There’s a big difference between just wanting to be healthy and actually working towards a goal. Fitness trackers are a great tool for tracking your performance and helping set goals based on your progress.
For me it’s more than just a fitness watch, it’s an essential tool that helps me structure my training and nutrition goals, it’s a way of life. I’ve been using fitness watches for around 6 years and have found it really helps boost my motivation.
I’ve mostly been a Fitbit user and have been reluctant to change brand, mostly because no other brand has really compared, but also because I like to look back on my past workouts using app data. I was asked to review the Withings Steel HR sport watch and give my honest review and I can honestly say It’s been a game changer for me.
The key things I look for in a sports watch are:
- Heart rate monitor
- Smart exercise tracking
- GPS capabilities
- Customisation & personal goal setting
- App integration
First Impressions of the Withings Steel HR Sport:
What attracted me to the Withings Steel HR Sport was the simple and elegant design, the clock face hides the fact that it’s a fitness tracker so it fits really well into my daily life and matches with any outfit, from office wear to gym gear. There are also a range of different straps from Silicone to Leather and Metal, but I much prefer the standard black strap that it comes with.
It’s really simple to set up and easy to use, no complicated synchronisation or features that you just don’t need. I’ve found it to be really comfortable and lightweight which is perfect if you like tracking your sleep as you can barely feel it’s on your arm compared to other sports watches.
Customisation:
You can customise exercises to track from the watch. I spend a lot of time outdoors so I chose to set my workout customisation to track hiking, walking, climbing, running and weights.
What I really love about this feature is that you can look specifically at each of the exercises and view all workouts grouped by activity, which is great for seeing how you’ve progressed and at what rate, which enables you to set really specific achievable goals / PB targets.
Personalised Goals:
What pushes the Steel HR Sport ahead of others that I’ve tried, is the ability to set a target date to reach your weight goal, and get a recommending calorie intake needed based on your selected time frame.
I’m currently trying to shed all the pounds gained during a major Christmas binge and time off the gym due to sickness, with 11 lbs to lose. Initially I set myself a 6 week target but after adding this goal into the app the calorie intake was just far too low to reach this goal, so instead I have set it to 10 weeks which suits my needs more, is still a decent time frame and a lot more achievable.
It’s important to take into account proper nutrition when setting weight loss goals, reducing calories too low can leave you feeling lethargic, which could end up having a negative impact on your training and performance, aswel as your mental health.
Another great feature that I like is the ability to customise the exercises you want to track quickly from the watch itself, I’ve recently set myself a goal to walk as much as I can, taking an hour long lunch break stroll, so I’ve added ‘walking’ to the quick track option.
GPS tracked directly from the watch
What frustrated me most about other fitness trackers that I’ve used, is the inability to track your route and miles using GPS directly via the watch, with most devices you have to link track the exercises on your phone to access this.
As a regular hiker / runner I like to be able to view my progress, miles / km (especially when adventuring on new trails) and tracking on your phone can drain your battery, which is usually also being used for route guidance. The Withings Steel HR Sport enables you to do this via the watch via GPS on your phone, which does make a big difference.
Waterproofness (tested by accident)
Although it does say ‘water resistance up to 50m’ on the box, I was reluctant to test this, however it did end up in the washing machine on a quick wash by accident and is still working just fine! So now I leave it on in the shower, swimming and in the rain without worry.
Battery life:
The most annoying thing about sports watches is having them die on you in the middle of tracking a workout! There is nothing worse. On a level with walking in the gym and realising you’ve forgotten your headphones. I’ve been testing this out for 8 weeks and only needed to recharge it twice – which is pretty good going. I’m sure this will change once I get out exploring the mountains and walking trails again in a few weeks, but for general daily use with an average of 1 hour tracking per day, it should be at least 4 last weeks on a full charge.
Health Mate App:
I have to be honest, at first I struggled to work out where everything was on the app – probably because I’ve been so used to my previous one (Fitbit). But once I began tracking workouts and setting goals, the dashboard had all the information I needed. So if you do decide to get one, make sure you set up all your customisation and goals on day one.
My favourite thing about the app is that you can customise what you see on the dashboard, enabling you to split out your different tracked activities so you can quickly view them alongside each other. For example when you click on a run you tracked – you will see all other previous runs and easily compare things like ‘pace’ and ‘distance’.
Connect other apps:
With the Withings Health Mate app, you can connect to MyFitnessPal to integrate your Nutrition all in one place, this is great if you’re working to a weight loss or weight gain goal. (This is also a feature on most fitness watches.)
Through connecting the other app, the Health Mate app will work out your calories left for the day taking into account your personal data input, goal weight, calorie intake and expenditure.
There are a few other compatible apps to choose from such as ‘Runkeeper’, but for me Nutrition is the only one worth connecting as Withings pretty much covers everything else I need.
