Best fitness gifts this Christmas

We're all bound to put on a few pounds over Christmas. To help you shed the post-Chrimble flab, why not turn to one of the increasingly cheap line of fitness trackers to measure your performance? Here are our picks of the best you can buy at the moment.

The Jawbone Up24 doesn't measure heart rate, and the band's a year old. However, Jawbone's Up app is one of the best lifestyle and fitness portals around: steps, sleep, weight and food are easily tracked, and the app even makes lifestyle suggestions and helps set goals.

For the runner who wants the best, look no further: the Garmin Forerunner watch works with apps and tracks your runs excellently.

Fitbit's tiny Zip tracker isn't anything special, but it works really well at tracking steps and syncs with Fitbit's app. Fitbit's one of the most popular fitness-tracking tools for a reason: it's fun to use socially with friends.

A year-long battery life and easy-to-read display, plus it works with chest-worn heart rate monitors: the Vivofit is a simple and effective step and activity tracker.

The Withings Pulse Ox (known as the Pulse O2 in the US) doesn't do continuous heart-rate monitoring, but it can do on-the-spot measurements and grab blood oxygen levels, in case you're curious. Its best feature is its included snap-in watchband, and its compatibility with Withings' comprehensive app.

With a four-month battery life and a design that owes more to fashion than tech, the Shine is a simple fitness tracker. You have to make some compromises compared to other bands out there, but it's more discrete than many competitors.

For loads more gift ideas, check out the rest of our Christmas Tech Gift Guide 2014.