Fitness Trackers??

Japkoo

Thinking of getting one. Looks like Fitbit is popular. Looking for and advice or reviews before I purchase one. I have an iPhone and workout (cardio, weights, running about 6 times per week) Accuracy? Ease of use? Fun extras?? Please help!
Thanks

sweetteadrinker2

I've decided to get a jawbone up Move. None of them are very good at tracking weight training, and all except the move require charging weekly it seems.

kuranda10

I had the FitBit One for two years and now I have the FitBit Charge HR.
My main exercise is walking the dogs, step aerobics and pilates. For any non-walking exercise, I put it into workout mode and then change the name of the activity once it's recorded.

Is it perfect? Nope. Does it get close enough for my needs and tolerance level? Yep.

ThinnerHill

I have a jawbone up. Love it to keep me on track.

GrannyMayOz

I've had a Polar FT60 HRM in the past where a chest strap 'spoke' to a watch. That was good. I upgraded to a better Polar and that was nothing but trouble. I had to send it away 3 times before they finally replaced the bluetooth portion of the chest strap.

I got myself a chest strap HRM to go with the SportsTracker app on my phone. Hubby got one as well. These regularly mess up and there is *no customer service* other than a forum that makes a big deal out of telling you it is *not* run by SportsTracker. I made feedback on the actual SportsTracker website telling them that no customer service just doesn't cut it and I was disgusted. I posted a similar review on behalf of my husband. We manage with them now - often have to turn it off, on, off, on, reboot the phone... to get them to work, but what can you do? I don't have spare money to go buy new ones.

Oh, hubby had a Suunto chest band HRM and watch for a while, that was great until the day it passed warranty and ended up having to be thrown away, it was then completely useless.

2 sons and my D-I-L all have FitBits which they love. One had a faulty one and FitBit exchanged it for a new one without any pressure on my son's behalf. Unfortunately, after a year, he took a shower with it and it's now ruined, but customer service counts for a lot and I would probably buy a FitBit when I can afford it. I fancy the 24/7 heart rate one.

camtosh

I have been using a fitbit One for about 2 years, bought it to figure out my TDEE (which turned out to be close to the online calculators, but I wanted to be sure). It is a daily reminder to keep moving! The holder thingie broke about a year after I got it, but they replaced it free. Good customer service.

Lrdoflamancha

Fitbit One... I have used it for added motivation for 3 years... I have lost one, my dog ate one, each time Fitbit replaced it for half price of a new one. Fitbit customer service is the best I have ever delt with. No tracker does a great job with lifting... For that use a Polar 4 HRM. But walking, running and that kind of exercise the Fitbit is best.m

KnitOrMiss

GrannyMayOz wrote: »

I've had a Polar FT60 HRM in the past where a chest strap 'spoke' to a watch. That was good. I upgraded to a better Polar and that was nothing but trouble. I had to send it away 3 times before they finally replaced the bluetooth portion of the chest strap.

I got myself a chest strap HRM to go with the SportsTracker app on my phone. Hubby got one as well. These regularly mess up and there is *no customer service* other than a forum that makes a big deal out of telling you it is *not* run by SportsTracker. I made feedback on the actual SportsTracker website telling them that no customer service just doesn't cut it and I was disgusted. I posted a similar review on behalf of my husband. We manage with them now - often have to turn it off, on, off, on, reboot the phone... to get them to work, but what can you do? I don't have spare money to go buy new ones.

Oh, hubby had a Suunto chest band HRM and watch for a while, that was great until the day it passed warranty and ended up having to be thrown away, it was then completely useless.

2 sons and my D-I-L all have FitBits which they love. One had a faulty one and FitBit exchanged it for a new one without any pressure on my son's behalf. Unfortunately, after a year, he took a shower with it and it's now ruined, but customer service counts for a lot and I would probably buy a FitBit when I can afford it. I fancy the 24/7 heart rate one.

@GrannyMayOz I hope your son didn't toss his, because my friend has has washed hers in the washing machine 3 times and dried it at least once. She just takes it, sets it in a bowl of rice, and after a day or three, it's good to go. They are made to resist sweat, so it shouldn't be too awful to dry it back out....

Keto_T

I had a Fitbit Flex for about a year when it quit charging. Their awesome customer service sent me a brand new one. It quit charging after a few months too. I have a Garmin Vivofit now that I love.

Pros:
- You never have to charge it, just change the battery yearly or so. I haven't had to do that yet so I don't know how difficult that will be but i suspect just like a watch.
-Automatically increases your goal as you reach them so you're always striving for better.
-puts you in weekly contests which is great if you're competitive


The cons for Vivofit:
-doesnt automatically sync but I am ok with a manual sync
-the friends portion isnt very interactive or maybe i just dont know how to use it.

wabmester

I've had a few. Found them unworthy of my wrist real estate.

The one I wear everyday? An LG android-wear watch. It gives me the basic stuff like a step counter and My Tracks (GPS tracking for runs). But it has some really useful non-fitness features, like notifying me of incoming calls, showing my email, time, weather, etc.

And best of all: I can play Space Invaders on it.

DonPendergraft

I wear a Fitbit Charge. I really like it for what it is. For exercise I wear it, but pretty much ignore it. I use my Garmin Forerunner 910XT for that! But it's great to just see if I'm being active enough on the days when I'm not running. Any day I run I easily blow past the default 10K step goal.

RisiM

Fitbit charge, had the Ultra before but that doesn't have Bluetooth - keeps me motivated

KnitOrMiss

I have the FitBit One, but it clips onto the center of my bra or doesn't give good readings. I couldn't do a wrist one except to measure heart rate as I wear magnetic bracelets on both wrists for chronic pain management.

cindytw

I have a Fitbit Flex, and had several Fitbit One's. The One's I kept losing, and it was a pain to transfer it out of its holster and into the wristband for sleep tracking and having to remember to transfer it from whatever clothing to the next. I liked the Fitbit interface, and wanted to stay with it so I got a Flex. I was going to get a Charge HR, but I am not used to wearing anything on my wrists anymore so I wanted the smaller one to get used to it again. The Charge HR is quite large.

cindytw

Oh, and I like that with Fitbit you can challenge your friends! I also added some folks from MFP.

MrsNonsense

I have the fitbit charge HR and it works great for me, I wear it 24/7 (except showers) and charge it once every two weeks aprox.
I did a lot of research before getting one because there are plenty that are a waste of money or they're just not reliable.
Charge HR does its job very very well for what it costs, it's heart rate monitor is very accurate, and the web interface is amazing.
The HRM, can start not being 100% accurate, but analyzes your HR for a couple of days/weeks and learns your pattern, making it very accurate, it also helps not having to wear an uncomfortable chest strap.
If you're about to work out, you just press the button once and it starts logging your exercise without making any extra selections or button pushing.
You can also sync to your computer or phone all the time.
The phone app is also very nice, it tells you all you need to know, including your sleeping patterns.
the Fitbit surge is very nice also, but it's a bit more expensive, but I didn't really think I needed the extra features, since I can get those with my runkeeper app.
If you google search, you'll find several articles comparing most of the fitness trackers in the market, their pros and cons, and then you can choose the one that fits your lifestyle better.

cmchandler74

I have a fitbit Flex and love it. They tell you that it's OK to shower in them, but I always take mine off anyway because my first one died after showering with it after about 3 months. They sent me a replacement with absolutely no hassle and this one has been terrific ever since (about a year later). It's simple - just a step count, alarms and the sleep tracking - but I completely feel like I got my money's worth. I will probably upgrade at some point to a Charge.

Liftin4food

I have a fitbit one. I like the fact that it's hidden under my clothing (I also attach it to my bra) and I can just get on with my day. I have found that the calorie burn is slightly inflated for me - but not out by too much. It just means I lose a little more slowly than MFP & fitbit predict. It would be easy enough to adjust my calorie limit in MFP if I wanted to remedy that, but I've taken the approach that I'm happy with how I'm eating / how much I work out, so as long as the weight comes off I'll take it being a little more slowly.

For me it made me realize that my activity level varies quite dramatically day to day, but I was eating enough food for my active days nearly every day. No wonder I kept expanding!!