Fitness tracker thoughts

unstableunicorn

Found my old Flex 2 recently (got buried in storage when we moved last year) and it no longer charges, so I’m planning on purchasing a new fitness tracker and wondering what others thoughts/ experiences have been with Fitbit vs Apple Watch (I’ve been migrating to iOS and have been happy with the products, hence the interest). I don’t need all the bells and whistles, but some moderate functionality would be good.

(Critical opinions are helpful and welcome, but please no brand bashing for the sake of brand bashing.)

AnnPT77

How would you plan to use a fitness tracker (for what activities), and what are your objectives in using it (motivation (with people around you IRL or online community?), athletic training guidance, calorie estimation - but specifics)?

Is there a reason Garmin wouldn't be on your list? I get that you're going to iOS generally so the Apple watch is appealing from that standpoint, but if you're seriously considering alternatives, Garmin has some good & useful models as well, depending on your needs.

unstableunicorn

AnnPT77 wrote: »

How would you plan to use a fitness tracker (for what activities), and what are your objectives in using it (motivation (with people around you IRL or online community?), athletic training guidance, calorie estimation - but specifics)?

Is there a reason Garmin wouldn't be on your list? I get that you're going to iOS generally so the Apple watch is appealing from that standpoint, but if you're seriously considering alternatives, Garmin has some good & useful models as well, depending on your needs.

Hi Ann!

I’ve never even heard of Garmin. Will look into it as well.

Immediate use will be to monitor my steps and sleep time/disturbances and get an idea of where I am. Later when my foot and lungs are stronger I’m going to start jogging (currently speed walking and using stairs to build tolerance and endurance) and I’ll be transitioning to going to the gym late fall.

Social element isn’t really a priority. My SiL is using a Flex 2 pretty casually (monitors but doesn’t set goals) so being able to brag about progress is a plus, but I don’t know anybody who uses fitness trackers as a serious tool.

AnnPT77

Garmin is another mainstream brand. I've had a polar HRM-only device, and now have a Garmin tracker (Vivoactive 3, but that model may be beyond what you're looking for). I've not had a Fitbit, but anecdotally it seems like people have more trouble with Fitbits breaking/dying quickly as compared with Garmins. The Fitbits tend to be a little sleeker looking, in general, IMO, but that's something you can evaluate when you look at specific devices.

For step monitoring, you don't really need heart rate. If you can use a wrist-based device, there are many options (some seem to mis-recognize steps based on arm motion, either thinking someone's not walking when they're pushing a cart, or recognizing arm movements as steps when the person's not walking). Those are issues you can ask about here after you narrow down to some candidate devices.

Later, when you start doing more exercise, you might find the heart rate monitoring fun/interesting, but it's of limited practical use IMO if you aren't doing structured athletic training (which can be done for fun, not just with a goal of competing).

From my reading, the sleep tracking on pretty much all of the current tracker devices is of questionable quality. (I have unusual sleep issues, and mine is utterly delusional, for me. It just makes me laugh: It thinks I'm in REM sleep when I'm awake and texting or reading, for example; and doesn't recognize daytime seated naps as sleep at all. I don't know if it would do better if I were more normal.)

If tracking calories is part of your objective, any of the good quality devices seem to be in the ballpark for many people, but further off for others (as is the nature of statistical estimates). Probably, for that purpose, it's useful to have heart rate monitoring, but it has limitations. It's important to understand that heart rate is not a measurement of calorie burn, but rather something that loosely correlates with it. In this realm, the Apple/MFP sync doesn't seem to work correctly at this time, so people use some intermediate software to make it work (not being an Apple person, I won't try to tell you the details. ).

A good thing to do is to read up a bit on the devices, and begin to list features that are important to you. (That would include features like how they integrate with your phone and other devices.) Then, you can identify specific models with those features, use online reviews to get an idea how they perform, or ask people here who have specific devices to comment on what they do/don't like about them.

Duck_Puddle

If sleep monitoring is something you wish to do, you may want to reconsider the Apple Watch. The advertised battery life is 18 hours (with the assumption that people will charge it overnight while sleeping). I am able to usually get 22-23 hours (to wear it overnight) but I don’t have many notifications and don’t use many apps. I also sometimes need to charge it a bit before sleeping if I’ve done a long workout or had a day with lots of weather alerts or other “heavy” use.

There is no sleep tracking built into the Apple Watch - but there are apps available that do add that function (and work as well as any of the sleep tracking works on any tracking device - questionable but it can be a place to start). My Garmin seems the least good/most bad at sleep tracking, Fitbit seems maybe less bad.

The Apple Watch is a phenomenal smart watch and a mediocre fitness tracker. And compared to other devices, the battery life is dismal. And as mentioned above, it doesn’t sync well with mfp. But...it’s a phenomenal smart watch.

Plus everything Ann said.

Cahgetsfit

I have the FitBit Charge 3. The reason i chose it over the apple watch was purely aesthetic at the end of the day.

I use it to track my steps more than anything else.

It's also nice to see the calories burnt (I know not 100% accurate, but it's a good enough estimate), I also like that i can track my period on it (though it could do with more options to log moods and things) and I like to look at the sleep data (which is comparable to Sleep Tracker app)

I have found that since having it it gives me the extra little push to take those stairs, to get off the bus one stop earlier when I look and see that i'm not quite close to that 10K yet.

I can also swim with it.

And it's smaller so it fits on my wrist nicely, unlike the Apple watch which I find a bit too big and square. Garmins are gigantic and round, and i'm not a runner so I didn't even consider those.

I don't sync it with MFP because I use the TDEE method, not the MFP method so I don't log my exercise calories (all logged as 1 calorie burnt)

I'm happy with it, it works, it gives me a boost and I've definitely increased my NEAT since i've had it.

langel89

I’ve had several versions of the Fitbit for years. I currently have the Versa. I like the look of it (comparable to the Apple Watch). I don’t need all the fancy apps from my iPhone to be on my wrist so that’s why I went with the Fitbit. And the price point was much cheaper. I just wanted something to track my steps, exercises, calories and sleep. Many family members and friends have fitbits so I love that I can be in weekly step challenges and see their progress.

naomi8888

I love how my Apple Watch syncs with my phone and has a number of apps available. I find it handy to have one device that keeps all my health data together.

maiomaio71

I have a Xiaomi mi band 4. It's really good! Cheap. Battery life is incredible....lasts a couple of weeks before needing a re-charge. Waterproof. Tracks steps, sleep etc. No GPS but syncs up with your phone if you take that with you. If you dig into the data on the app it tells you your speed, VO2 max etc. I had a Fitbit previously but this is much better. You can swim with it. Stream music. Receive notifications but not reply to them. A good, basic fitness tracker with an amazing battery life. Did I mention that it was pretty cheap too?!

TaoTeRunning

The Apple Watch is a clear winner, it does everything you need for you training and it is a fully featured high end smart watch and it's cheaper than any high end sports watch.

JohnnytotheB

I bought the Fitbit with all the bells and whistles 2 years ago but only use 3 or 4 of the functions like step count, heart rate and stairs. The rest for me is fluff. Next time I buy (which I will) it will still be a Fitbit but I will only get the basic model based on my current usage.

NorthCascades

unstableunicorn wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

How would you plan to use a fitness tracker (for what activities), and what are your objectives in using it (motivation (with people around you IRL or online community?), athletic training guidance, calorie estimation - but specifics)?

Is there a reason Garmin wouldn't be on your list? I get that you're going to iOS generally so the Apple watch is appealing from that standpoint, but if you're seriously considering alternatives, Garmin has some good & useful models as well, depending on your needs.

Hi Ann!

I’ve never even heard of Garmin. Will look into it as well.

Immediate use will be to monitor my steps and sleep time/disturbances and get an idea of where I am. Later when my foot and lungs are stronger I’m going to start jogging (currently speed walking and using stairs to build tolerance and endurance) and I’ll be transitioning to going to the gym late fall.

Social element isn’t really a priority. My SiL is using a Flex 2 pretty casually (monitors but doesn’t set goals) so being able to brag about progress is a plus, but I don’t know anybody who uses fitness trackers as a serious tool.

The Garmin watch I have has maps built into it. It can show me where I am, or the name of that creek, when my phone is at home. It can also generate a random route (it asks how far) and give me turn by turn navigation through it, which is a surprisingly great feature for a cyclist or runner. It can track open water and pool swimming. Battery can last a week or more on a charge depending how you use it. I got hit by a car wearing the previous version, the watch hit the hood at about 30 mph, and still functioned the same as when it was new.

Here's an example of the level of data Garmins tend to provide. (To be fair I have senors on my bike that provide some of this, all of them don't have all of the data here.)

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3842452077

Booker445

Recommend Apple Watch. I love mine. Challenges are good and against people aswel. Feel free to add me on Apple Watch if anyone has it. [personal email removed by MFP mods for privacy protection]

Lolinloggen

My husband has an apple watch, I have a Garmin Hr and Forerunner 235 and used to have a fitbit.
Apple watch is nice and great but my husband finds it a pain as a simple steps tracker. On the other hand my Garmin works well like that but does not have some of the more interesting gizmos that the apple has (like apple pay).
We started on fitbit a few years back but I found it also counted part of my cycling as steps and in all cases they developed blisters on the wrist bands and one came apart. Those were the older models so not sure how they are now but we had 5 doing the blistering.