These are the best gadgets for those who want to live healthier

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For all its claims of making life more convenient, consumer technology doesn’t exactly go hand in hand with healthy living. It doesn’t take many six-hour Netflix binges to see that.

Nevertheless, the past few years have cultivated a growing market for gadgets aimed at improving your fitness and general well-being. The number of these devices borders on overwhelming today, but the best of them can help you map out your progress, or at least give you the little kick you need to get going in the first place. Ultimately, there are worse places for tech companies to invest their time.

We’ve spent plenty of time testing and researching fitness gadgets over the past few months, and below we’re listing a few of our favorites. If you want something that’ll keep you honest about your lifestyle, one of them should help.

Fitbit Charge HR

Amazon

It goes without saying, but the most obvious device to recommend here is a fitness tracker — something that’ll take note of your daily activity and, hopefully, motivate you to practice healthier habits.

Again, there are a ton of these wearables out there, many of which behave similarly, but for now, our top pick is still the Fitbit Charge HR. It’s relatively accurate, comfortable, and easy to read. It’s aided by a user-friendly (and immensely popular) software suite. It automatically tracks your sleeping habits. And, as its name suggests, it continuously monitors your heart rate, giving you a good indication of your general health. It’s not perfect, but all of this makes it one of the most self-contained packages on the fitness tracking market.

Fitbit Charge HR (Black), $139.95, available at Amazon.

Jawbone Up Move

Amazon

It doesn’t come cheap, though. If you feel like something as featured as the Charge HR might be overkill, the clip-on Jawbone Up Move is a more discreet device that still measures steps, calories burned, and sleep, and still gets you into Jawbone’s helpful corresponding app. It’s a fancier pedometer, more or less, but that should still be enough to help you get up and move more often. It’ll also save you some cash.

Jawbone Up Move (Blue), $24.40, available at Amazon.

Withings Activite Pop

Amazon

One common thread among most fitness trackers, and most devices we designate as “wearables” in general, is that they’re not all that fashionable. A few companies are trying hard to change this, but they’re facing an uphill battle, to put it kindly.

There’s one segment that’s come close to blending smart tracking features with casual style, though: the growing number of connected watches. The likes of Timex, Runtastic, and Fossil have all launched devices that look like, and indeed are, timepieces on the outside, but silently compile basic fitness stats like the Up Move above. They’re watches first, trackers second.

All of these function at about the same level, but right now our preference is the Withings Activite Pop. It’s extraordinarily easy to use, it wouldn’t look out of place on a man or woman’s wrist, and Withings’ app is less buggy than those of its peers. Style is subjective, of course, but if you’d like some extra motivation without making your need for it obvious, the Pop is the least likely to frustrate you.

Withings Activite Pop (Black), $144.99, available at Amazon.

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