FitBit or HRM?

killerqueen21

simplydelish2 wrote: »

They are meant to do two different things. As far as the Fitbit - I HAD one. It went to the trash. Not accurate in step tracking, sleep tracking, and I hated that it counted what it estimated to be my calorie burn by just breathing. I know some people who swear by their fitbit - I just swear at it!

Really. The trash? You could have at least sold it for some money or something lol

Kevalicious99

No it doesn't - it counts heartbeats. Calories are a unit of energy and cannot be counted in heartbeats.

I hate to say it .. but your HRM cannot truly count your calories burned at all .. it does not have the technology. The ONLY thing it can do it count your heart rate.

There is some aura about these devices and it is mostly hype .. however people are successful with them .. as they are not sitting on the couch watching tv and eating pizza.

So .. as long as you understand that the calorie burn is just some math calculation by some programmer (I happen to be one of those programmer types).

Can they be accurate .. maybe, but most often they are not and tend to over estimate. The reason for that .. is cause if you work out and it says you burnt 100 cal .. you may be discouraged. But if it says 500 .. you would probably be happier.

So take these devices with caution .. as they are estimates at best. The only thing they can do is measure your heart rate. And unless you have medical grade devices .. you are better off with the chest strap models .. the only exception to this are the Mio Products which are very good in this area. The FItbit products and their HR monitoring is well .. suspect at best. You just have to go to the Fitbit forums to see all the problems people are having.

brianpperkins

Eileen_S wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

For all of the ranting and raving over this model or that one ... has anyone paid attention that the OP still hasn't said what activities she wants to track or what types of data?

At least we all have a better understanding of what devices other MFP users own since that is about the only thing that ever comes from this genre of thread.

In the last part of the OP, she asked; "What do you use? Are you happy with it?"

True .. but without knowing what she intends to do what we use or are happy with may be completely irrelevant.

Well, since the OP never stated what activities she needed it for, and asked specifically about the FT 7. I think those answers above are relevant to the original question.

She also asked about a fitbit ... a very different device with a different purpose. Until the OP gives a lot more information, all we get here is the "I have xxxxxxx" discussion.

brianpperkins

glassgallm wrote: »

Just got my Fitbit Charge HR (heart rate monitor built in) yesterday. I had been using a Garmin FR60 watch (a dinosaur) with a heart rate chest strap. The chest strap was getting uncomfortable, so I decided to try something I could wear all day. Today I compared the 2 by doing an indoor cardio/body weight workout. I wore both. At the end of a 51 minute workout the Garmin credited me with 278 calories burned, the Fitbit HR with 256. My average heart rate according to Garmin was 147, the fitbit said it was 132. I don't think the 2 were all that far apart. So far, I'm happy with the fitbit hr.

15 bpm is an over 10% discrepancy between the two devices.

ivygirl1937

glassgallm wrote: »

Just got my Fitbit Charge HR (heart rate monitor built in) yesterday. I had been using a Garmin FR60 watch (a dinosaur) with a heart rate chest strap. The chest strap was getting uncomfortable, so I decided to try something I could wear all day. Today I compared the 2 by doing an indoor cardio/body weight workout. I wore both. At the end of a 51 minute workout the Garmin credited me with 278 calories burned, the Fitbit HR with 256. My average heart rate according to Garmin was 147, the fitbit said it was 132. I don't think the 2 were all that far apart. So far, I'm happy with the fitbit hr.

Agree with this; I got a Fitbit Charge HR back in the beginning of December and I LOVE it! It's pretty dang accurate too. I love it so much and talk about it and use it so much that now my husband wants one too.

AmandaLipphardt

I had a HRM (Motorola Motoactv) and it was a complete waste of money. It came with a blue tooth sync to a monitoring strap that went around my ribs and when I used it in a gym setting and it would sync with the machines around me it instead of to me. It worked maybe one out of ten times. Most times it stayed at a heart rate of 72, whether I was walking or running. I read the manual, took it to my trainer to figure out, ect. but never got it to work right. The screen became damaged after just a year. They said that it was water damage, which invalidated the warranty, but I can't see how that would happen when I kept the computer wrist display in a seperate (from the sweaty band), air tight container outside of workouts. The whole thing really put me off HRMs. I'm just estimating it with MFP and that works just fine for me.