Question for Fitbit Users

24

Replies

  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    Hey, great tips! Really appreciated.
  • DreamOn145
    DreamOn145 Posts: 460 Member
    Well I FINALLY have my computer back and set up my new fitbit. I have the One. Wow, was I in for a shock! When I used the fitbit previously I never used the sleep component, but my husband uses it and I was curious. I found out that I am having a LOT more restless time than I realized! My sleep is very inefficient, in fact only 54% efficiency on the first night. Well, THAT is not a good thing! I am curious to see how things go as the prednisone drops. And I am going to see what changes I need to improve this! That may also help with weight loss, not to mention other health issues!
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    edited February 2015
    Dream check your setting for sleep monitoring, it can default to sensitive. Make sure it is normal. I was getting false readings because I move my arms a lot while asleep apparently. I went from 59% to 97% after resetting the level.

    https://www.fitbit.com/settings/device

    You can reset your sleep, your target heart rate etc. there.
  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    DreamOn145, retirehappy has a really, really good suggestion. Also, remember that the prednisone side effects include sleep problems. Once you've tapered completely off the medicine, your sleep should get less disturbed.
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    ........ and I just learned today that you can link Fitbit to your AARP account (i've been a member for a long time but just registered online today) and earn 'good points' for reaching 10,000 steps a day and some mile goals. 'Good points' are redeemable like cash for some items that actually make sense :)
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    Thanks for the tip about linking to AARP.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    WOW am I the only one who didn't notice that the fitbit dashboard shows you what percentage of your weight loss you have accomplished???? I have lost 5%. My goal in there was to go from 170 to 144. Today it shows I hit 5% of that goal. Just mouse over the tile with the icon of a weight scale on it. It will pop up. <3 that!
  • bvifun
    bvifun Posts: 401 Member
    Thank you to all of you for sharing your experiences with fitbit. I keep coming back to read this thread and then I go to the fitbit site and choose my fitbit but when it comes to buy I freeze in fear. Here is my irrational issue. I would love to have a Fitbit on my good days but what happens when I have a flare up like the 3 week one I am coming out of (I hope). Will it then give me a negative number or just register as 0? I think my calorie goal must be just about right as my maintenance is going well. Will it say I should eat fewer calories? This may sound ridiculous but I could not deal with more negatives on the not-so-good days.
    Have any of you had days when you are not moving and what did fitbit do?
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    Don't freeze in fear! The fitbit won't ever adjust to eat less calories than you've set at your minimum. It's just a record of how many steps you have taken and the resulting calorie burn. It never sends you negative messages, well - on my Fitbit Zip the little guy would frown at me, but I turned that smiley off because it would frown after I finally sat down in the evening for a couple hours after walking my butt off during the day LOL.

    it's a tool, nothing more, nothing less. Update on my Fitbit One - I really like it and am glad I upgraded from the Fitbit Zip. Just remember it is only really good for 'steps' (and for my Fitbit One & others... stairs).
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    Bvifun, you can always take it off if you hit a bad spell of health. Like the lady said, it is just a tool. Use it when it is helpful to you and don't when you are not well and can't face it. Part of being healthy includes your mental health and I understand not being able to face more negativity. Get the basic model to track the steps you can do when you are healthy. Congrats on your weight loss when you can't do exercise, it isn't an easy task.
  • JoanLovell
    JoanLovell Posts: 127 Member
    edited February 2015
    I'll second retirehappy in saying that weight loss is more difficult when you can't exercise, but I think that practicing maintaining your weight is just as important as losing it.
  • bvifun
    bvifun Posts: 401 Member
    Thank you all for your support. OK I made the decision only to find the fitbit I want is on back order. Oh well at least I managed to hit that buy button finally. Today would have been a day I would have loved to see how many steps I took.
  • RLF022012
    RLF022012 Posts: 70 Member
    Bvifun, It's great that you're going to give it a try. It's too bad that some of the Fitbits continue to be on back order; I think that discourages some people who want to give it a try. But, I do think you'll be happy once you get started.
  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    ker95texas wrote: »
    ........ and I just learned today that you can link Fitbit to your AARP account (i've been a member for a long time but just registered online today) and earn 'good points' for reaching 10,000 steps a day and some mile goals. 'Good points' are redeemable like cash for some items that actually make sense :)

    Been trying to get the walgreens one set up without success. . Seems to only support certain fitbits. Any advice appreciated. Will also try the AARP.
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    @Sharon - I was able to set up my fitbit at the Walgreen's site in their balance rewards section. I had to set up an online account first, and choose 'show all devices' for my style fitbit to show up.

    An interesting thread: [url="http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084218/fitbit-accuracy"[/url]

    Pretty encouraging for the accuracy, and a bit DIScouraging as well. I have to put in 10,000 steps just to 'earn' eating 1000 calories a day and stay 1000 calories under :scream: And that's only going to get worse....
  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    ker95texas wrote: »
    @Sharon - I was able to set up my fitbit at the Walgreen's site in their balance rewards section. I had to set up an online account first, and choose 'show all devices' for my style fitbit to show up.

    An interesting thread: [url="http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084218/fitbit-accuracy"[/url]

    Pretty encouraging for the accuracy, and a bit DIScouraging as well. I have to put in 10,000 steps just to 'earn' eating 1000 calories a day and stay 1000 calories under :scream: And that's only going to get worse....

    Leaving your whole post in, as I loved the emoticon. I enrolled in the site, but my Charge HR is not supported. Called and talked to them, and they said Fitbit App is supposed to work, but last I checked, no joy. Not a huge issue, but they are the preferred pharmacy. Will check back later on to see if the issue is resolved. I don't care to manually enter my steps.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    sharondtd wrote: »
    ker95texas wrote: »
    @Sharon - I was able to set up my fitbit at the Walgreen's site in their balance rewards section. I had to set up an online account first, and choose 'show all devices' for my style fitbit to show up.

    An interesting thread: [url="http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084218/fitbit-accuracy"[/url]

    Pretty encouraging for the accuracy, and a bit DIScouraging as well. I have to put in 10,000 steps just to 'earn' eating 1000 calories a day and stay 1000 calories under :scream: And that's only going to get worse....

    Leaving your whole post in, as I loved the emoticon. I enrolled in the site, but my Charge HR is not supported. Called and talked to them, and they said Fitbit App is supposed to work, but last I checked, no joy. Not a huge issue, but they are the preferred pharmacy. Will check back later on to see if the issue is resolved. I don't care to manually enter my steps.

  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    I have my Charge linked to Walgreen and AARP. I selected Flex and everything is working fine. Try registering device as a Flex. If it doesn't work delete your cache and cookies to try it again.
  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    Thank you @retirehappy. Will try that
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    Great info on fitbit and MFP interaction and what you should be doing to be as accurate as possible:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy
  • sharondtd
    sharondtd Posts: 548 Member
    I have my Charge linked to Walgreen and AARP. I selected Flex and everything is working fine. Try registering device as a Flex. If it doesn't work delete your cache and cookies to try it again.
    I got that done with Walgreen's today and it's working! Will try AARP later. Thank you again.

  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    Sharon, you're most welcome. Just a bit more motivation. We can take all of that we can get.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy

    For reference and the bump up. If you use MFP with a Fitbit you'll want to read that FAQ.
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    I'm so confused LOL. My husband decided he'd like to use my old fitbit zip to see just how many steps he took in a typical work day, so we moved it off my desk and he managed to get it 'registered' to his new account. The same day he did that, the calorie burn for my FitBit One changed... a LOT. I don't know if it's related. My steps on the fitbit and the dashboard have agreed, and my profile is correct. To summarize:
    • Wednesday & Thursday, I logged a bit over 22,000 steps each day, and a bit over 50 active minutes. FitBit calorie burn was just over 2400.
    • Yesterday (because of shopping and going out for the night), I only logged 16,600 steps and 19 active minutes. And FitBit gave me over 2500 calories. A recent comparable day in steps/minutes resulted in 2200 calories. There was no more than one pound weight difference between the results.
    I don't get it..... sorry.gif

    Anyone have any insight they could share or has Fitbit changed their calculation algorithm?
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,756 Member
    edited March 2015
    Marilyn, I think fitbit.com is a better place to ask that kind of question.

    But you could do some basic troubleshooting:
    1. Check is the stride length on the new FB1 the same as the old Zip had you using.
    2. How about the activity level of the FB1, same terrains, more or less stairs?
    3. If you have it synched up you might want to consider the timing of those steps as well, if you are reading them from MFP or FB site. Lots of lagging going on these days with all the new users from MFP getting Fitbits over the holidays.

    The FAQ link I posted might shed some light on it as well. AFAIK, no new algorithms are being used.

    One of the reasons I went with the version with the heart rate monitor is I can check against my heart rate monitor to see if the burns are anywhere near the same, for me they are, so I am just committed to using the Fitbit data to guide me in my Journey.

    And congrats on those awesome step totals, I am already having to get creative to get in my 12K steps daily this month, 22K just really sounds amazing to me at this point.
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    must have been a one day thing... FitBit is back to its usually stingy self today :disappointed:
  • DreamOn145
    DreamOn145 Posts: 460 Member
    Love the tip about fitbit and AARP! I will have to try to connect.

    Ker, that is funny. Maybe it just had a day of shock and now it has adjusted lol
  • ker95texas
    ker95texas Posts: 304 Member
    bumping for Reba smiley-with-glasses02.gif
  • Rebamae
    Rebamae Posts: 741 Member
    Thanks so much, Ker
  • wandakc
    wandakc Posts: 225 Member
    OK, please give me some good places to buy a Fit Bit. I really am interested in getting one, however I do not want to pay too awful much for it. Those folks that I see using them, seem to have good success because it " spurs them on " Thanks
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