Vivofit - Useful or Gimmick?

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  • izu87
    izu87 Posts: 267 Member
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    Do you think that the VivoFit's HRM is more accurate than for example Polar's HRMs? My point is - if you already have an HRM that you find accurate, do you really need the VivoFit's HRM? Or just the band is enough?
  • tomsarno
    tomsarno Posts: 105 Member
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    Does the Vivofit have a watch that tells time without it showing in military time? My wife has a Flex that she loves, but my daughter needs to wear a watch and does not want two things on her wrist.
  • neybor
    neybor Posts: 6 Member
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    I have a Vivofit. I have been wearing if tor about 6 months now. I love it! It is a reminder that I need to get up and move around. I have lost 35 lbs so far, I just started adding jogging to my routine and the heart monitor doesn't pull my chest hair (I am pretty hairy Version 45). And Tomsarno you can set the Vivofit to 12 or 24 hour time.
  • tomsarno
    tomsarno Posts: 105 Member
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    Neybor, can the display be set to continuously display the time?
  • rachemn
    rachemn Posts: 407 Member
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    I love hearing everyone's opinions! I just got my vivofit on Black Friday and I love it. I also have a polar HRM that I use for working out but the vivofit is fun...really motivates me to get up and move more and I love tracking my steps. It's also very comfortable to wear as there is no way I would wear a chest strap all day long! I also love the charts and graphs it gives you as well as seeing your sleeping patterns. I'm a stats girl!
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
    edited December 2014
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    izu87 wrote: »
    Do you think that the VivoFit's HRM is more accurate than for example Polar's HRMs? My point is - if you already have an HRM that you find accurate, do you really need the VivoFit's HRM? Or just the band is enough?

    HRM accuracy is more a function of the strap (or sensor) than the device. In the case of the Vivofit, it will pair with any standard ANT+ HR sensor, whether a strap or optical, and all it does is display and record the pulse data the sensor is sending it. If you have a ANT+ HR sensor now, and I'm referring here to the strap or sensor that attaches to your body, not the display unit on your bike or wrist, it will pair up with the Vivofit and should provide the same accuracy you're already used.

    Put another way, the Vivofit isn't really an HRM. The HR strap does that. The vivofit is just a data display interface and recording device that understands how to read and interpret the HR data the strap is sending it.

  • angieroo2
    angieroo2 Posts: 973 Member
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    I have a Forerunner 15, which includes the Vivofit features. My favourite feature from the Vivofit is the Move! feature. It reminds me to get up and walk around for a few minutes when I haven't been moving enough.

    If I wasn't a runner I would have got the Vivofit instead of the Forerunner. It's fantastic and has lasted longer than my Fitbit Force did.
  • izu87
    izu87 Posts: 267 Member
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    ntnunk wrote: »
    izu87 wrote: »
    Do you think that the VivoFit's HRM is more accurate than for example Polar's HRMs? My point is - if you already have an HRM that you find accurate, do you really need the VivoFit's HRM? Or just the band is enough?

    HRM accuracy is more a function of the strap (or sensor) than the device. In the case of the Vivofit, it will pair with any standard ANT+ HR sensor, whether a strap or optical, and all it does is display and record the pulse data the sensor is sending it. If you have a ANT+ HR sensor now, and I'm referring here to the strap or sensor that attaches to your body, not the display unit on your bike or wrist, it will pair up with the Vivofit and should provide the same accuracy you're already used.

    Put another way, the Vivofit isn't really an HRM. The HR strap does that. The vivofit is just a data display interface and recording device that understands how to read and interpret the HR data the strap is sending it.
    Yup, I know. My question is do you think thete is a point in buying the bundle with the strap or the single vivofit? I've got a Polar FT7 and I don't think it's possible to wear two HRM straps...
  • cassafrassle
    cassafrassle Posts: 1
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    Get the VivoSmart!! it does everything the vivfit does plus its also like a smart watch so it connects to your phone via bluetooth and your message, emails, facebook alerts etc. will alert you on the watch. I've had mine for about 2 months and am totally in love with it.
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
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    izu87 wrote: »
    Yup, I know. My question is do you think thete is a point in buying the bundle with the strap or the single vivofit? I've got a Polar FT7 and I don't think it's possible to wear two HRM straps...
    If the strap is ANT+ you can go with that. It's kind of a toss-up with Polar. They've done some ANT+ compliant stuff but also a lot of proprietary.

    That said, I don't really use my Vivofit as a HR monitor personally. Sometimes if I travel I might use it to run on a treadmill or something. Most of the time if I'm running I'm using a Wahoo strap, most recently a TICKR run, and my phone. If I'm riding I'm using a Garmin Edge 510 bike computer. For other stuff like lifting weights I'll usually just use my old Garmin FR60.

  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
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    cassafrassle wrote: »
    Get the VivoSmart!! it does everything the vivfit does plus its also like a smart watch so it connects to your phone via bluetooth and your message, emails, facebook alerts etc. will alert you on the watch. I've had mine for about 2 months and am totally in love with it.

    The VivoSmart is pretty sweet but it sacrifices one of the best features, in my opinion, of the VivoFit: it's rechargeable. One of the things I like best about the VivoFit is not having to think about the batter except once per year. The VivoSmart is back to the same deal as the Fitbits where you have to remember to recharge it every few days. For sure that may bother some less than me.

  • version45
    version45 Posts: 35 Member
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    Alright! I ran to the store and bought a new Vivofit based on all these great reviews. (Saw the Vivosmart, too, and thought about it for a second. Looks pretty sexy for a pedometer. But I'm with my brother ntnunk - having to recharge every couple of days is a joy killer!).

    I've managed to sync it to Garmin Express and pair it with my phone. Lots of graphs and charts full of nothing, but I'm assuming this will all gel into something meaningful once I start using it.

    But I am at a total loss on how to sync it with MFP. I hit the "Install" button for Garmin Connect in the App section, but I'm not sure what supposed to happen next. I've synced my 1,000 steps to the Garmin Connect website. But on the MFP website? Crickets...
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
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    version45 wrote: »
    Alright! I ran to the store and bought a new Vivofit based on all these great reviews. (Saw the Vivosmart, too, and thought about it for a second. Looks pretty sexy for a pedometer. But I'm with my brother ntnunk - having to recharge every couple of days is a joy killer!).

    I've managed to sync it to Garmin Express and pair it with my phone. Lots of graphs and charts full of nothing, but I'm assuming this will all gel into something meaningful once I start using it.

    But I am at a total loss on how to sync it with MFP. I hit the "Install" button for Garmin Connect in the App section, but I'm not sure what supposed to happen next. I've synced my 1,000 steps to the Garmin Connect website. But on the MFP website? Crickets...

    Unfortunately your timing is a little bit bad. For whatever reason Garmin Connect and MFP have been having troubles for the last 5 or 6 days. The problem is on the MFP side. Calories and the like are transferring to GC but MFP isn't seeing the steps and activity coming the other way. It happens from time to time, usually resolved in a day or two. This is by far the longest outage I've seen.
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
    edited December 2014
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    version45 wrote: »
    I've managed to sync it to Garmin Express and pair it with my phone. Lots of graphs and charts full of nothing, but I'm assuming this will all gel into something meaningful once I start using it.

    But I am at a total loss on how to sync it with MFP. I hit the "Install" button for Garmin Connect in the App section, but I'm not sure what supposed to happen next. I've synced my 1,000 steps to the Garmin Connect website. But on the MFP website? Crickets...

    I just reread this, not sure if you've resolved it or not. If not do the following:
    • Go to the Garmin Connect website, log in, and go to your "Health and Fitness" dashboard.
    • When you get the dashboard, click on the button in the upper left corner that looks like 3 horizontal lines. That should pop a menu out.
    • Go to the 4th menu item, "Calories In/Out", and click the arrow to the right of the menu item. You'll get a popup with a "Add to dashboard" button at the top of it.
    • Click the button, the dashboard widget will appear, and it will have a "Connect with MyFitnessPal" button on it.
    • Click that and follow the directions.
    You should be golden. Or at least, you should be once the connection between the two starts working again. Good luck, feel free to message me if you have questions.
  • version45
    version45 Posts: 35 Member
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    Thank you, ntnunk. Followed your steps, and now their is a "Add Food on MyFitnessPal" option in the gear context menu on Garmin Connect, so I'm assuming the connection between the two sites has been made. I'll just wait till the programmers get it figured out. Thanks so much for your help. I'm really looking forward to stepping around with this thing. Never thought I'd be so excited about simply walking.
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
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    Yessir, you should be good now. As you log food in MFP it should start appearing in the Calories In/Out widget on your dashboard. Once they get the bi-directional sync working again you will also get a "calorie adjustment" in your exercise log on MFP that is based upon the calorie burn Garmin calculates from your VivoFit. Speaking personally, and based upon a pretty good feel for what my maintenance and loss calorie requirements are from months of logging, it's pretty accurate for me. Obviously your mileage may vary.

    Good luck, and when you see the red bar it means to get your butt outta the chair and move! :)
  • Bocch
    Bocch Posts: 191 Member
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    I have a vivofit with HRM. I have also joined planet fitness. The HRM is in line with the HRM's on the machines and very very close in line with previous HRM I was using. A nutritionist told me that I should burn 2000-2500 calories a day by just living. Well vivofit concurs with the nutritionist. I used to just track calories burned during a bike ride, with vivofit it is total calories burned no seperate reading for calories burned for cycling.
  • threnjen
    threnjen Posts: 687 Member
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    I hope you enjoy it! I have a vivofit and I wouldn't say it is life changing, but I do like it. I really like that I have a great idea of what is, for me, a lazy day (6000) vs an average day (9000) vs a great day (13000). I don't really use the calorie counts that it sends to MFP but it is still a nice tool to gauge my general activity. I plan to pick up a separate ANT+ heart rate strap, hopefully for my birthday, so I can use it instead of my Polar HRM and only have to wear one thing.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    version45 wrote: »
    Do any of you 6-month-plus fitness tracker wearers still actually use it after six months? If so, is it doing any good (can you see a marked change in your fitness habits, are you walking/exercising more)?

    Personally I don't see any point in these background activity sensors if one is already reasonably active. That said the Vivofit/ Vivosmart does seem to be a solid device.

    I use an FR310XT for running and cycling, so as the Vivofit price is reducing it's becoming more attractive, although that's stacking up against the potential for an Edge 510 cycle computer and/ or speed and cadence sensors. For me, it's a nice to have gadget, whereas I'll get much more value from a proper training device. If I run four times a week, as my current half marathon training plan is, then I'm dwarving the effect of background activity by logging 25-35 miles per week, and rising.

    On the other hand, if I wasn't doing that volume of running then I can see why it might be useful as a motivational tool.

  • izu87
    izu87 Posts: 267 Member
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    I'm starting to get seriously tempted to buy it for myself as an early Christmas present >.> But on the other side I want to use it as a reward in a way if I manage to keep my personal small "challenge" to count calories strictly, avoid alcohol and be more active. If I make it 3 weeks straight, I'm getting one.

    Unfortunately over here prices are still the same as when it got out :/ Hopefully there will be some Christmas sales...

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