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Fitness

8 Fitness Trackers for Staying Happy and Healthy in 2021 — and Beyond

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Whether you’ve always been health-conscious or are at the very beginning of your fitness journey, you’ve probably heard about fitness trackers at one point or another. You’d certainly be in good company: An estimated 32 million Americans jumped on the device bandwagon in 2016 alone! Beloved by everyone from physicians and workout fanatics to those simply looking to increase their daily step count, this wearable health technology has grown into $2 billion-plus dollar industry — and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Lucky for you, we just so happen to have an “in” on the best fitness trackers of 2021. 

Benefits of Fitness Trackers 

When looking for the perfect fitness tracker, it’s important to understand how they work to benefit you. While no two models are exactly the same, there are some fundamental commonalities seen among each type. 

Fitness trackers monitor your movements through device sensors, recording data about your daily activities and sharing it wirelessly to your computer, or, more often than not, through an app on your phone. While features can vary by device, most fitness trackers are equipped to measure several different aspects of your health, such as your daily step count, amount of calories burned, the hours of sleep you got, your temperature, and, most recently, your heart-rate. 

With all that data available at your fingertips, you’ll not only be more informed about your health, you’ll be more motivated. Studies from Johns Hopkins Medicine have shown that fitness trackers are great inspirational devices, helping people to not only set health goals but pushing them to get out there and actually achieve them. 

A subsequent 2018 study by Virginia Tech researcher Tabitha James also found that different types work better for different personalities: “Our study showed that people with different motivations toward exercise used different features of fitness technologies,” she told the school’s newspaper.

Best Fitness Trackers

What are the best fitness trackers of 2021? 

From high-end smart watches to affordable (and kid-friendly) options, there’s a fitness tracker out there for every lifestyle, taste, and budget, and the perfect type for you will depend on what features motivate you most. Keep scrolling for FIRST for Women’s’s picks for the best fitness trackers on the market today to take control of your health. 

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