Step counter apps

[ImaginaryDay2]

Hi all - it's been warming up a bit here (subjective!) and I'm going walking again. I have an app that counts steps, calories, distance and all that jazz. What it doesn't do is account for the intensity of the walk, steps, stride, etc - just how many steps and calories based on the generic step count. Is there an app anyone knows of that wil factor intensity and other things into the calorie count? A brisk walk with a good stride, I would imagine, would be worth more than a stroll down the block and wandering the aisles of Wal-Mart

 

[tango]

I use a Garmin Vivoactive watch. It measures pulse reasonably accurately and lets you use GPS to track walks in detail. You can set it up to automatically register "an activity" if you walk or run for more than a certain time (I don't use that feature).

Once you've finished an activity it downloads to a phone app and you can see a bunch of metrics about. I like it for walking and hiking - it shows pace over time, heart rate over time, number of minutes and percentage of time in 5 different heart rate zones and so on. It measures minutes of activity based on intensity (my Fitbit counts activity as nothing more than consecutive minutes of steps, regardless of whether you're running flat out or having a leisurely bimble up and down the aisles at Walmart). The Garmin has a concept of active minutes and intense minutes, based on heart rate. Intense minutes count double

I think the Vivoactive 4 (the new model) runs about $300 and if you can find a Vivoactive 3 they'll run about $120-150 or so.