Go read DCRainmaker. I’m getting at least two full days without recharging.
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@bbarrera 2 days is not a week.
This is not the ring to rule them all. It might complement another device, but doesn’t do everything that I want in one device.
I’m not looking to get a new device. My post was just that I listed all the things I wanted in a device and discovered that there is no device that matches everything I want. For me, the least compromise was the Fenix 5.
I am also thinking along similar lines. I am looking for a device, that:
- Tracks sleep
- monitors HR throughout the day, and resting HR
- has a long lasting battery
The main obstacle though is that I am into mechanical/automatic wristwatches and wearing a second watch would be a bit funny. So ideally I would like to have a thin band, without display, that does sleep tracking and has optical heart rate… this does not seem to exist.
If you have anything from Garmin that made you sign up to Garmin connect and you use for training i would buy a garmin device because you’d be able to have all this additonal info you’re looking for compiled with your training data. Going the fitbit/apple watch route will split information in two different places(if you are already a garmin user, off course).
And I’ve found zero use for tracking every minute of my life. I honestly have no use for tracking my HR or steps in the shower. You feel differently, so a device with minimum tracking downtime per week is obviously a higher consideration for you than for me.
garmin fenix 5 user here.
Battery life is far better than Apple Watch and it does basically everything you are looking for.
Everything can be pushed to Apple Health if req’d so I wouldnt lock yourself into a hardware choice just because the UI of their online or app is not great. Most things can share data between them.
I’d love to try the Garmin 935, still thinking about doing a triathlon or two. If I do that, definitely picking up a Garmin.
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This is my experience.
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Garmin will do all this for you.
I’ve had two fit bits that both failed in less than six months. I’m still wearing an Apple Watch that has been working for over two years. It will do what you want.
I’d be keen to hear your initial impressions 
I think you might have mentioned this is another thread, definitely caught my eye but battery life on V1 was a bit off-putting.
Got the itch for a gadget…
Garmin Forerunner 35 user here. Got it mainly for running but it also has cycling, walking and generic cardio options which I use for swimming.it was a touch over £100 and tracks all day HR and can broadcast it over ant+, battery lasts absolutely ages and it shows notifications for most apps and the option to take or decline calls.
I’ve had some issues with the smart notifications sometimes deciding not to work but it’s always resolved itself eventually. A good buy in my book.
Same here - I’ve been using AW2 since the week it was released, raced with it that week - lake swim, sea swim, skiing, cycling in/outdoor, showering, running nothing seems to have dented it.
Nothing is perfect but I’ve had no complaints beyond one or two weird GPS readings for open water swims.
@BennyC I’m in my second week with the Oura ring V2, and so far I am on the fence. It has the potential to be a great tool for informing recovery and improving sleep habits, but so far, it is feeling like more of a beta product.
The biggest issue I’ve noticed so far is its inability to differentiate between laying in bed awake vs laying in bed sleeping. For example, last night I had trouble falling asleep for an hour or more, and during this time Oura shows that I was in a phase of deep sleep. This degree of inaccuracy brings into question the reliability of the rest of the sleep data and skews the sleep/recovery scores that are the foundation of the product. Hopefully this is a firmware kink that will be worked out, but at this time I would recommend waiting on purchasing. If you are interested in following others’ experiences, there is a facebook group called Ouraring-Users.
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The thing is, in my research I’ve found that there is no accurate way to track sleep cycles, particularly REM, without an EKG, etc. much like the discussion on the scales and DEXA linked above, the key to any usable data unless you invest in research center levels of hardware is consistency in your testing regimen. Pick one device, one ecosystem, test at the same time daily, consistently , over a period time, and don’t stress about tiny changes in the daily readings. When you’re using home based hardware, trends are the best you can do, and honestly, are the most valuable data. When speaking to my sleep specialist for example, he said the problem with what they do in an over tie test is that it’s only one test, one night, in an environment different to that which you normally are in. That alone makes your trend tracking with a device valuable, if not exactly NASA level precise.
BL - pick what you like, stick with it, and monitor for major changes over time.
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I personally use an Apple Watch series 3 (I get 48 hours battery life easy and it charges in ten minutes). I track my steps loosely, and my total minutes/hours of activity each day.
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I track HRV with HRV4T using the breathe app on the watch first thing in the AM, to capture the data.(HRV ties in directly with rest and recovery, there is a thread here.…)
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I track sleep with the pillow app, I have 2 years of data in it now and all I do is track trends. I don’t dwell on REM, deep sleep, etc. I use the subjective mood entry to correlate with the % of quality sleep it says I get each night. It works on the phone or the watch if I want to track heart rate data overnite.
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I am using the body+ scale each morning first thing after I water the tree to get a consistent report. Starting in January I plan to get a DEXA bi-annually to “calibrate” the scale data and to give me a measure of ongoing change.
This is my personal data collection routine, it’s not intrusive at all, it requires me to push a total of two buttons each morning (one to turn off my pillow alarm, and one to start the breathe test). I don’t look at the data everyday, but it’s always there when I want it. I’m not a big runner or serious tri-athlete, but if I were I might lean a bit toward the Garmin forerunner ecosystem, though the Apple watch has numerous apps to track your run, whichever you prefer. I do swim and my watch is good enough with that as well that I’m not interested in anything else now.
YMMV
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There is a Fitbit conference abstract here:
http://www.sleepmeeting.org/docs/default-source/attendee-documents/abstractbook2017.pdf?sfvrsn=2
on page A26 the Fitbit authored abstract states 69% accuracy of identifying wake/light/deep/REM, and a Cohen’s kappa of 0.52 +/- .14. which puts the lower end 0.38 (0.52-0.14) as being poor/fair (wikipedia) and upper end of 0.66 being “fair-to-good/substantial.”
as @mellowdave states, I think its best to focus on sleep trends and not sleep cycles. Personally I haven’t found any value in tracking sleep, if you do then ignore the sleep cycle hype and focus on the fundamentals starting with having standard times for getting into bed and waking up.
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Another positive vote for a Garmin watch. I have the Fenix 5 and its exceeded my expectations as well. The fitness tracking has been spot on across everything I’ve done. HR, sleep, biking, running, swimming, and a triathlon. The integration with third party environments like TrainerRoad has been amazing as well. I also like the fact that on the Garmin I can customize my watch face. The biggest win coming from an Apple watch though has been the battery. I can use the watch for weeks without charging it as opposed to daily with my older Apple Watch. That means i can track my sleep very easily. The watch almost never leaves my wrist.
How accurate do you peeps find smart scales to be? I have an Aria 2, which correlates well to a good-old-fashioned mechanical scale at my gym. It also gives fat percentages, which I have never had a lot of confidence in. Other scales also promise water percentage, skeletal mass and muscle mass. I’m sure they produce numbers, but how much confidence do you have in them?
[quote=“Psychopasta, post:40, topic:5552”]
How accurate do you peeps find smart scales to be?
[/quote]Not very.
But it’s a bit like FTP, as long as you use the same scales in the same way each time, it’s good enough.
I use scales at the gym that give sometimes dubious muscle mass results, but over time I think they’re ok.
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