Fitbit/trackers ?

amberlriker3735

I'm looking to have something on me at all times to count steps, etc. What are some recommendations for fitbits?? Are the more expensive ones worth the money?

stephneejune

I love jawbones platform but I used to have the Fitbit one and I loved it. I have the Jawbone UP2

D4LB

Fitbit blaze I love it worth the extra!

lorrpb

The zip or one will count steps just fine. It just depends what info you want.

ItzLahLah2u

I have the Fitbit Flex 2, it serves my purpose! I love it

50extra

I have been wearing a blaze now for about 4 weeks. I like it, and the interface is decent too. I like the sleep tracker as well although its not completely accurate it gives me an idea as to what's going on at night.

Now that I have it I don't want to take it off. I don't think I would want a cheaper one because I like the interface and the options this one has. That being said, I have never used a different one before. The linking between MFP and Fitbit is sweet too but I assume it works the same for all of the trackers, this ones nice because it shows me steps, calories eaten (linked from MFP), calories burned as per Fitbit, reminds me every hour that I should be moving and if you want, there is a ton of cheap replacement bands and bezels for it.

50extra

And I just looked, there's a sale on until Monday.

singletrackmtbr

Check out the Garmins as well. Most are waterproof, and some have built-in GPS. Also looking at the forums they seem to have fewer problems than Fitbit.

A Vivoactive HR is the same price as the Blaze and is a much better device IMO.

50extra

The waterproof thing is huge. If my Blaze was waterproof it would be perfect... but its not, and that sucks.

CM_73

+1 for Garmin, all depends what you want out of it though.
I wanted something that would accurately log heart rate and stats when cycling, but also needed to have good battery life and to be waterproof.
Very happy with the vivoactive HR so far.

Baddogbeanie

I love my Garmin Vivosmart HR. The many challenges from my connections on it keep me motivated...

Tacklewasher

I don't like my Vivosmart HR. Too many things don't work as advertised. I've got floors, intensity and activities turned off as they don't work. I'm thinking of getting a Vivoactive as, apparently, it works better at the things I care about.
I want HR and waterproof. Plus GPS is nice. Was going to wait until the New Year to see if Garmin does a software update that fixes things, but I see they are on sale at Best Buy, so it might be today. $199 Cdn is hard to pass up if it works.

singletrackmtbr

Amazon.com has the Vivoactive HR for $169 USD. I'm not sure what that translates to in Canada.

amberlriker3735

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

Tacklewasher

singletrackmtbr wrote: »

Amazon.com has the Vivoactive HR for $169 USD. I'm not sure what that translates to in Canada.

+27 shipping and fees. Total $196 @ 1.35 = $265. Vs $200 + 12% tax = $224.

But I see they have the TomTom spark for $142. It plays music as well. Hmmm.

CM_73

amberlriker3735 wrote: »

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

Nope, doesn't sound silly to me, that's exactly the reason I got mine!

The Garmin vivoactive is expensive (or is in the UK) so there may be something available now that's better for less cash.
What swung it for me was the HR readout on the screen and being waterproof. There are also loads of apps you can use with it and you can configure it to display virtually whatever you want, but it will all boil down to whatever you want out of a tracker!

Tacklewasher

amberlriker3735 wrote: »

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

I've got both the VSHR and a Polar chest band. For actual exercising, the chest band is far better for showing HR and calories. Although I don't have the band sync'd to MFP, I have my Garmin configured in a screwy way to get the calories pushed through to MFP to be close to what the band says. But after 35 minutes on the treadmill, if I compare the band and the tracker, the band regularly shows a higher average HR, higher max HR and higher calories. I guess my point is I don't trust the tracker for use in a workout. It's the rest of the day that I've found the tracker useful (steps, telling me to move, resting HR) plus some info from my phone like weather and message notifications and I can control the music on my phone from the tracker.

CM_73

grmckenzie wrote: »

amberlriker3735 wrote: »

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

I've got both the VSHR and a Polar chest band. For actual exercising, the chest band is far better for showing HR and calories. Although I don't have the band sync'd to MFP, I have my Garmin configured in a screwy way to get the calories pushed through to MFP to be close to what the band says. But after 35 minutes on the treadmill, if I compare the band and the tracker, the band regularly shows a higher average HR, higher max HR and higher calories. I guess my point is I don't trust the tracker for use in a workout. It's the rest of the day that I've found the tracker useful (steps, telling me to move, resting HR) plus some info from my phone like weather and message notifications and I can control the music on my phone from the tracker.

I think the vivoactive might be a bit better at monitoring HR. I used a chest strap which bluetoothed to my phone for a long time, the Garmin does seem to reflect pretty well the sort of data that the chest strap would generate.
It does seem a bit slower to show the drops in HR than the chest strap, and the trace is a little bit cruder, but the maximum and mean values are spot on.
I had to ditch it in the end as I was getting tired of the connection keep dropping and I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to collecting data!
I'm sure that a wrist measurement can't be as good as a chest strap, but this one is close enough for what I want from it.
This is a screen shot from this mornings ride if it's of any interest.

svel713

If you keep your phone on you at all times, and you have an Android-powered phone, go download Google Fit. Its free. It'll ask for high accuracy permissions to track steps, so allow that.

Then come back to MFP and go to Apps & Devices. Add Google Fit as an app. Then go to Steps and pick Google fit for your step count. Set yourself to sedentary.

Once you have it, its fairly automatic. Look at Google Fit once or twice a day so it can send data to MFP, then open MFP to receive the step data to add to your active calorie count. It'll even automatically start tracking your distance by GPS if it detects an intentional long walk or run, so you can see the actual distance covered along with steps, time, and calories.

The only problem I found is its 3 hours off my local EST time. So my workouts past 9pm didn't show up until the next day, even if they appeared to me on my app at my local time. I think its because it sends steps to other apps based off Google's local time, which is PST. Not too big of a deal, I just moved my "late" food entries by a day if I were too close to my calorie goal.

So overall, its pretty good for being free. You can use it until you decide on purchasing a specific step tracker.

MiniMansell1964

grmckenzie wrote: »

singletrackmtbr wrote: »

Amazon.com has the Vivoactive HR for $169 USD. I'm not sure what that translates to in Canada.

+27 shipping and fees. Total $196 @ 1.35 = $265. Vs $200 + 12% tax = $224.

But I see they have the TomTom spark for $142. It plays music as well. Hmmm.

it sure does. i got some plantoniks

singletrackmtbr

CM_73 wrote: »

grmckenzie wrote: »

amberlriker3735 wrote: »

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

I've got both the VSHR and a Polar chest band. For actual exercising, the chest band is far better for showing HR and calories. Although I don't have the band sync'd to MFP, I have my Garmin configured in a screwy way to get the calories pushed through to MFP to be close to what the band says. But after 35 minutes on the treadmill, if I compare the band and the tracker, the band regularly shows a higher average HR, higher max HR and higher calories. I guess my point is I don't trust the tracker for use in a workout. It's the rest of the day that I've found the tracker useful (steps, telling me to move, resting HR) plus some info from my phone like weather and message notifications and I can control the music on my phone from the tracker.

I think the vivoactive might be a bit better at monitoring HR. I used a chest strap which bluetoothed to my phone for a long time, the Garmin does seem to reflect pretty well the sort of data that the chest strap would generate.
It does seem a bit slower to show the drops in HR than the chest strap, and the trace is a little bit cruder, but the maximum and mean values are spot on.
I had to ditch it in the end as I was getting tired of the connection keep dropping and I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to collecting data!
I'm sure that a wrist measurement can't be as good as a chest strap, but this one is close enough for what I want from it.
This is a screen shot from this mornings ride if it's of any interest.

Also some Garmins, including the Vivoactive and Fenix 3, can pair with a chest strap for the best of both worlds. I wear my chest strap for dedicated exercise (except mountain biking, where the wrist based seems pretty accurate) and just the watch the rest of the day.

singletrackmtbr

grmckenzie wrote: »

singletrackmtbr wrote: »

Amazon.com has the Vivoactive HR for $169 USD. I'm not sure what that translates to in Canada.

+27 shipping and fees. Total $196 @ 1.35 = $265. Vs $200 + 12% tax = $224.

But I see they have the TomTom spark for $142. It plays music as well. Hmmm.

https://www.amazon.ca/Garmin-Vivoactive-Smart-Watch-Regular/dp/B01BLQT7DM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480160105&sr=8-1&keywords=Vivoactive+HR

Here it is $200 Canadian with free shipping. Currently out of stock but Amazon usually replenishes pretty quickly in my experience.

CM_73

singletrackmtbr wrote: »

CM_73 wrote: »

grmckenzie wrote: »

amberlriker3735 wrote: »

Thanks everyone!! I knew there were different types but holy. So many to choose from. I wish I could try each of them out for a trial and pick which one works best for me. I definitely like the idea of seeing my calories and heart rate during workout - that's awesome! Especially if I'm not on a machine that displays it for me. I know sometimes these things could be pricey but not totally worth it and a cheaper one could do the exact same stuff - things like that. I'm totally serious about dropping my goal weight and need to stay motivated and on top of myself LOL. Silly as that sounds

I've got both the VSHR and a Polar chest band. For actual exercising, the chest band is far better for showing HR and calories. Although I don't have the band sync'd to MFP, I have my Garmin configured in a screwy way to get the calories pushed through to MFP to be close to what the band says. But after 35 minutes on the treadmill, if I compare the band and the tracker, the band regularly shows a higher average HR, higher max HR and higher calories. I guess my point is I don't trust the tracker for use in a workout. It's the rest of the day that I've found the tracker useful (steps, telling me to move, resting HR) plus some info from my phone like weather and message notifications and I can control the music on my phone from the tracker.

I think the vivoactive might be a bit better at monitoring HR. I used a chest strap which bluetoothed to my phone for a long time, the Garmin does seem to reflect pretty well the sort of data that the chest strap would generate.
It does seem a bit slower to show the drops in HR than the chest strap, and the trace is a little bit cruder, but the maximum and mean values are spot on.
I had to ditch it in the end as I was getting tired of the connection keep dropping and I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to collecting data!
I'm sure that a wrist measurement can't be as good as a chest strap, but this one is close enough for what I want from it.
This is a screen shot from this mornings ride if it's of any interest.

Also some Garmins, including the Vivoactive and Fenix 3, can pair with a chest strap for the best of both worlds. I wear my chest strap for dedicated exercise (except mountain biking, where the wrist based seems pretty accurate) and just the watch the rest of the day.

Thanks for that, I didn't realise it could do that, I'll give it a try.

NorthCascades

I have a Fenix 3 HR. The wrist-based HRM doesn't work well for me at all. I use the chest strap for cycling because that's important to me, and for running because the strap collects extra running data. I use the wrist monitor when I walk, and for 24/7 background monitoring, but I realized I don't care what my HR is during those periods. It can't tell me my RHR, which is the one thing I really wanted the wrist HRM for. I should have stuck with the F3 non-HR.

singletrackmtbr

NorthCascades wrote: »

I have a Fenix 3 HR. The wrist-based HRM doesn't work well for me at all. I use the chest strap for cycling because that's important to me, and for running because the strap collects extra running data. I use the wrist monitor when I walk, and for 24/7 background monitoring, but I realized I don't care what my HR is during those periods. It can't tell me my RHR, which is the one thing I really wanted the wrist HRM for. I should have stuck with the F3 non-HR.

I'm surprised. I have the same watch and it works great for me for everything but HIIT and strength training (I pair with a strap for those) .

cheryls1mx3

stephneejune wrote: »

I love jawbones platform but I used to have the Fitbit one and I loved it. I have the Jawbone UP2

I love my jawbone up2 as its a bargain as well