"Real athletes (lifters) don't use fitness trackers"

EmbeeKay

I posted this in here (not in the fitness forum) because I wanted to get advice from lifters and bodybuilders. I'm about to turn 30 and I'm really excited to see what my body can do as soon as I'm done with my last pregnancy in July. I plan to focus on heavy lifting and see how strong I can get.

But I want to get lean, too. I also love to eat. So I brought up getting a fitness tracker to my husband. He shrugged and said, "Those are for counting steps. Not for lifters. I don't think serious lifters use those things."

Of all the research I've done, the ones that track your heart rate sound pretty useless anyway for figuring out how much you burn during a weightlifting session. And since I do minimal cardio (a couple miles a day maybe of walking the dog), and the rest is just walking around the house chasing the kids, I guess what I'm asking is, is a fitness tracker for a lifter a worthwhile purchase or not? Because right now I could either buy a FitBit or add equipment to my home gym and I'm wondering what's a better purchase at this point.

deannalfisher

I think a fitness tracker is going for your LISS (low impact steady state, walking calories) - but yes, for lifting, it isn't going to give you much data - weight lifting calorie burn is minimal (I think mine is normally about 100cal for 45min of solid weights - if that)

inertiastrength

I do both. I lift 3x/week but I do that to maintain my lean mass and get the shape I want. I *require* a caloric deficit to either lose a few lbs of fat and therefor bf% OR eat more. I dont' see why you can't/shouldnt have one lol

ETA: I don't even count the burn from lifting because it's a pretty basic low volume program of the big compounds... I doubt I burn much more than a 20 minute walk.

Keladelphia

I don't use a fitness tracker at all for lifting for the exact reason you stated, it's pretty much useless for tracking calories burned during a weightlifting session. I do however keep a sweet paper journal haha. I use a tracker for running but if you're not planning to add significant metabolic conditioning to your routine I would 100% use that money to invest in your home gym.

inertiastrength

I'd argue real athletes use whatever they want to get to their goal

EmbeeKay

If I'm going to go on a walk or a run I use MapMyRun on my smart phone. A fitness tracker would just be catching extra work for things like gardening or re-organizing all the closets on a given day or something like that, where I could see, "Oh I burned another couple hundred calories so I can eat a little more tonight."

janejellyroll

mrsnattybulking wrote: »

I'd argue real athletes use whatever they want to get to their goal

This. I would worry less about "real lifters" are doing and consider whether or not it will help you meet your goals.

Do you think having a more accurate step count would help you meet your goals?

deannalfisher

mrsnattybulking wrote: »

I'd argue real athletes use whatever they want to get to their goal

I remember getting told that "real" swimmers don't use those waterproof ipods...my response was when you do 4000yd swims, then you can tell me what I can and can't do as a real swimmer

EmbeeKay

I don't want to make it sound like he's telling me I can't get one! Anything fitness related, I pretty much have an unlimited budget. I just personally hate wasting money on something that is not really going to help me meet my goals.

janejellyroll

deannalfisher wrote: »

mrsnattybulking wrote: »

I'd argue real athletes use whatever they want to get to their goal

I remember getting told that "real" swimmers don't use those waterproof ipods...my response was when you do 4000yd swims, then you can tell me what I can and can't do as a real swimmer

I've had people tell me that "real runners" don't listen to music while running. I mean, okay. I'm fine being a fake runner listening to music during 20 mile fake runs, no skin off my nose.

EmbeeKay

Well I don't know if it's going to help me meet my goals... I guess that's why am asking you guys what you think. It would help me gauge better how much I can eat to avoid gaining weight, I guess… But is that a reason to get one?

AliceDark

It sounds like you and I are similar -- my primary exercise is lifting, and I use Runtastic when I run. I thought about getting a FitBit, but I've found that my iPhone does a passable job as a step tracker so I just use that. There's no reason you shouldn't get a FitBit, but I'm not sure it's going to give you a ton of important data that you can't get in other ways.

EmbeeKay

janejellyroll wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

mrsnattybulking wrote: »

I'd argue real athletes use whatever they want to get to their goal

I remember getting told that "real" swimmers don't use those waterproof ipods...my response was when you do 4000yd swims, then you can tell me what I can and can't do as a real swimmer

I've had people tell me that "real runners" don't listen to music while running. I mean, okay. I'm fine being a fake runner listening to music during 20 mile fake runs, no skin off my nose.

Ha, ha. You're such a fake runner with your music and your 20 mile runs.

janejellyroll

EmbeeKay wrote: »

Well I don't know if it's going to help me meet my goals... I guess that's why am asking you guys what you think. It would help me gauge better how much I can eat to avoid gaining weight, I guess… But is that a reason to get one?

My personal experience: I found my Fitbit incredibly helpful in understanding how much I could eat. I was underestimating my activity before I got it, afterward I saw how much I was actually moving it was easier to plan my daily intake. I could have done the same thing through trial and error, but seeing the numbers made it much easier for me. That said, there are free apps on the phone that could do something similar (Google Fit is one that comes to mind, I am sure there are others), so keeping your phone on your body during an average day could get you a lot of the same information. I just prefer the convenience of having it on my wrist and tying in the heart rate measurements.

ritzvin

EmbeeKay wrote: »

I posted this in here (not in the fitness forum) because I wanted to get advice from lifters and bodybuilders. I'm about to turn 30 and I'm really excited to see what my body can do as soon as I'm done with my last pregnancy in July. I plan to focus on heavy lifting and see how strong I can get.

But I want to get lean, too. I also love to eat. So I brought up getting a fitness tracker to my husband. He shrugged and said, "Those are for counting steps. Not for lifters. I don't think serious lifters use those things."

Of all the research I've done, the ones that track your heart rate sound pretty useless anyway for figuring out how much you burn during a weightlifting session. And since I do minimal cardio (a couple miles a day maybe of walking the dog), and the rest is just walking around the house chasing the kids, I guess what I'm asking is, is a fitness tracker for a lifter a worthwhile purchase or not? Because right now I could either buy a FitBit or add equipment to my home gym and I'm wondering what's a better purchase at this point.

It's going to be pretty much useless for weight training - minimal movement and it's not cardio.
Go with the home gym as long as you'll use it, and maybe track the dog walks on your phone.
It would really only be useful in your case to get 'exercise calorie credit' for walking around the house - if you do that stuff everyday and see that your weight drops faster than you want, you can always adjust your goal calories.

inertiastrength

EmbeeKay wrote: »

Well I don't know if it's going to help me meet my goals... I guess that's why am asking you guys what you think. It would help me gauge better how much I can eat to avoid gaining weight, I guess… But is that a reason to get one?

On days I get 7500 steps vs days I get 13K I *feel* about the same, a couple good walks no big deal. There is a nice difference in the amount of calories I can eat. For me personally I found it not only helpful but motivating to be a little more active in terms of NEAT... I would recommend it to anyone wanting to lose a few lbs.

acampbe2umd

I lift and run and I had a fitbit and I hated it. I don't feel that it provided me any additional insights into my calorie burn than what I already knew. I don't eat my exercise calories back though, I go with a TDEE approach.

ritzvin

FYI- There is a generic weight lifting/strength training entry in the cardio database (note that the burn estimate is small since it is not cardio, and note that most of the time in your lifting session is most likely not active lifting).

Muscle_for_Fitness

I'm going to say they are pretty useless for weight training or much of anything other than steady state cardio. I tend to find out my maintenance calories and adjust from there depending on bulking or cutting time with the assumption that I will burn fairly consistent calories on a daily basis.

NorthCascades

For your needs, a Fitbit isn't especially useful, and probably not worth the money.

I think you're getting a lot of replies that don't address your goals because of the provocative title you used. For one thing it's a blanket statement, which almost always brings disagreement. And lifting heavy things isn't the only type of athleticism, so, naturally, tools that aren't useful for lifting are invaluable for other athletic pursuits, like GPS.