Gadgets - Up or Fitbit?

rahgoddess

Hello,

I am considering purchasing one of these gadgets and wondered which one was better? If any of you have used them I'd be appreciate some help and/or feedback?

Many thanks

lgomez75

I had both and ended up returning both to get a polar F7. I love it! It tracks both my cardio and strength/resistance burn. And its about $119.

rahgoddess

Ooh will have a read about that too, Thanks Igomez

lgomez75

Only downside is you cant swim with the hrm band and you have to buy a separate gadget to download your data...but I get around those two things by just keeping track of how long I swim and by manually inputting my burn into myfp.

HacheraTsarine

I just bought a Jawbone Up and I love it, but I hesitated for a long time before buying it because I was also tempted by the Fitbit Flex.

There were several other threads about those products on MFP :
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1057261-fitbit-or-jawbone-up?hl=jawbone#posts-16261722
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1051477-accuracy-fit-bit-flex-or-jawbone-up?hl=jawbone

And there are tons of reviews on the Internet, by fitness pros and gadget loving geeks.
To me, it seems like there is a tie between them, no ones really agree on which one is better, but they all agree on each's strengths and weaknesses.

icimani

Only downside is you cant swim with the hrm band....

I swim with my Polar F4 and I've had no problems with it. Just be careful not to push any buttons while it's under water.

Dittomom

I have the Fit bit One. I got it because it is the only one that has an altimiter and counts stairs which I can do at work. Although they only count as steps, I am still motivated to take the stairs to see them add up on my dashboard. The other reason is that I had read in the reviews that the wristband types might count steps whey you type. I have not had issues with forgetting my FB One. I'm as addicted to it as I am my cell phone and they sync together so when I'm at work without the wireless sync dongle, I can still sync, go online and see how I'm doing.

I wear it in my bra. I have had it for a few months now and have never lost it out of its holder as some of the reviews indicate happens fairly frequently.

Other than walking my primary workouts are horseback riding and cycling on my stationary bike. Surprisingly the FB picks up on the calories burned and they pretty much match what MFP states for those activities or what my exercise bike says I've burned. If you do mostly cardio, then you might need a heart rate monitor but I haven't found much use for one. I love that my activities are automatically captured without having to manually put them into a database. I find the graphs helpful as well, especially the calories in vs calories burned info. There have been a few server glitches with syncing data between MFP and my FB but for the most part they have worked together flawlessly.

lgomez75

Only downside is you cant swim with the hrm band....

I swim with my Polar F4 and I've had no problems with it. Just be careful not to push any buttons while it's under water.

I swim with the watch part just not the body band

rahgoddess

I think it's a tie between them, I like the added geeky graph side of it all. Mmmm also the motivation of seeing activity recorded might be good! Still undecided. Thanks Hachera - I'll have a read of those Will let you know what I decide.

icimani

Only downside is you cant swim with the hrm band....

I swim with my Polar F4 and I've had no problems with it. Just be careful not to push any buttons while it's under water.

I swim with the watch part just not the body band

What good is the watch part if you're not wearing the chest strap? ...just curious.

Bekahmardis

I got the FitBit Flex over the Jawbone simply because of the design. The Jawbone you have to plug in to your computer to upload the data whereas the FitBit uses Bluetooth. The Jawbone UP is a "bangle" style bracelet whereas the Flex is secure against my wrist and won't flop around.

Yeah, that was what pretty much decided me. Couldn't be happier with my choice - I got it the day they came out: May 8th.

nathalier71

I have UP since March and love it. I've lost 28 lbs because I will not go to bed without my 10 000 steps! haha

downeyek

I have a fitbit flex. I love it and almost always forget I even have it on! The website is helpful, but I rely heavily on MFP for community, logging, etc. I'm not sure if I would like the Flex as much if it weren't for MFP honestly. I have a friend who has the UP and she's really satisfied with it. My husband is holding out for the "Amigo" http://amiigo.co/

Apparently, it's going to blow everything else away...

Morgaath

Only familiar with the BodyMedia Fit, as my wife loves her's. Currently they have the basic one on sale for $99.
Her only complaint is she can't wear it when we go kayaking.

VenusAmazona

I've got the Fitbit One. Love it. Am never without it - apart from in the pool, on my bike or doing circuits! It's not as sophisticated as some of the other devices, but what I love about it is the instant feedback and the ease of use. When I'm out on a walk or run I check how I'm doing via the mobile app and if I'm short of steps or floors I'll go and find another big hill to go up, or if I'm home and it's getting late I'll just keep going up and downstairs till I get there. I've gone from a lardy lifestyle of about 2-3000 steps per day to an active stepper clocking between 15-20,000 per day in the space of a few short months. Like I said, I love it, and when you hit your dashboard targets each day they fire off big, green smiley Hoorays!

I do wear it when I'm running, because I want to count those steps, but I also wear a Garmin device that gives me some serious stats for analysis. I wore it once for cycling, but I got a false high count, and I wore it once doing circuits to see what it would make of it - zip! I wear my ancient Polar HRM for circuits and other workouts.

RunFarLiveHappy

I have a Jawbone UP. Hubby bought it for me for Mother's Day! The part that is invaluable to me is that it tracks my TDEE. I've been trying to eat at TDEE - 20% (roughly) for awhile now, but from day to day my activity can vary so much that it was difficult. The Jawbone UP makes it super simple. I used a Polar FT4 from last August until I got my Jawbone. Since I strictly run and lift (with infrequent variation; occasional swimming, cycling, etc.) I use my Jawbone UP 24/7 and I don't use anything to calculate my burn for lifting because its so hard to estimate that anyway (even with a HRM). I find myself using my HRM less and less and getting great results from just the Jawbone UP. If I am swimming or cycling I will wear my Polar. Which for the record most are water proof; the watch is useless without the chest strap, you have to use both, you just CANNOT press buttons on the watch in the water. Either choice is a great investment! Good luck with your choice. If you have any more personalized questions about the UP feel free to message me.

kristieshannon

I've had my UP for 2 months now and I love it. Very good data, and motivating. Plugging it in to your phone for uploads is no big deal, takes only seconds. Plus, since it isn't constantly communicating via Bluetooth the battery lasts longer. I think its a cute bracelet too, and have had many people compliment me on it.

rahgoddess

Thanks everyone I was leaning more towards the UP - now I have lots of info to help me decide

ze_hombre

I started out with a Zip and upgraded to the Flex. All things being equal I like it. The only gripe I have with the Flex is its a bit sensitive to things like bike riding (it counts a lot of the bumps as steps) and I have seen it count arm scratches as steps. I would imagine that any wrist-based pedometer would suffer the same flaw. I had no complaints about the zip other than it wasn't water proof.

ShannonMpls

I'm obsessed with my FitbitOne. LOVE it.

I also have an HRM, which I wear during cardio most of the time. But my Fitbit is a far more useful device to me these days.

determined_erin

I haven't used those ones, although I had a FitBit for a day. I use BodyMedia, which is an armband that tracks similar things. I love it and have been using it since February of this year.

Juniper3411

I am going through the same thing right now!!! I really really want to get better tracking tools for calories burned and my general energy expenditure and have been going back and forth between the fitness trackers and a HRM...

My big thing is I would really like to get an accurate (enough) calorie burn for when I play roller derby. Going through MFP there is obviously not a roller derby option LOL so I have to choose inline skating. I guess they are comparable to a degree, but still...

I'd love to just buy both and use them together but it seems like that is a lot of money to dish out.

I'm starting to think that it is more important for me to figure out accurate calorie burn for my actual exercise versus just my daily activity level.

ze_hombre

I am going through the same thing right now!!! I really really want to get better tracking tools for calories burned and my general energy expenditure and have been going back and forth between the fitness trackers and a HRM...

My big thing is I would really like to get an accurate (enough) calorie burn for when I play roller derby. Going through MFP there is obviously not a roller derby option LOL so I have to choose inline skating. I guess they are comparable to a degree, but still...

I'd love to just buy both and use them together but it seems like that is a lot of money to dish out.

I'm starting to think that it is more important for me to figure out accurate calorie burn for my actual exercise versus just my daily activity level.

For what you are after I would definitely go for the HRM. All the pedometers talked about to this point aren't meant for what you after, they just log steps. Well, maybe the Bodyfit is, but from what I have seen the arm bands are questionable in terms of accuracy, chest straps are much better from what I have read (no personal experience, though).