Got Fitness Tracker?

jknight001

My birthday is coming up and I am thinking about asking for a fitness tracker, something that can tell me relatively accurately how many calories I have burned and post my work outs on MFP. If you like your fitness tracker, I would so appreciate hearing about it. I am just beginning to look into this so any recommendations and/or tips would be very appreciated.

shoegal_81

I have the Jawbone Up24. I like it, it syncs with myfitnesspal & mapmyrun. It tracks my sleep quality & steps. You can calibrate it for distance (it's pretty accurate) although you can't calibrate it for steps (I was worried that it was over counting steps, turns out I'm just more active than I thought I was).

One reason I chose it was a couple of friends also have them and I can link with them through the app & compare steps & sleep etc. I find this really motivating.

You can set alarms to advice you when to go to bed & get up. There also an idle alert to let you know when you've been inactive for a long time. I only need to charge it once a week.

I like the fact it lets me know how many calories I've burned although I always take this figure with a pinch of salt as it's never going to be exact. I don't tend to eat back any exercise calories anyway.

I don't know much about the other trackers so can't really compare, this is just my experience of the up24.

flumi_f

I have a Garmin forerunner. It's HRM with GPS in it, but it's not a step tracker. It works well for tracking my workouts, but doesn't sync well with MFP. I just enter my exercise to MFP manually. So I guess, it depends on what you want to use it for.

karen_fitzgibbon

I've got the garmin vivofit. I love it. Although it doesn't sync well with mfp. It also doubles as a watch

cal0rina

Does anyone have a misfit? I can't wear a wrist band at work and the misfit is waterproof and I swim alot,

karen_fitzgibbon

My 13 year old is a misfit heeheehee...

cobygrey

I have the fitbit charge. it tracks steps, stairs and sleep. it's water proof and doubles as a watch. It syncs with myfitness pal

cobygrey

you can also set silent alarms for fitbit charge

JAT74

I have a Fitbit One and what I like about it is that it can be clipped onto a pocket or in my case it's always on my bra. They recommend that women put it there.

I've read that this type of activity monitor is more accurate as it's not on your wrist because some of the ones on your arm or wrist can count 'steps' which are simply arm movements or vice versa if you don't move your arm when walking. This was a big factor in my decision because I did a lot of research before buying.

In addition, I like to wear a watch and have a relatively new G shock in addition to a dress watch I alternate between so it means I can still wear them when I want to.

I've had my Fitbit for about a month and I'm really happy with it. I don't use it to decide how many calories to eat, but I do try and make sure I reach at least 2000 calories burned according to the device every day, and I set my step goal to a minimum of 10,000 steps. Before I had it I used a pedometer for a couple of weeks and I only got to 4000 steps most days.

The Fitbit syncs with MFP and also Map My Walk/Run etc. and has its own App too which is on my phone and ipad. This means I can always quickly see the status of my steps, cals burned etc.

It's been a real eye opener for sleep tracking too as most nights I get 5-6 hours as I'm quite restless and it takes a while for me to go to sleep. When I forget to set it to sleep at night I can log the sleep time the next day if necessary too.

I am currently waiting for my Polar FT7 heart rate monitor to be fixed and sent back to me but when it is I'll use that too for tracking my workouts for calories burned etc.

As I said before I am not planning on eating more if I burn off more but I am using it more to reach certain goals I set for myself so that I am doing what I consider to be the bare minimum. For example if I don't reach 2000 calories burned minimum on NFDs then I can't eat 1500 calories, though on Fast days I am not so worried if my calorie burns in a day are only say 1800 etc.

jknight001

Thanks everyone! I have been reading your comments and loving the feedback. If you think of anything else I would love to hear it.

Foamroller

I'm considering models too. Meh, I can't make up my mind. I know myself, need something that can stand a shower. I WILL forget to take it off.

I think you should try choose what's more important within your budget. If you want something to just remind you to move more the older models fitbit Flex and One do the job. If you want something that more or less estimates your TDEE then there are several options. If so go with one that has a hrm.

Or you can buy a hrm watch, but then you dont get all the daily movements (fidgeting legs) oh, no you probably don't do that

There's also battery time to consider. Garmin vivofit is supposedly 1 year, the others are some days to a week before recharge, I think.

If you have time, read http://www.dcrainmaker.com/

Skimread, though, his reviews are hardcore thorough!

JAT74

My fitbit One estimates my TDEE and so far since I've had it I've only had to charge it once so the charge has lasted about 2 weeks. I rarely check the display though, I usually just look at the phone App to see the steps and other stats.

jknight001

JAT74 wrote: »

My fitbit One estimates my TDEE and so far since I've had it I've only had to charge it once so the charge has lasted about 2 weeks. I rarely check the display though, I usually just look at the phone App to see the steps and other stats.

You are making a good case for Fitbit one. I like that it hooks on. I already wear a watch I really like and don't want to add anything to the other arm.

@Foamroller‌ I would like to get heart rate with my fitness tracker, since I think that would give a more accurate calorie burn (which is the main reason I want a fitness tracker), but for my first fitness tracker I don't want to spend too much until I know it is something I will use a lot.

JAT74

Regarding HRM on fitness trackers, I've read that they aren't very accurate compared to standalone HRMs. As my Fitbit is pretty much invisible and I forget I've got it on until I get ready to go to sleep (it comes with a velcro wristband so you can wear it on your wrist at night) I am generally happy to wear my Polar HRM when doing certain kinds of workouts like steady state cardio. I've read a lot to say that HRMs are not designed to be worn for weight training or other non-steady exercise so there would really be no point wearing something with a HRM function at other times anyway.

jknight001

@JAT74 - Thanks for all the good info. Three questions - what is an example of a standalone HRM? And how does Fitbit calculate calories burned, especially if there is no heart rate? Do you think Fitbit is reasonably accurate on calories burned?

cobygrey

My definition of a stand alone HRM is one that you wear that is specifically for monitoring your heart rate. It usually doesn't calculate distance or steps taken. Some of them will give you average heart rate and calories burned during a timed activity. I have a Timex Iron Man HRM (purchased on Amazon for $60) that has the chest strap and a wrist watch receiver. It allows me to enter my age, weight, and height to calculate calories burned. I have this one because I was told it would give the most accurate calorie burn. I don't like the wrist HRM's because they lose contact with your wrist at times giving a lower average heart rate per minute.

This is why I have the Fitbit Charge instead of the ChargeHR. The FitbitOne does everything the Charge does. If you don't need your tracker to be waterproof then the FitbitOne is probably the better bargain.

Foamroller

Ty for all the good input and more precise info than I gave

sijomial

jknight001 wrote: »

Thanks for all the good info. Three questions - what is an example of a standalone HRM? And how does Fitbit calculate calories burned, especially if there is no heart rate? Do you think Fitbit is reasonably accurate on calories burned?

@jknight001 - For HRMs you really need to start from the exercise activity you are planning to do and then select the features you need.
Beware that HRMs do not and cannot measure calories - they can only estimate and those estimates are only valid for certain activities under certain conditions.
Polar have a good range from the basic to the sophisticated but really HRMs are a training aid for cardio exercise.