Has anyone found a smart watch helpful to improve health ?

[OrangeChips1]

I am contemplating getting one but on the other hand worried that having access to a load of stats won't be helpful

I have the Garmin Lily, helps me keep on track with exercise, tracked stress level and body battery.
It’s not too bulky, had it about three years and still going strong.

I had a Fitbit for a short time. I work for the NHS so my steps were unbelievable in a day but interesting to see. The Fitbit was updated a year after I got it and I can't access the records so don't use it now. It was interesting to read rather than life changing. Everyone is different so you might find it beneficial.

I had previous Apple Watches which were fine but for absolute fitness I switched to garmin for their longevity.

Not knocking Apple, I loved mine but they're too delicate as well so when my last one smashed I went with garnin.

Check out Whoop. It isn’t a watch face but a coloured band. Depends if you want it for a watch.

You journal each morning regarding the day before and the more you do this the better it can review your individual lifestyle and determines what’s factors help/hurt you. There’s 100’s of journal options you can toggle as relevant all from if you sleep in a bedrooms with pets, if you drank alcohol, how much and when was last drink, same with coffee, if you went outside, read before bed etc etc.

also does the usual sleep, heart rate, steps, HRV, logging exercise etc etc

Just to edit re: stress as you asked this previously. It’s logs stress throughout the day (splits between stress from exercise and stress from outside/sleep) you can also compare across a week/month or 6 months. Pretty telling when certain days are always high stress and can link that back to something (a set work meeting!) that happens that day each week

I love my Whoop. No screen and notifications to distract you, all the data you could ever ask for, and it's made a massive difference to my fitness. I did a months free trial expecting to send it back because couldn't possibly see how the cost was justifiable - it definitely is!

My watch has helped to keep me accountable and made me increase the amount of exercise I do. I do find it quite motivational seeing my stats.

I don’t wear it at night to track sleep or anything. But since owning it I’ve increased my running distances and I’m now training for a half marathon. I have an Apple Watch, I brought it because I wanted it rather than thinking about it improving my fitness, but it has. I hear a lot of good things about garmin too and a lot of people rate them for tracking exercise more than an Apple Watch. But I like my apple.

I have a garmin venue sq2. I love it. Does step count, heart rate, exercise intensity minutes, stress levels, body battery, calories (you can sync to MFP - my fitness pal if you want to measure calories), respiration and sleep (deep/light/REM/restlessness/duration. You can also control your music so if for example you're on a run and playing music from your phone to earphones, you can sync the watch to your earphones and control the music from your watch - not a feature I use much but to others it might be a selling point). You can adjust the weekly goals for steps and intensity minutes so you can keep challenging yourself and the Garmin connect app provides 'challenges' you can join I.e. 100k steps in a month or 4km swim) to keep you motivated if that's your thing.

I love mine, it offers a lot for the money 💰

This sounds interesting, never heard of it before...I shall have a Google!

I get bouts of atrial fibrillation and use my smartwatch to measure my pulse rate and take an ECG when it is happening. I need to titrate meds when I am.in AF in order to keep the heart rate below 100. If it goes over I have to seek medical help.

Oh that's awesome that it "noticed" even though it didn't "know you" if that makes sense. Do you feel different in yourself at 70%?

Thank you! That's exactly what I'm looking for

I have a garmin which I love. My partner has an Oura ring as he didn't want to wear a wristband anymore. He's only had it a couple of months but he's pretty impressed with it.

I have an Oura ring; I love it. It tracks sleep, steps, calories burned, heart rate, gives you an activity target each day, depending on your ‘resilience’, menstrual cycle. Twice it has detected I have an infection before I had any symptoms! It’s shown me how much alcohol affects my sleep, which has been eye opening!
It links to Strava/other apps as well.

Sorry hit post too soon. Having the watch has improved my fitness and I definitely walk more because I enter the weekly challenge so I'm always trying to beat someone else's steps. It's great for showing how long I need to recover from a run.

Hi @OrangeChips1 I feel much better for the meds change. However I'm perhaps a bit too dependent on it. Like my phone...

Garmin trackers are super-duper - but why spend £150-£500 on a tracker when you can spend a fraction and have the same functions?

Look into the Xiaomi Redmi Watch 5 Lite and Mi Band 9. They have the same beautiful AMOLED screen as a Garmin, the same 18-21 day battery life, 150+ workouts, sleep tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, alerts for exceeding safe heart rate limits, SpO2 monitoring,GPS so your route and speed of outdoor workouts are tracked, hundreds of watch faces to choose from, loads of different straps, the ability to control your audio while you train, and a water resistance to 50M, so you can swim with them on, etc.

The Watch 5 Lite can also make and receive calls and get all your notifications if you would like to replicate your phone on your wrist - which I don't. However, if you have cardiovascular issues, for example, and you were to collapse due to a heart irregularity during training, knowing you could just tap the crown 3 times to have a call made to your emergency contact is excellent.

My husband has the Redmi Watch 5 Lite and also the Mi Band 9 - which has the same functions and specs minus the phone calling as he likes the band's narrower dimensions as they allow him to wear a proper analogue watch to work and wear the band further up his wrist under his shirt. I use the Mi Band 9 as I've got tiny wrists and the Watch 5 Lite (being Apple Watch-sized) dwarfs me.

I think they are both about £35 on Amazon at the moment - cheap enough so that if you get bored of putting them on at night to track sleep or if you find that you only use the thing once/twice a week at the gym, you won't feel it was money wasted.

Or you could go uber-spangly and splash out on a Garmin!

I'm also very allergic to Nickel. Would you mind sharing the exact model number that does not trigger your allergy, and also advise me about the band you use? I cannot have anything metal touching my skin and the info from Apple is poor.

I am allergic to nickel too. I have a Withings Smartwatch and no problem.

I have an Apple Watch, which was a gift from my family. It counts my lengths and maps my stats when I’m swimming, it keeps tabs on my heart rate, it can do my o2 levels if needed, and can track my sleep stats if I wear it to be, and probably a few hundred other health things too. It also connects to my phone so I can reply to texts or answer the phone without needing to find the damn thing. If I’ve lost the phone in the house, it can make my phone ding so I can send a child to locate it for me.

I’m sure lots of other watches have the same functionalities, but in general I like mine and as and when it dies I will get another.

A different angle from me
Woke this morning feeling ropey. I had planned to go to the gym. I didn't feel it at all and then noticed my watch was counting my going around the house as exercise with my HR up to 123 with walking upstairs! It has done this before when I have had flu or Covid. I'm definitely ailing/viral so going for a nap now.

I find the step count to distance pretty consistent on the Apple Watch tbh.

I loved my Fitbits for years - I had three or four - but the last one got very glitchy about connecting to my phone. And they seem to have put all their efforts into Android recently. As an iPhone user that was unappealing.

So after many years as a Fitbit fan I have got my first Apple Watch. It is not as good as a fitness tracker as the Fitbit. The fitness features are there but slightly buried under all the other things it can do as a smartwatch. But it links up seamlessly and looks much better for day to day wear than the Fitbit.

I had an Apple series 7 and now have an Ultra 1. I only have a problem with nickel. My old strap did have metal touching my skin. My current one doesn't. It has a metal hook fastening which doesn't touch my skin.
I know what you mean. When I bought the series 7 they assured me that the nickel was inside the waterproof watch, which was good enough for me but they didn't want to sell one to me.
I bought it from Amazon and haven't had a problem.

It's a Venu, great for sporty activities though a little bulky. The new Garmin Lily looks great, stylish and much smaller.

You can track symptoms, and log them. So it does/ can help track patterns. If I were more active, and utilised the running data, I think it would. Or at least be open to your own analysis.