{"id":293030,"date":"2025-11-15T10:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/293030\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T10:44:15","slug":"garmin-forerunner-265-review-the-best-fitness-tracker-ive-ever-used","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/293030\/","title":{"rendered":"Garmin forerunner 265 review: The best fitness tracker I\u2019ve ever used"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best fitness trackers <\/a>all collect loads of data. The problem is that most of us (myself included) don\u2019t always know exactly what to do with all the stats. What sets the Garmin forerunner 265 apart is that it presents all the insights in a user-friendly way, and helps me make sense of what they all mean \u2014 in a way that\u2019s meaningful to me. <\/p>\n

It starts from the moment I open my eyes: Every morning when I wake up, the watch gives me a \u201cMorning Report,\u201d a high-level look at how I slept, how ready my body is to tackle a hard workout, what the weather will be, how I\u2019ve been doing when it comes to my fitness goals, and more. I can dig deeper into any of the individual data points I\u2019m interested in, and customize what gets shown.<\/p>\n

\"garmin-forerunner-265-watch-review-indybest\"The app is clean and intuitive (Jennifer Heimlich\/The Independent)<\/p>\n

That includes specifics like my overnight heart rate variability, but also a general \u201cBody Battery\u201d score that puts my numbers into context in an easily digestible way, giving me a sense of how my sleep, stress, and activity levels are affecting my energy \u2014 along with advice for how to optimize all of it. I can get as granular as I want, but I also don\u2019t feel like I need an exercise science degree to really understand and create an action plan based on what I\u2019m seeing. The sleep data does seem a bit suspect at times, though. There have been nights I\u2019ve been up in the early hours feeding my infant, and the watch tracks it as \u201clight sleep.\u201d (If only.)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, this watch makes for an excellent training partner. I signed up for a personalized running program and get daily workout suggestions that adapt to how I\u2019ve performed during recent activities, how my body\u2019s responded, and what my sleep and stress levels look like. These sync right to the watch, and it\u2019s easy to follow along with vibrating and audio alerts when I need to start an interval or get back on the right pace. I particularly appreciate that it automatically updates my suggested paces whenever it detects an increase (or decrease) in my fitness \u2014 no guesswork required. <\/p>\n

\"garmin-forerunner-265-review-indybestDespite having a small screen, the AMOLED display makes it easy to see all of the data (Jennifer Heimlich\/The Independent)<\/p>\n

Even with a small screen, the bright (AMOLED) display makes it easy to see all the information I want at a quick glance, whether it\u2019s bright and sunny out or I\u2019m running in the dark. And if it senses that I\u2019ve had an accident, like a fall, it will text my location to my emergency contact (my husband), or I can manually have the watch do it if I ever feel unsafe, which is a nice feature. <\/p>\n

The forerunner 265 also makes it easy to cross-train, with free yoga, strength, and Pilates workouts that sync right to my wrist. Plus, it\u2019s got enough battery life to last for a couple of weeks between charges, so I don\u2019t have to worry much about it running out of charge mid-workout.<\/p>\n

Workouts aside, the forerunner 265 also works pretty nicely just as a general smartwatch. It\u2019s got features like contactless payment, phone-free music, and turn-by-turn navigation. I especially appreciate that there are two sizes, including a smaller 42mm option that comfortably fits my wrist without getting in the way or looking clunky. It\u2019s so lightweight that, most of the time, I barely feel it (even when sleeping \u2014 something I can\u2019t say about most other fitness trackers). Sure, it\u2019s got a sporty vibe, and I wouldn\u2019t exactly wear it to a wedding, but it doesn\u2019t look so aggressively athletic that I can\u2019t pair it with nicer day-to-day outfits. <\/p>\n

I will say that the GPS takes longer to connect than some other running watches, namely the Coros pace pro<\/a>. Sometimes, I\u2019ve had to wait up to 30 or 45 seconds to get a signal. But once that\u2019s on, I find the tracking to be super precise \u2014 looking back at my maps, there are rarely any major aberrations. <\/p>\n

But otherwise, there\u2019s not much that could tempt me to pay twice as much or more for a higher-end watch. The forerunner 265 has more features and captures more data than I could ever even imagine using. Honestly, one of the drawbacks is that there\u2019s so much to it, I sometimes get lost in the app. Whenever I\u2019m poking around, I discover new features I didn\u2019t know existed. For instance, I recently discovered the PacePro that lets me set a pacing strategy for a race based on the course, distance, and whether I want a negative split \u2014 which I\u2019ll now be using for my upcoming 5K. The more time I spend with this watch, the more I realize it has to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best fitness trackers all collect loads of data. The problem is that most of us (myself included)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-293030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}