Many people have jumped on the fitness tracker trend to help keep them motivated to live an active and healthy life. They’re often people who already have favorite workout activities and just need to find the perfect tracker for running, swimmings, or cycling. But you may be coming to fitness tracking with a different goal, one of general weight loss and healthiness. If you’re looking for the best activity tracker for weight loss, the search is a little more tricky.
Instead of just looking for something that looks cool and counts your steps, you’ll need a fitness tracker that has features to help you with your weight loss goals. We’ve considered all the options to find the best activity tracker for weight loss. Here are our recommendations.
Best Activity Tracker for Weight Loss
Apple Watch Series 7
Oh boy! There’s so much to say about Apple’s latest offering. The Apple Watch is the ultimate companion for anyone on a weight loss journey, but it comes with a hefty price tag. When my last fitness tracker died, I made the switch and I have not regretted it. If you’re an Apple user, it’s a no brainer to switch to the Apple Watch which becomes an extension of your iPhone, putting all your favorite apps, texts, calls, and fitness tracking right on your wrist. If you don’t own an iPhone, go ahead and skip to the next recommendation, because an Apple Watch won’t work for you.
If your focus is on weight loss, then the Apple Watch is perfectly designed to help you ramp up your new healthy lifestyle at a reasonable pace. With the built-in Activity app, your Watch becomes your personal fitness guru. You’re challenged to close three rings a day: 30 minutes of exercise, 12 stand hours, and then a personalized movie goal. You’ll get reminders throughout the day of your progress, with encouraging messages to help you close each one each day. As you hit milestones, you earn badges for streaks, records, and special events. Each month the app selects a personal goal based on your previous activity. You can go from sedentary to fully fit thanks to the Apple Watch’s easy guidance.
I’ve seen tons of success stories of people losing weight just by closing those three rings. One of the great things about the Apple Watch is no matter what activity you prefer, it can record that exercise. It’s waterproof for swimming, has detailed GPS tracking for runners, and wrist-based tracking for your yoga flow.
With all of this, the best part is the Apple Watch isn’t some utilitarian fitness tracker. It’s designed to be a gorgeous watch. You can change out the bands and the watch faces for millions of looks, so you’re styling at the office, a party, or in the gym. If you opt for the cellular version, you can leave your phone behind and have the complete freedom and protection you need no matter where you go.
Available colors: Silver, Gold, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Green, Gold, Graphite, Space Black, Titanium, Red
Tracks: Everything! Heart rate, time standing, steps, calories burned, minutes meditated, blood oxygen level, sleep. Unlimited tracking options via third-party apps
Notable features: Waterproof, GPS, Cellular Option, Always on Display, 100s of custom bands, Customizable Watch Faces, Move Reminders, Exercise Tracking, Guided Meditations, iOS Apps, Wrist Based Heart Rate, ECG, Emergency SOS, Automatic Workout Detection, listen to music via Bluetooth
Choice of GPS or Cellular
Tracks a Variety of Exercises
Closing Rings a Great Motivation for Weight Loss
100s of Apps
Waterproof
Higher Price Tag Compared to Other Trackers
Must Have iPhone to Use
High Tech Screen Can Shatter with Direct Impact
Fitbit Charge 5 GPS + Fitness Wristband
While any Fitbit is a great choice for losing weight because of the Fitbit Aria WiFi Smart Scale, we recommend the Blaze smart watch if you’re looking for the best activity tracker for weight loss. It has a ton of amazing features you can only find in a premium fitness watch.
Many fitness trackers are smartwatches with tons of features, bells, and whistles that can distract you from your goals. The Charge is a fully focused fitness and health tracker (with some bells and whistles thrown in) to help you meet your weight loss goals. It tracks 20 different exercise modes, giving you lots of options for your workouts. And SmartTrack automatically recognizes and records common workouts for you. The all-day activity tracker will also let you know your steps, distance, and calories burned, helping you to up your game on days when you’re more sedentary.
If you’re willing to pay for the premium membership, you can access the Daly Readiness, which is a personalized score that uses your exercise, sleep, and heart rate data to let you know if you’re ready for a workout or need a recovery day.
The health tracking features help you with your mind and body. The Stress Management Score lets you know how your body is responding to stress on a daily basis so you can manage your stress levels through exercise, mindfulness, and proper sleep. You can even log your mood to look for patterns and changes over time. Keep on top of your heart health with ECG, Oxygen Saturation Monitoring, and Heart Rate Variability Tracking.
Like many fitness bands, you can customize your bands to match your outfits and also receive call, text, and calendar alerts.
Available colors: Black/graphite stainless steel, lunar white/soft gold stainless steel, steel blue, platinum stainless steel (plus endless band options)
Tracks: steps, heart rate, GPS, distance, calories burned, active minutes, floors climbed, stationary time, auto sleep tracking, menstrual cycle
Notable features: interchangeable bands, PurePulse wrist-based heart rate, Cardio Fitness Score, silent alarms & auto sleep tracking, 7-day battery life, multi-sport modes, move reminders, SmartTrack auto activity tracking, OLED touchscreen with on-screen stats, guided breathing prompts based on heart rate, smartphone notifications, swimproof
GPS means you can leave your phone at home
Store music for your run
7 day battery life
No apps or smartwatch functionality
Check out our Fitbit Comparison to discover all their current trackers.
Garmin Vivosmart 4 Fitness Tracker
Garmin is making some of the best activity trackers available on the market currently, but comparing prices and features, we recommend the Garmin Vivosmart for people who want to lose weight. It has plenty of features to help with weight loss and also has most of the features people look for when buying activity trackers.
The Garmin Vivosmart is an update to their original tracker which features wrist-based heart rate monitoring and pulse oximeter in addition to step counting and activity monitoring. It uses the heart rate information to more accurately calculate calories burned and the efficiency of your workout. The Vivosmart monitors your current activity level and then sets attainable daily goals, gradually moving you toward a healthier lifestyle. It also uses vibrations to remind you to keep moving throughout the day.
For workout tracking and motivation, it syncs with your smartphone and you can also create a MyFitnessPal account to help you compare calories consumed to calories burned so you can easily track and meet weight loss goals. If you want a smart scale to go with your fitness tracker, Garmin also makes the Garmin Index Smart Scale which will also sync directly to your account for accurate weight loss tracking.
Available colors: black, rose gold/gray band, gold/berry band, silver/azure band
Tracks: heart rate, calories burned, steps, distance, floors climbed, activity intensity & minutes, treadmill running, sleep monitoring (total sleep and quality), stress
Notable features: smart notifications (calls, texts, music, etc.), time display, move reminders, barometric altimeter, control music, daily goals, Garmin Connect community, 7 day battery life, waterproof 5 ATM
Make sure you meet your weight loss goals by learning how to set goals you can achieve.
Still on the hunt for the perfect fitness tracker? Check out the most popular fitness trackers and the best fitness trackers under $100.