Fitbit Device

brittlb07

What is the cheapest yet most efficient device I can buy to track activity? I don’t need anything too fancy. Just a basic tracker to see if I am moving enough to add in extra calories in MyFitnessPal.

LadySaton

I don’t have a specific product recommendation, but there cheap are step trackers you can clip to your shoes.

However, I think a better way to determine this is your personal data. Are you losing weight faster than expected according to your MFP loss rate and calorie intake? If so that’s an indication you can add some calories in. If you are losing at the expected rate or slower, adding more calories will just slow your loss down further.

AnnPT77

LadySaton wrote: »

I don’t have a specific product recommendation, but there cheap are step trackers you can clip to your shoes.

However, I think a better way to determine this is your personal data. Are you losing weight faster than expected according to your MFP loss rate and calorie intake? If so that’s an indication you can add some calories in. If you are losing at the expected rate or slower, adding more calories will just slow your loss down further.

That approach, for me, is much more accurate than my tracker.

If I log as accurately as practical (not obsessively, just carefully), the "pounds lost or gained x 3500 calories" formula gets me pretty close to the right adjustment for me, based on almost 4 years now of logging experience.

Don't get me wrong, I like my tracker for training purposes, but it's truly whacky about all-day calorie burn, for me. (Yeah, they're close for most people. I'm not one of them. My own data is sound.)

LadySaton

@AnnPT77 I have an apple watch and it constantly overestimates my daily calorie burns by a significant amount. According to it and my recorded calorie intake, I should be losing weight at twice my actual loss rate. I do, however, pull useful data from it to input into MFP in a way that’s actually helpful and predicts my loss rate fairly well.

Mostly I like using it to track my traveling distances, speeds, and heart rate during exercise (to see when I can up my effort a bit as I improve) + it’s basically a secondary phone so I work around the flaws.

AnnPT77

LadySaton wrote: »

@AnnPT77 I have an apple watch and it constantly overestimates my daily calorie burns by a significant amount. According to it and my recorded calorie intake, I should be losing weight at twice my actual loss rate. I do, however, pull useful data from it to input into MFP in a way that’s actually helpful and predicts my loss rate fairly well.

Mostly I like using it to track my traveling distances, speeds, and heart rate during exercise (to see when I can up my effort a bit as I improve) + it’s basically a secondary phone so I work around the flaws.

I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3. I bought it primarily for HR for managing intensity during spin and rowing (boat, machine); plus tracking pace/distance for on-water rowing, and speed/distance for the occasional recreational cycling, canoeing, kayaking, walking, etc. It replaced a Garmin Forerunner 205 and a low-end Polar HRM (chest-belt plus watch) and a sports watch, which I'd used in a similar way for a decade plus. I like having all of that in one compact device . . . well, two, because the rowing requires a paired Ant+ chest-belt (wrist HRM doesn't keep good enough contact to be accurate during rowing).

It materially underestimates my all-day calorie burn (not a big surprise, since most of the online "calculators" underestimate, too.) If I ate what it estimates, I'd be losing weight at a pretty speedy clip (pound a week or more) rather than maintaining.

But, like I said, the devices tend to be much closer to accurate for a lot of people.

iSneakers

I use the Apple Watch 4. However, a lot of my coworkers use the Fitbit Alta HR and they say it works fine for doing exactly what you would be using it for.

Talan79

I have the Fitbit Flex 2. Its not a big ugly thing. I hate most trackers bc they are big and look masculine. Fits nicely on my wrist. The app is nice and easy to use as well.

Duck_Puddle

I find trackers to help me manage a very variable level of activity so I don’t need to worry about what to add or not add or how much to add or not add or whether today is lightly active or maybe active or what if yesterday was sedentary and So forth.

Trackers are consistent - meaning they will be consistently high or consistently low so it’s fairly easy to make the necessary adjustments to use them.

I am far less stressed about trying to log when I have a tracker synced-because after 4-6 weeks, I have a pretty good idea of how reasonable it is in its estimates and I can adjust accordingly and not spend tons of time and effort wondering how much I have to scrub a baseboard before it counts as activity.

Anyway-I’ve used 5 or 6 different Fitbits, a couple of Garmins, some Polars, a Jawbone, a Bodymedia armband and an Apple Watch as trackers. No one is more accurate than the others. Some estimate a little high, some a little low, but all are consistent. Pick whichever one works with your budget and whatever other features you might want.

Duck_Puddle

LadySaton wrote: »

@AnnPT77 I have an apple watch and it constantly overestimates my daily calorie burns by a significant amount. According to it and my recorded calorie intake, I should be losing weight at twice my actual loss rate. I do, however, pull useful data from it to input into MFP in a way that’s actually helpful and predicts my loss rate fairly well.

Mostly I like using it to track my traveling distances, speeds, and heart rate during exercise (to see when I can up my effort a bit as I improve) + it’s basically a secondary phone so I work around the flaws.

I’m fascinated by my Apple Watch. It generally produces workout burns that run very consistently with other devices that I have found to be reasonable (on the low side), but it comes out with a pretty high total for my day. It’s pretty consistent so if that’s what I was actually using for a primary tracker, it’d be workable with an adjustment, but I’m fascinated that it’s so high for my total when the workouts are on the low side.

Although my workouts account for very little of my total daily burn so I guess it’s not that crazy-but my Apple Watch is the only one where the workouts are low and the overall is high (the others tend to be in line-lower workout numbers also have lower TDEE estimates, or higher and higher).

Fflpnari

I have the Fitbit charge HR. I love it!!! I love the numbers, weird I know. Its definitely motivation to move more. I realized I burned more than I thought I did = I get to eat more
You don't need an activity tracker, but they are a lot of fun!
I bought mine for $80 on sale.