Motorola GPS

Sleek, black, and sporting an attractive square touchscreen, this new offering from Motorola packs a GPS tracker, MP3 player, and general-purpose pedometer and activity monitor into a watch-sized form factor that’s seriously unobtrusive. Its logical interface, clear screen, and strong online tools make it a joy to use, and if you wear it all day it’ll count your steps and estimate your caloric burn from your everyday activities. It’ll even sync with its website over your wireless network, no computer needed.

All that functionality takes its toll on the watch’s battery life, and it works better with Android devices than iPhones, but as an all-in-one fitness tracker and music player, it’s top notch. At around $250 for the basic 8 GB model, it doesn’t seem cheap — but stack that up next to the cost of replacing an on-contract iPhone after dropping one in a muddy puddle mid-run, and it’s suddenly better value.

 

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Runkeeper

Gym fees? No thanks. Expensive equipment? No room. If you want to drop some weight, one of the cheapest ways to burn off some calories is just to get out and run. Tracking time, distance and caloric burn is key to staying focused, and one great way to do that is with a site like Runkeeper.

Runkeeper uses your smartphone’s GPS to record your route, and then uploads it to a online page where you (and your friends, if you like) can review your runs. Contrary to what its name may imply, it can also track cycling workouts. It’s just one of many — Endomondo, Strava, and MapMyRun are three of its biggest competitors — but they’re all free. Try them all, and see which has the interface and mobile app that suits you best.

 

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Zombie Run

An innovative app that puts a pack of zombies on your tail, mixing the groans and moans of the shambling undead into your own choice of music, and unveiling its post-apocalyptic storyline as you stack up the miles. Run well, and you’ll find ammo and medicine to distribute to fellow survivors; run poorly, and your delicious brain are lunch. It’s currently iOS-only, but Android users can join in now because I think that the Android version came out last week.

Earndit

For some of us, working out is its own reward. For the rest, there's Earndit. Earndit promises just that: it’s not a fitness tracker itself, but it’ll suck down data from a number of other sites, aggregating it and assigning you points based on your activity level. Rack up enough points, and you can spend them on a slew of rewards: everything from clothing gift cards to dietary supplements. You can even give them to charity. If you’re out there putting in the miles, why not?

 

Fitbit

If you’re looking for a set-it-and-forget-it solution, the Fitbit is for you. It’s an unobtrusive black object that clips to your clothing, recording your movements over the course of a day while tracking your sleep patterns at night. The newest version can even tell how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed and syncs automatically when it’s in range of its base station.

Its accompanying web site puts all that information in one handy location, and will even feed your calorie total into fitness tracking sites like MyFitnessPal. At under $100, it’s a great way to get a handle on your daily energy needs, and it really couldn’t be any simpler to use.

 

Fitocracy

Fitocracy, a comparatively new player in the fitness tracker market created by a motley crew of fitness nerds, gamers, and assorted geeks. It’s by far the most outwardly “gamey” of the tracker welb sites, assigning you points for every activity you complete, handing out achievements, level-ups, and quest-like workout goals, then showing you how your progress matches up to your friends.

Maintaining motivation can be one of the biggest challenges in making a new health regimen stick — perhaps Fitocracy’s approach has what it takes to get your competitive side into the game.