For the swimmers out there, it's water-resistant up to 50m and you'll get up to five days of battery life from one charge. It's pretty accurate, although no fitness tracker will ever truly be able to tell you your exact stats to the decimal, and is comfortable and lightweight.
2 of 11Apple Watch Series 7
When it comes to wearable tech, the Apple Watch is a desirable bit of kit, but not something you'd purchase on a whim. This watch will almost make your phone obsolete with the ability to answer calls, make calls and pretty much organise your life. The latest model contains a Retina display, is crack-resistant, and will notify you of high, low or irregular heart rhythm. A Hermès option will set you back more than £1,000 but will coordinate perfectly with your Birkin bag (if you're Victoria Beckham, that is).
.png?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
3 of 11Bellabeat Leaf Nature Health Tracker, £79
Looking for something a little different? This adorable looking leaf is ACTUALLY a health tracker. Worn as a necklace or bracelet, there are no buttons, no faffing, just wear it and watch it go to work. Not only does it track your activity, but it will also give you information about your sleep, periods, fertility, detect stress patterns, gently wake you in the morning and give you a nudge when you've been inactive for too long. The battery lasts a whopping six months, and just needs to be replaced when the time comes.
4 of 11Huawei Watch Fit 'Elegant Edition'
If you're after a discrete and elegant fitness tracker, this classy option by Huawei is perfect. With just a five-minute charge time you'll get a whole day's usage, including access to 12 different demonstrated workouts, 96 workout modes and tracking of important metrics such as heart rate, calories and workout duration.
5 of 11Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS
Unlike the Fitbit inspire, the Fitbit Versa rivals the Apple Watch in terms of appearance, as well as capabilities. It contains a built-in GPS, 24/7 heart rate and has a voice assistant to help you check the weather or set reminders in a jiffy. It'll let you know what heart rate zone you're in, and stores and plays music so you can listen to your fave tunes while you're breaking a sweat.
£188.02
6 of 11Huawei Band 2 Pro Fitness Wristband Activity Tracker, £39.99
Another one for the budget-friendly (yet seriously impressive) list, is the Huawei Band 2 Pro. Giving you 21 days of battery life, it has built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring and produces professional workout reports to help you improve. It's waterproof up to 5ATM so will be fine for swimming, showering and everyday use. Track your sleep with detailed reports to make sure you're well-rested and ready to take on the day. It pairs with any smartphone, simply download the app to get started.
7 of 11NURVV Run Insoles & Coaching App
Smart trackers don't have to be solely on your wrist or around your neck, as these insoles clearly demonstrate. These award-winning lightweight trackers monitor every step of your run, meaning you can get super accurate data while you're on the move. By measuring from your feet, NURVV Run provides you with unique real-time insights telling you how to make every run a success. NURVV's coaching app provides tailored training guidance and live, real-time coaching helps you hit your running goals. If you're a serious runner, these are for you.
8 of 11Amazfit GTR 2e Health & Fitness Smartwatch
What we love most about the Amazfit watch is how customisable it is; you can choose between 50+ face store styles, 90 sports modes as well as 40 display modes. Plus, we can't get enough of this gorge matcha green colour.
9 of 11GARMIN Vivofit 4 Fitness Tracker
If you looking for a fitness tracker on the cheaper side and are willing to sacrifice some of the features that come with more expensive alternatives, the Garmin Vivofit 4 may be the one for you. Coming with features such as step, distance, calorie and sleep tracking and a year of battery life, the Vivofit will meet your essential fitness tracking needs. It also comes with the Garmin Connect app, allowing you to track your fitness on your phone and even locate your phone if you lose it around the house.
10 of 11Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch
if you're willing to spend a bit more money for a heap-load of features, you should consider the Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch. With its sleek design, the Sense Advanced looks great, and with features such as heart rate tracking and 20 exercise modes, the Sense Advanced is an ideal companion to exercise. The smartwatch is unique to this list as it tracks mental health, allowing you to monitor and understand your body's reaction to stress.
11 of 11Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS Running Watch
Designed for runners, Garmin's running watch gets consistently good reviews and it does exactly what you'd imagine it to do – tracks and monitors your runs. It will gently nudge you when it feels you've been idle for too long but not in a Boot Camp kind of way. Garmin have been top of their game for years helping us get from A to B in our cars so as you'd expect, the GPS runs like a well-oiled machine.
What are the benefits of wearing a fitness tracker?
We spoke to Sam Gregory, Head Trainer at F45 Stratford, to find out more.
It helps keep you accountable
Sam explains, "There are a number of different benefits which fitness trackers have to offer. Firstly, they are really good at keeping people accountable and helping them to keep track of their movement. They are especially beneficial for those who try to achieve a certain goal for the day, for example, a certain number of steps."
You can see your results instantly
Sam tells us, "Fitness trackers and heart monitors show people the results of their workout and demonstrate whether they are becoming more efficient, stronger and/or fitter. Being able to see these results helps to motivate people to push themselves harder, in order to reach their targets, as well as challenging themselves to do better.
"At F45 Training, we have the LionHeart Rate Monitor, which is a really powerful tool in helping to motivate members throughout the class as they can see how hard they are working on the screen in front of them, which acts as a huge motivator to keep going. We even use them for some friendly competition, to show who has worked out hardest in that class."
What to read next:
It makes it easier to stick to your targets
"Fitness trackers are a great way to show people how many calories they have burned during their workout or throughout the day, which is especially useful for people who like to keep track of their calorie intake and calories burned", Sam notes.
"They are also helpful for people to keep track of NEAT, which stands for Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This is the ability to create a bigger calorie loss whilst not doing prescribed exercise, as it shows how much energy you have used up throughout the day and how many calories have been burnt without even realising."