I just got a Fitbit Charge HR. Accurate or not accurate, that is the question!

PizzaPaula

I just got a fitbit charge hr!
I am still learning how to use it. Do you know which arm you are supposed to wear it on? I've been wearing mine on my non-dominant arm and I have the setting as "non-dominant". I've only had mine for a few days and I'm trying to make sure this thing is accurate. I heard a few times that some people wear it on their non-dominant arm, but have the setting as "dominant". But why? Is this better? So confused lol.
I understand to wear it one finger from your wrist bone all day and then put it higher up 2-3 fingers while you work out.
How do you know if the information it's providing to you is accurate or not? I keep seeing people write how its not accurate and not working correctly...but how do they know that?
How do I know if the steps are correct or not? The steps do seem to be on the high side as I am sitting at a desk most of the day, but it never reaches the 10,000 goal so maybe it is correct.
How do I know if the calories burned during my workout is accurate or not? Where are you guys getting your information on accuracy?? lol.
I know for sure that yesterday I walked up two floors of stairs and that is exactly what it said!
Help appreciated
Also please feel free to add me on MFP and Fitbit! I'm not sure how to do challenges with friends on fitbit, but am interested.

dougpconnell219

Just use it as a guide. Not gospel.

Is it accurate? Compared to what? Compared to plugging stuff in here on mfp, yes. I find it dead on with cardio machine readings.

As accurate as a chest strap... Probably not.

ddixon503

dougpconnell219 wrote: »

Just use it as a guide. Not gospel.

Is it accurate? Compared to what? Compared to plugging stuff in here on mfp, yes. I find it dead on with cardio machine readings.

As accurate as a chest strap... Probably not.

THIS

Katiebear_81

I am seconding what Doug has said.

I wear mine up a little higher because it's more comfortable. I've been steadily losing weight by basing my decisions on the metrics it is providing me. So... YMMV, but all you can do is try.

Don't forget to hold the button until it vibrates when you work out

brianpperkins

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/02/fitbit-charge-review.html

rhonderoo

I love mine. I'm not a super runner geek or anything so the HR monitor has been great for me and lines up with the treadmill at the gym and my Polar Chest strap, so far. Fitbit dashboard gives me less calories and forgiveness than MFP, so I try to go by that. For example, Fitbit says to lose 1 lb a week, you should probably have a 250 calorie a day deficit to your calories burned, no matter what your net is. MFP allows for more and will tell you that you have calories left when fitbit says you don't because you're above your 250 deficit.

I wear mine on my dominant arm and tell the software that I'm wearing on my dominant arm. I wear a regular watch because I'm a fashion ho, and the charge stays on my other arm.

retirehappy

Read this FAQ,
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10098937/faq-syncing-logging-food-exercise-calorie-adjustments-activity-levels-accuracy

join the Fitbit group, you'll get it right.

KarolJohnson2127

When not exercising, it's close to what a chest strap monitor says (maybe off by 5 bmp), I have tested that. Once your HR gets up, the readings are way off - so I still wear a chest strap for actual workouts, but I love that it's monitoring and calculating my overall calorie burn based on heart rate, which makes it more accurate than any other step counters which are only movement-based.

Also, a lot of your questions about how it counts things would be answered in detail at the Fitbit HR FAQ page, go to www.fitbit.com.

Unless you got this as a gift, it's surprising that you don't know basic information about the product, I would never buy anything without researching it first (but that's me). Good luck!

PizzaPaula

Thanks everyone. I will check out the links.
I researched a lot about it before I got it, was a bday gift but I picked it out.
I could not find the answers to these questions on fitbit.com. I saw something about switching to dominant arm, but their instructions were confusing to me. I am not sure if they meant to keep the fitbit on your non-dominant arm but switch the setting to dominant or to switch the fitbit to your dominant arm and the setting to dominant.

I sometimes think it is better to get opinions from actual users vs. what the website/company says. The company is not going to tell you that their product sucks.
Everyone is wearing it on different arms so I'm still clueless. So far non-dominant with non-dominant setting seems to be okay for me, but at the same time I have no clue what it is supposed to say.

fiestyflower1

I've been thinking of getting a fitbit for some time now. Glad I found this thread. Where did you buy yours? Amazon?

ChaiTea2015

I wear mine on my non-dominate arm mostly, but I switch arms throughout the day and keep the setting on dominate. The reason for this is due to the work I do. I'm usually moving one arm more rapidly than the other while I'm stationary and I don't want them to be miscalculated as steps. Since I'm on my feet 70% of the time, my rapid hand movements are burning some measure of calories anyway. Overall the accuracy of my steps/calories burned seems to be correct.

PizzaPaula

I bought mine on target and they shipped it to me (received on Monday). I'm not sure if they still have it available. I think it was the day after I ordered it, it showed as sold out.
So far I like it, but still trying to learn the best way to use it!

fiestyflower1

Cool!

PizzaPaula

Hmm thanks chaitea. I did test the steps out a little by moving my arms as if I were running, but I was really sitting down and it did count steps. But if I was just typing on the computer, it didn't count steps. That is what I was worried about as I am mostly sitting, typing through out the day. Why do you switch arms throughout the day?

ncboiler89

PizzaPaula wrote: »

I just got a fitbit charge hr!
I am still learning how to use it. Do you know which arm you are supposed to wear it on? I've been wearing mine on my non-dominant arm and I have the setting as "non-dominant". I've only had mine for a few days and I'm trying to make sure this thing is accurate. I heard a few times that some people wear it on their non-dominant arm, but have the setting as "dominant". But why? Is this better? So confused lol.
I understand to wear it one finger from your wrist bone all day and then put it higher up 2-3 fingers while you work out.
How do you know if the information it's providing to you is accurate or not? I keep seeing people write how its not accurate and not working correctly...but how do they know that?
How do I know if the steps are correct or not? The steps do seem to be on the high side as I am sitting at a desk most of the day, but it never reaches the 10,000 goal so maybe it is correct.
How do I know if the calories burned during my workout is accurate or not? Where are you guys getting your information on accuracy?? lol.
I know for sure that yesterday I walked up two floors of stairs and that is exactly what it said!
Help appreciated
Also please feel free to add me on MFP and Fitbit! I'm not sure how to do challenges with friends on fitbit, but am interested.

Downloaded my data into Excel and found my to be very accurate in my limited sample size (one month). Too drunk to post results.

JenniferInCt

I wear mine on my non dominant hand and have the settings the same. Mmm... ive never had false steps (well not that ive noticed). And ive tried! I checked it before and after driving, waving my arms while sitting, etc. The steps stay the same. And as far as calories burned and HR, it matches my gym treadmill almost exactly! When i manually checked my hr, it was within a couple beats. I bought mine on Amazon. I was worried about trusting it in the beginning and wondered if my weight loss would slow, but after a month it seems to be pretty accurate.

Make sure to log food on mfp, exercise on fitbit. Let it do its thing with your calories here. Although i have the negative adjustments off.
I think youll be more comfortable after a couple weeks of wearing it. And challenges are fun!

kindrabbit

I am really keen to get a Fitbit Charge Hr but am torn because I am not sure it will do what I want it to any better than the kit I already have.

Mtheory was that it would monitor my heart rate all day and tell me exactly how many calories I had burned in 24 hours - no matter what I was doing. It could be a slob day, a cardio day or a strength day. My plan was to eat that number minus 500 calories the next day so I would be in the 500 cal deficit / 1lb a week loss category.

At the moment my every day burn is calculated my MFP and my cardio exercise and dog walks are monitored with a polar FT4 with a chest strap. From what I have gathered I cant get it any more accurate than I have with the gear I have. BUT I want a new toy!!

boredfatman

I've had mine for a couple of months now. It's good and it does help with motivation but it's accuracy is sometimes a concern.

This morning I checked it before I got out of bed. Apparently I had taken 81 steps despite not getting up from a horizontal lying down position. Couldn't work that one out!

The heart rate feature I think is pretty good and I have seen my resting heart rate steadily get better, now down to 51bpm.

RoxieDawn

I have mine set to "dominate" but I wear it on my "non-dominate". I have the Charge (no HR) but when I wore it on my dominate and set it dominate in the app, it was picking up steps when I would scratch my nose!! LOL