fitbit flex....anyone using it?

jaz050465

I have no idea how accurate my steps are... doesn't matter to me though because steps don't mean anything to me.

So why do you bother wearing it

calories and sleep data

But surely if its not accurate on steps- it won't be accurate on calories either.

Why not? What do steps have to do with calories?

FWIW, I've found it to be surprisingly accurate with calories.

Because that's how it calculates how many calories you are supposed to have burned

Then how/why does it calculate cals burned when I'm sitting still at my desk for 8 hours?

Because those are the calories that it calculates that you burn anywAy- just to stay alive. You can do that using an online calculator. The whole pointed an activity monitor such as fitbit is to calculate EXTRA calories from activity. Fitbit can on,y do this using r
It's accelerometer. If that is inaccurate, so are the steps and hence the extra calories it says you have burnt

jacksonpt

I have no idea how accurate my steps are... doesn't matter to me though because steps don't mean anything to me.

So why do you bother wearing it

calories and sleep data

But surely if its not accurate on steps- it won't be accurate on calories either.

Why not? What do steps have to do with calories?

FWIW, I've found it to be surprisingly accurate with calories.

Because that's how it calculates how many calories you are supposed to have burned

Then how/why does it calculate cals burned when I'm sitting still at my desk for 8 hours?

Because those are the calories that it calculates that you burn anywAy- just to stay alive. You can do that using an online calculator. The whole pointed an activity monitor such as fitbit is to calculate EXTRA calories from activity. Fitbit can on,y do this using r
It's accelerometer. If that is inaccurate, so are the steps and hence the extra calories it says you have burnt

I understand the purpose, believe me... I have 2 HRMs, a flex, and a bodymedia fit. I know how they work and why people use them.

What I don't understand is the correlation between how many steps you take and how many calories you burn. If I swim or lift weights or something, I'm not taking any steps yet I'm still burning cals.


My point is that maybe you should worry less about the steps it records, make sure it's setup properly then check your average daily cals after a week or so and see if they are reasonable. Hide the steps tile if you're that focused on them.

jaz050465

I have no idea how accurate my steps are... doesn't matter to me though because steps don't mean anything to me.

So why do you bother wearing it

calories and sleep data

But surely if its not accurate on steps- it won't be accurate on calories either.

Why not? What do steps have to do with calories?

FWIW, I've found it to be surprisingly accurate with calories.

Because that's how it calculates how many calories you are supposed to have burned

Then how/why does it calculate cals burned when I'm sitting still at my desk for 8 hours?

Because those are the calories that it calculates that you burn anywAy- just to stay alive. You can do that using an online calculator. The whole pointed an activity monitor such as fitbit is to calculate EXTRA calories from activity. Fitbit can on,y do this using r
It's accelerometer. If that is inaccurate, so are the steps and hence the extra calories it says you have burnt

I understand the purpose, believe me... I have 2 HRMs, a flex, and a bodymedia fit. I know how they work and why people use them.

What I don't understand is the correlation between how many steps you take and how many calories you burn. If I swim or lift weights or something, I'm not taking any steps yet I'm still burning cals.


My point is that maybe you should worry less about the steps it records, make sure it's setup properly then check your average daily cals after a week or so and see if they are reasonable. Hide the steps tile if you're that focused on them.

But if you swim or lift weights- there's no point in using a fitbit. All I'm saying is that if its not accurate for counting steps, then it won't be accurate for calories. If you are doing non step type exercise then its also a waste of time. This all started with the OP saying they felt it wasn't logging steps accurately.

gfroniewski

I have no idea how accurate my steps are... doesn't matter to me though because steps don't mean anything to me.

So why do you bother wearing it

calories and sleep data

But surely if its not accurate on steps- it won't be accurate on calories either.

Why not? What do steps have to do with calories?

FWIW, I've found it to be surprisingly accurate with calories.

Because that's how it calculates how many calories you are supposed to have burned

Then how/why does it calculate cals burned when I'm sitting still at my desk for 8 hours?

Because those are the calories that it calculates that you burn anywAy- just to stay alive. You can do that using an online calculator. The whole pointed an activity monitor such as fitbit is to calculate EXTRA calories from activity. Fitbit can on,y do this using r
It's accelerometer. If that is inaccurate, so are the steps and hence the extra calories it says you have burnt

I understand the purpose, believe me... I have 2 HRMs, a flex, and a bodymedia fit. I know how they work and why people use them.

What I don't understand is the correlation between how many steps you take and how many calories you burn. If I swim or lift weights or something, I'm not taking any steps yet I'm still burning cals.


My point is that maybe you should worry less about the steps it records, make sure it's setup properly then check your average daily cals after a week or so and see if they are reasonable. Hide the steps tile if you're that focused on them.

But if you swim or lift weights- there's no point in using a fitbit. All I'm saying is that if its not accurate for counting steps, then it won't be accurate for calories. If you are doing non step type exercise then its also a waste of time. This all started with the OP saying they felt it wasn't logging steps accurately.

If you swim or lift weights it is still beneficial to have a Fitbit because you can send the non-step data to your MFP, and it syncs flawlessly with the rest of your activity log. You are right--IF it is not accurate counting steps then the calorie count may be off.

However, we are contending that the steps are NOT off and that one just needs to experiment with the settings before passing judgment. OP could have a faulty unit...or he could just not be doing it correctly. A lot of people don't even read the documentation when they get a device like this. I went through a couple days of trial and error getting my settings, but after that it has been super accurate.

You have to play with the dominant vs. non-dom setting, for sure. Also, I wore my roomie's Jawbone UP at the same time and it logged 158 more steps for the same distance. The Jawbone doesn't have any of these advanced settings, so he can't even help it if he tried!

tl;dr Fitbit is great. OP needs to mess with settings. Stop being a contrarian!

Labouffecestbon

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