Do you still use your fitbit?

crosbylee

Love 'em so much I have two! I wear the Blaze during the day for steps and all. I have a Charge HR2 that replaced my dead HR. I wear that one at night to track my sleep because it is less bulky. I have been using one for a couple of years now. I don't focus on the calories so much as just getting up and moving.

WickedPineapple

I have a fitbit flex that I really like. I use it for the step count and activity level breakdown. I'm currently in maintenance, but am still trying to up my daily steps and time lightly active. I found the step counter to be fairly accurate (except when grocery shopping as it won't count steps while pushing a cart).

flatlndr

I started with a Fitbit One - until I forget it was in my pocket and jumped into the pool - and now I have a Fitbit HR. I don't use it to figure out exactly my calories burned so that I can adjust my intake. I use it to make sure I don't sit on my bottom all day (desk job). After 3 years of tracking on and off, I know where my TDEE ranges ... as long as I don't sit all day. My Fitbit (as would any other quality activity tracker) makes sure I'm getting enough motion throughout the day.

Maxematics

Used the Charge HR from July 2014 until the Charge 2 came out and now I use that. I find it to be extremely accurate for me, if not slightly underestimating my TDEE. No activity tracker will be perfect but, like others have stated, a lot of the complaints are actually due to user error rather than inaccuracies via the Fitbit.

I will never forget the guy who wrote about how Fitbit sucks and it made him gain weight. He thought the calorie burn amount on the Fitbit was additional calories he could eat in addition to his calorie allotment on MFP. So if he got 2000 calories via MFP, but his TDEE via Fitbit was 3200, he would eat 5200 calories for the day. Of course he gained weight! His mistake was not reading the manual, then blaming Fitbit for his issues. You know that this can't be the only case of user misunderstanding either.

StaciMarie1974

I have the Fitbit One and have worn it nearly every day for 3+ years. There have been a couple situations of forgetting to take it off the charger when I get out of the shower. Its been instrumental in making me aware of my activity level and getting me to move more.

I do not like the wrist worn devices, and I really fear they're going to stop selling the One. They only have a 1 year warranty, and while mine works fine I know it won't last forever...

nablackb wrote: »

Good morning!

My work is having a step competition over the next few months and they provided us a pedometer that's cheap, inaccurate and basically useless. I have a Fitbit flex that I decided to start using instead. I know there has been articles that shows Fitbit's aren't as helpful or accurate as people would hope them to be.

What are your thoughts on Fitbits? Which model do you have and why do you find it helpful/useful or not?

Any other constructive advice is appreciated. Thank you in advance!

SoDamnHungry

I have the Fitbit One. It's actually supposed to be quite accurate for steps, and I have counted myself and it comes out correctly as well. Honestly, I forgot about it because I lost my charger and was too lazy to find it, but it's always done a good job when I get back on the fitbit wagon.

My knee is healing right now, and it's helping me go from virtually no steps at all to monitoring the amount of steps I'm taking while I try to strengthen without overdoing it.

FrugalMomsRock75

I have fitbit One, and I personally think it's a LOT more accurate than the ones you wear on your wrist. If you work with your hands a lot, the wearable watch one is registering steps! Mine is worn on the waist and only actually tallies when my legs are a'movin'.

I love my fitbit.

I also have a Polar m400. It consistently has me at higher steps (because of the wrist thing, I am thinking). I do love it though. I mostly use it because of the integrated GPS for running outdoors and the HRM during exercise.

nealashleyc

I've gone from the Fitbit Zip to the Charge to now the Charge HR. Waiting until this one falls apart or dies until I get the Charge HR 2.

I use it solely to count steps, sometimes for activity minutes. I sync it to MFP so I can see how many calories I've burned, however I never eat them back. I feel like too many people DO eat them back and yeah, it's not going to be totally accurate. My Fitbit says I burned like 1200 calories yesterday because I walked almost 20000 steps. If I ate 1200 calories ON TOP of the 1200 calories I try to eat on a normal basis... I'm not going to lose any weight. I feel like that should just be common sense.

3rdof7sisters

FrugalMomsRock75 wrote: »

I have fitbit One, and I personally think it's a LOT more accurate than the ones you wear on your wrist. If you work with your hands a lot, the wearable watch one is registering steps! Mine is worn on the waist and only actually tallies when my legs are a'movin'.

I love my fitbit.

I also have a Polar m400. It consistently has me at higher steps (because of the wrist thing, I am thinking). I do love it though. I mostly use it because of the integrated GPS for running outdoors and the HRM during exercise.

I actually had a One first, then a Force (discontinued), and now a Charge HR.

I wore the One and the Force at the same time, and there was very little difference in step count between the 2 fitbits. Now I usually have my iphone in my pocket at the same time and the step counts are close as well. One thing it does not do well with is if you are pushing a shopping cart (ie: grocery shopping) For some reason it does not pick up all steps, so I usually put it in my pocket at the grocery store.

FrugalMomsRock75

3rdof7sisters wrote: »

FrugalMomsRock75 wrote: »

I have fitbit One, and I personally think it's a LOT more accurate than the ones you wear on your wrist. If you work with your hands a lot, the wearable watch one is registering steps! Mine is worn on the waist and only actually tallies when my legs are a'movin'.

I love my fitbit.

I also have a Polar m400. It consistently has me at higher steps (because of the wrist thing, I am thinking). I do love it though. I mostly use it because of the integrated GPS for running outdoors and the HRM during exercise.

I actually had a One first, then a Force (discontinued), and now a Charge HR.

I wore the One and the Force at the same time, and there was very little difference in step count between the 2 fitbits. Now I usually have my iphone in my pocket at the same time and the step counts are close as well. One thing it does not do well with is if you are pushing a shopping cart (ie: grocery shopping) For some reason it does not pick up all steps, so I usually put it in my pocket at the grocery store.

well, the cook at my work gets twice as many steps as me (I'm talking he is always at 30,000 steps working in a box area)... and I'm the one doing the running! I know it's because of his hands being very busy. Do you work with your hands a lot? He is constantly working with his, and it is counting it as steps because of the moving.

FrugalMomsRock75

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge/Fitbit-not-accurate-counting-steps-while-I-m-seating-or-asleep/td-p/895993


Lots and lots and lots of people report the same thing. It isn't just my cook and me.

wizzybeth

kgirlhart wrote: »

I have a One and I love it. It clips to my bra so I don't have to worry about getting extra "steps" when I am washing dishes, etc. or missing steps when walking my dogs (I hold them close to my side so not a lot of arm swinging) or pushing a buggy at the grocery store. Plus it is discrete and I don't like to wear bracelets. I lost a little faster than expected while using it and now that I am in maintenance I still lose a little so I think that it actually underestimates my calorie burns. I have seen people say it overestimates calorie burn, but that has not been my experience.

THIS. I could have written this. I love my Fitbit One! So much I want to marry it.

mrsvmcgee

I've never had a fitbit but I do have a Garmin fitness tracker. I've been using it every day to not only track fitness but I love having a watch again to wear on my wrist. I also like using it for notifications from my phone. The sleep monitoring has really helped me set a routine and of course I use it to track all of my physical activity. I'm looking forward to the spring when i can track my bike riding and hiking!

3rdof7sisters

I work in an office. I have heard others say they get steps from hand movement, but I have not noticed this with mine. This was a concern of mine after I got the Force, that is why I wore them simultaneously. I just did an experiment and checked the steps before and after typing on my keyboard. No difference. However, I clapped my hands a few times and it logged some steps, so it is possible he is getting steps for hand actions, but I would think it has to be unusually vigorous activity. I usually only check my steps after walking, hiking or step based activity, for a period of time. I have had a fitbit for 4 years and I have gotten +30K steps only a few times, and for me at least, that involved a lot of walking/hiking for the day. I average 15K -18K.

platyguin

At this point, I'm probably repeating what many have already said, but I'll share my thoughts anyway:
I've used a fitness wearable consistently for at least 4 years. I've switched between the Microsoft Band (which I loved! but broke mine whomp) and various Fitbit models. I'm currently using the Blaze and I like it quite a bit. I like that I can customize the band and face to be more appropriate for work or events. I like the workout tracker and I like being able to monitor my heart rate. I also love the sleep tracker and reminders to go the heck to bed. I also LOVE having a "silent" alarm. I'm less likely to wake my husband with the fitbit alarms and I wake up a little more gently.

As for accuracy, mine is pretty accurate. There are negligible differences at the end of the day. It motivates me to be more active, track my water intake, and allows me to compete with my friends to motivate them. I think people who are anticipating the fitbit to tell them all they need to know about their fitness levels are misusing the technology. I use mine as a motivational tool more than anything and it does just that. Whether or not you've actually taken exactly 10,000 steps isn't important. Ultimately it's important that you're doing your best every day to stay active.

tl;dr: I love my fitbit. Let's be fitbit friends

3rdof7sisters

FrugalMomsRock75 wrote: »

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge/Fitbit-not-accurate-counting-steps-while-I-m-seating-or-asleep/td-p/895993


Lots and lots and lots of people report the same thing. It isn't just my cook and me.

I checked out your link. I only saw 12 postings and a lot were the moderator. One thing they did say is that you should have it on your non-dominant wrist, which I do.

BTW, I have not logged one step on my fit bit since my above posting @ 1:01, it is now 1:31.

This is a moot point for me anyway, as I love it for the motivation it gives me to move more, and for that I give it an A+++

amusedmonkey

I use currently use a Fitbit Alta and I love it. I have gone through a few models and loved them (Charge HR grossly over-estimated calories until I turned the heart rate feature off).

The recent articles about accuracy/effectiveness for weight loss did not phase me one bit. I know what I want from my tracker: I want to know how much I move, and I want to know how many calories I roughly burn. The number of steps as a successful indication of my activity and I have been able to tweak the calorie part to fit my actual results, so that too is accurate.

As for not being helpful, you don't throw a tracker at someone and expect them to lose weight. They would have to want to lose weight, be willing to do the work, and not overcompensate for their activity with food. That's what those studies did, they basically just threw a tracker and people and said "go". When you are tracking your intake with MFP you have the tools to see if you are overcompensating for activity with food.

It has been very helpful for me, personally, and I don't plan to stop using it, at least not in the foreseeable future.

KickassAmazon76

I have the Charge 2. I got it in October and I love it. I'm a stats junkie and it really does motivate me to get moving. I used to average around 5 - 6k steps a day (I'm guessing), and maybe 10 flights of stairs a day. Now that I have it - I find myself pushing to keep at least 8k steps (and am often over 10-13k), and I'm actually doing at least 40 flights of stairs a day. (note the stair counting can be inaccurate - but tends to be on the low side - it often misses counting a flight if you hold the handrail, or skip steps.)

I don't follow the calories too closely - I had to adjust somewhat and I believe it's actually crediting me less calories than I get from my HRM.

But like all things... I set a baseline and work off that. If I'm steadily gaining, I adjust my goal downwards. If I'm losing too much, I allow myself more.

I get totally stoked when I get the week's stats and I can see how many steps I've done, how many stairs, etc.

Francl27

It's been fairly accurate for me, although I think it actually underestimates my workouts by quite a bit... Mostly it's a huge motivation to move more (especially when most of your friends have one and you challenge each other).

wizzybeth

StarGazerPicTaker wrote: »

I have the Charge 2. I got it in October and I love it. I'm a stats junkie and it really does motivate me to get moving. I used to average around 5 - 6k steps a day (I'm guessing), and maybe 10 flights of stairs a day. Now that I have it - I find myself pushing to keep at least 8k steps (and am often over 10-13k), and I'm actually doing at least 40 flights of stairs a day. (note the stair counting can be inaccurate - but tends to be on the low side - it often misses counting a flight if you hold the handrail, or skip steps.)

I don't follow the calories too closely - I had to adjust somewhat and I believe it's actually crediting me less calories than I get from my HRM.

But like all things... I set a baseline and work off that. If I'm steadily gaining, I adjust my goal downwards. If I'm losing too much, I allow myself more.

I get totally stoked when I get the week's stats and I can see how many steps I've done, how many stairs, etc.

I just wanna say I love your profile pic

NorthCascades

I stopped using mine years ago. I had a Fitbit One, several of them actually. For a few years. Eventually I'd forget it was in my pocket and kill it in the wash. Or lose it. I enjoyed it up until then but enough was enough.

Now I have a Garmin multisport watch that includes Fitbit functionality. I don't pay much attention to the steps, but I use it skiing and cycling.