Resurfacing this thread, as I find myself at a loss... Bought the Mrs a Garmin HRM-Pro, with the sole idea to have her properly track her daily walks. It turns out, it does not do continuous heart rate monitoring, neither allows the iPhone Garmin Connect to display stats like pulse, distance, steps...

It may be just a steep learning curve on my side, but I never managed to get a simple summary out of it, answering:
- what's the pulse at the moment (possibly live/continuous)
- how many steps since wearing (and counting)
- route /distance of the walk

Given the CHF 120.- spent, this is somewhat disappointing. Question to the hive mind: as this is week 1 of ownership, should I just return it and buy something else. You guessed it - next question would be, what to buy

I can't speak for Garmin as I've never used those, however I have an Apple watch and it does all 3 of those things, if you head down the return+replace route

Your Garmin HRM-Pro does not have a GPS so won't be able to measure distance.

I've got a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch and it works really well with stats including distance and so on. I've had it for years and it still works fine.

Many models do have a heart-rate monitor built in.

I'd get one of those. You'll wife would need to turn on the GPS before each walk.

Something like the one below would work:

Garmin Forerunner 45

The HRMs are primarily marketed to people who already have a Garmin watch but want to add HR or have more accurate HR measurements than the wrist based optical HR can provide.

Garmin products are great for runners and cyclists, but may be overkill for walking alone (does she need metrics like cadence, ability to program interval workouts, etc?). I assume there are cheaper alternatives, which are also nicer to look at than many of Garmin's rather clunky devices [she writes, glancing at her own clunky Garmin on her wrist]

This comes timely as I want to move away from Fitbit given the Google acquisition.

I look for something able to:
track pulse relatively well (noticed Fitbit HR does ok for runs but not for walks for some reason)
Track sleep length and quality
Steps etc
Waterproof

Do not need GPS as I track my runs and walks with runkeeper.

Do not want an Apple watch (not Apple lover)

Had a Garmin before and was ok happy.

Any model suggestions?

Thank you!

The HRM-PRO will cache heart rate, calorie burn, steps and activity intensity, but it needs a compatible watch to offload it to.

I have a Garmin Vivosport that I use when I‘m not wearing my Fenix
https://www.toppreise.ch/produktsuche?q=Vivosport&cid=

It‘s a little old tech these days, but it‘s cheap. It has a GPS, step counter, optical HR, is waterproof, has smart notifications.

@kri the only thing from your list it doesn‘t have is sleep monitoring.

ETA That Forerunner looks great value and does everything wanted if you prefer a watch to a band.

Garmin Forerunner 45S at 109chf is a well regarded budget option https://www.microspot.ch/de/mobiltel...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

Review here https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/fitn...-running-watch

It's generally better to use GPS on a watch to track your runs and activities as it uses it to calculate a lot of the health and tracking data. You can also connect Runkeeper to Garmin https://support.runkeeper.com/hc/en-...with-Runkeeper

I have used a Garmin Fenix 6S for almost 2 years now and it is glued to my wrist. It really is a powerful tool with great battery life and features. it's also very useful to have such a wide range of sleep and health data available that provide a great analysis over time the more data you have. I can really see how my fitness and condition have improved over time and it's of course handy to have all of your activities stored. I use a Fitbit Aria scale for weight but just enter it manually into Garmin Connect as its easy.

Whitings, has anyone heard anything about it?

If the scale connects to MyFitnessPal there is a workaround to sync it there and then further sync to Garmin. It only captures weight and not other metrics though.

Thanks, I have seen and considered that but in the end it's so easy to input my weight that it's not worth it to me to set up an intermediary account.

I would also consider a Garmin Index S2, but the price annoys the hell out of me (double the Withings Body+) so I will wait for a sale.

Agreed, the Garmin scales are way overpriced for no discernible benefits other than a smooth sync with Garmin Connect. But anyway they all lie, seemingly even the medical grade body composition scales.

Agree and I only use mine for the weight which on my Fitbit Aria is more or less accurate to 0.2KG; all of the body fat/water/chi metrics etc are basically best guesses.

The trick for highest accuracy is to only do it in the morning after your system has been fully purged of all liquids and solids and before you have had breakfast. That's more or less your true minimum weight.

Sounds obvious perhaps, but I bet a lot of people reading don't do that.

The main trick is to do it at the same time every day, and take a rolling average so you don't get paranoid about small fluctuations.

Although seeing a big increase after a binge the day before can be a useful psychological nudge.

Well, for best accuracy your body just needs to be as empty as possible and the best time for that is, as I said, generally the morning after you have had your daily constitutionals and before you have had breakfast. I only care about weekly weight differences as daily fluctuations are largely meaningless (to me).

Garmins are notoriously bad at sleep tracking. Mine routinely assumes I am asleep when I am actually sitting on the couch, totally ignores my 15 minute get-ready-for-bed-routine, and assumes I wake up 10-15 minutes AFTER I am out of bed.

For everything else, I am very happy with Garmin (I have had two different Forerunners and my partner has a Fenix). Once you switch to wrist-based GPS, you'll never look back.

Hmm I don't have this issue with my Fenix 6S Pro... it's pretty damn accurate. Maybe it affects the more mainstream and lower priced models.

Interesting. I have a Forerunner 935, so not exactly on the low end.

Just wondering what you lot use the sleep tracking data for and how you act on the data. Or, is it just an interest thing?

I don't need a watch to tell me whether I'm asleep or awake, nor do I need one to tell me I haven't had enough sleep.

Even the calories-burnt function on my watch is rubbish - according to the chap at Garmin.(I need a heart-rate monitor function for that).

I quite like to see how slow or fast I am running or cycling and how far I have been.

Just an interest thing, mostly. I do like seeing my resting heart rate, and find it is more accurate if I wear the watch overnight. My resting heart rate can tell me that I am sick before I feel sick. That's pretty neat.

I used a fitbit to track steps, heart beat, distance walked for three or fours years now. Don't have any special feelings about the Google acquisition beyond the fact that perhaps is not more difficult to get a job with fitbit than it was before.

I usually walk between 8-10km a day, some 12K steps. I suspect the hills climbing functionality isn't working anymore since it reported I had done 234 flights the other week, which seemed like an exaggeration, even if I do live in the mountains. I got a resting heart beat of around 59 BPM, which for someone in 50+ is very good. But no I am over weight, only just can't seem to shake those last few kg I got in excess.

I got a fit HR 3.

We also got an Aria scale the syncs with my fitbit account that I use to track my weight. [and yes I weigh myself first thing in the morning, before breakfast]. It does seem rather random times. Last week I put on 1kg over right, and well I am still trying to lose it

I like a fitbit HR 4 with GPS, but I read in a review that GPS uses a lot of power, so you need to switch it on and off all the time or keep recharging your fitbit, which doesn't make sense if you want an accurate resting heart rate [for that you need to ware it 24 hours a day]. So I am not sure really... I guess you need 2 x fitbit HR 4 if you're serious.

One day if I come into money I get an Apple Watch, although I will surely be tempted to keep my fitbit given I invested so many years in it.