Are fitbits worth it?

vanityy99

Today was my first time ever looking into it I might get one for myself but I’m very skeptical.

It can count the amount of steps you’re taking how? By the way you swing your arms?🤔 How accurate are those things?

Do they help you? How? What do you like about them? How have the benefited you?

airforceman1978

Ok I love my fit but and there way to make it more acuret like putting your stride length in and saying it's on you doment hand when it's not. They also tell flights of stars and GPS throw phone

BarbaraHelen2013

I love my Fitbit! Keeps me motivated to move! Mine does steps, and it’s not just the arm swing, because I’ve kept an eye on it and it still registers when I’m walking with my hands in my jacket pockets.

It gives me extra insights into calories burnt, improvement in heart health, resting heart rate, sleep health, distance covered and minutes in elevated heart rate (exercise).

The one thing I’d change - if it didn’t need charging, ever! I hate when I have to charge it and I miss steps and other data! 😂

Yes, there are things that register as steps that aren’t steps (changing gear in a manual car, for example) but overall I’d definitely replace mine at my own expense if it packed up - original bought as a joint gift from one of my sons and one of my daughters).

jo_nz

I like mine.

I have a sedentary job, and appreciate the hourly reminder to move or I could easily just sit at my desk until finishing time every day.
It find it helpful to see if I have got in a reasonable number of steps, and if not, I can try and get some extra activity in.
I like the sleep tracking feature - I get migraines and one of my triggers is lack of sleep, so if I have had a couple of bad nights, I know I need to really make sure i get to bed early.
I use the alarm feature as my daily wakeup reminder - it just vibrates on my wrist, so doesn't disturb DH if I get up before he does.
I sometimes participate in challenges on the fitbit app, which can motivate me to get in some extra steps.
I have enjoyed watching my resting heart rate drop quite significantly since becoming more active.
And I find the daily calorie burn to be quite accurate for me - I find it helpful that it syncs with MFP and I can see how many cals I can eat without having to log exercise.


All that said, it's not really a necessity, and when my old tracker died, it was a couple of years before i bothered with replacing it, so it's really just a matter of whether you think there would be some use to you, and if it fits in your budget.

quemalosuerte

Depends on why you want it. Activity trackers aren’t a miracle, they’re a tool. There is no statistical evidence that shows a difference in weight loss between people with activity trackers and people without. That being said, I like my fitbit and I feel it does help me. It buzzes every hour if I am inactive and I like the accountability of trying to get a certain number of steps in, though I usually hit my goal while cooking dinner. I also really like the heartrate tracker. It’s far from perfect, but I have a high heart rate, so it is nice to see my resting heartrate trend down. (And as a female trying to get pregnant, it does have “female health” trackers and I have noticed my resting heartrate jumps up about 6-8bpm when I ovulate).

Shortgirlrunning

I have a Garmin not a Fitbit. I love it though. It tracks my steps. How accurate it is, I don’t know but it encourages me to move around more. Though I have counted my steps while it was on (for a short period of time) and it matched up. I also use it to track my runs and other exercise which I find very useful. It’s calorie burn estimates are way better than MFPs which is helpful for figuring out how many calories to eat back after exercise.

That said I lost my first 50 lbs without any sort of tracker so it’s absolutely not necessary but if you’re the type of person who will be motivated by setting a step goal or trying to bear your previous days steps then it can be useful in encouraging more movement throughout the day.

JenniferM1234

@Shortgirlrunning Is the Garmin a clip-on or a wrist thing?

Psychgrrl

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

I love my Fitbit! Keeps me motivated to move! Mine does steps, and it’s not just the arm swing, because I’ve kept an eye on it and it still registers when I’m walking with my hands in my jacket pockets.

It gives me extra insights into calories burnt, improvement in heart health, resting heart rate, sleep health, distance covered and minutes in elevated heart rate (exercise).

The one thing I’d change - if it didn’t need charging, ever! I hate when I have to charge it and I miss steps and other data! 😂

Yes, there are things that register as steps that aren’t steps (changing gear in a manual car, for example) but overall I’d definitely replace mine at my own expense if it packed up - original bought as a joint gift from one of my sons and one of my daughters).

My charging strategy for both my Garmin and my Fitbit—I charge it when I’m getting ready in the morning or when I’m getting ready for bed at night. Just 15 minutes or so once a day or once every other day keeps it going great! And I don’t miss any important data!

LAT1963

I have an apple watch and I find it useful and for the most part accurate. However at present the Apple watch doesn't have sleep monitoring capability, which fitbit has. Fitbit price point is lower and since it has fewer features it is easier to use and has longer battery life.

It all depends on what's important to you for monitoring and battery life. I don't know of any of the modern products that isn't pretty good at meeting its claims. If you swim you'll need to make sure that's a feature on the product; you can't usually get swim-monitoring for less than about $200.

I find that it is useful to monitor calories with one of these devices as there are times when I'm ravenous and could really use the 'permission' to eat another 100-200 calories. With activity monitoring I can 'earn' those calories so my mfp targets for the day go up and I can feel like I'm still succeeding at my diet instead of failing to meet my goals.

ElizabethKalmbach

I've had a couple Fitbits and they are an extremely useful tool for someone with health as variable as mine appears to be. That said the hardware seems a bit delicate, so after I killed my third Fitbit, I switched to a $35 Mi Band. The cheaper Mi Band has drawbacks, like no auto sync with MFP, BUT it's got very sturdy hardware and the FIRST one I got is still running happily on my daughter's wrist. At this point, I'm mostly using mine to track sleep and make sure my daily steps are still in the range I used to select my "activity level" on MFP. I had Fitbits for long enough to help me sort out my average caloric needs and average daily step count, and now this cute little $35 toy-priced device helps me maintain the baselines I established with the more expensive/tailored product.

earlnabby

vanityy99 wrote: »

Today was my first time ever looking into it I might get one for myself but I’m very skeptical.

It can count the amount of steps you’re taking how? By the way you swing your arms?🤔 How accurate are those things?

Do they help you? How? What do you like about them? How have the benefited you?

Any step counter (whether it is worm on the arm, the belt, the bra, etc) registers vibrations the body feels from the step. Some are more accurate than others depending on how sensitive they are. NONE measure according to swinging your arms (contrary to misinformation on the internet). Any will be reasonably accurate.

A fitness tracker that is an upgrade from a pedometer will count steps but it also works with information you give it (usually via a website or phone app) to help calculate calories burned. Many will sync with MFP to also figure in calories eaten. Some need you to log on their app if they don't work with MFP. The more you use it, the more personal data it has to calculate from so the more accurate it will be.

Fitness trackers with chest straps to measure heart rate will give even more information but it is only accurate when doing steady state cardio.

Fitness trackers with a built in HRM worn on the wrist can be accurate for steady state cardio but also can be way off the rest of the time. Some will also have GPS which will adjust for mileage and changes in elevation. Basic models will go by the info you give it as far as your stride length.

I have a Garmin Vivofit and yes, it was very much worth it. I have had it for over 4 years now (it doesn't need charging but works on watch batteries) and it still works just as well as it did originally. It counts steps and calculates calories burned. It also is a decent wristwatch with the mesh band I bought separately. When I want accurate mileage, I use Map My Run as a GPS app. Getting a tracker with GPS also had things I do not need. I don't do much cardio so anything with an HRM is a waste. I have not noticed too many extra steps and rarely does it not count the steps I take.

Shortgirlrunning

JenniferM1234 wrote: »

@Shortgirlrunning Is the Garmin a clip-on or a wrist thing?

It’s a watch.

missysippy930

It is very worth it to me. I’ve had one since 2/2013. I’ve had three different Fitbits over that time. A One, a Charge, and a Charge 2. Best motivator to get me to move more.

helen_goldthorpe

I have a Garmin rather than a Fitbit. I don't find that the step count motivates me that much but I do find it useful for the other stuff particularly keeping an eye on my rhr and my sleep, and getting a feel for how my calorie burn changes from day to day depending how active I am. Mine has GPS which is useful for cycling to work as I can just record it from my watch rather than having to use an additional gadget and without the risk of leaving it on the bike and getting it stolen!

tirowow12385

Its worth it if it was $5.

LivingtheLeanDream

If you're the sort of person that feels a gadget might help you be more active then yes its worth it.
I had one for 4 years, went through 3 actually in that time (free replacements due to faults), when the 3rd one gave up the ghost I decided I didn't need to rely on a gadget to get me moving as it was now a habit for me to do so regardless.

Luke_rabbit

tirowow12385 wrote: »

Its worth it if it was $5.

One way to test it out is to find a used one on eBay. Probably won't be as low as $5, but I bet you can find an older one for under $20. Then, if you love it, you can get a new one later.

lilithsrose

I consider it worth it for me.

I work a semi-desk job (computer tech, so I sit at my desk for hours some days, and other days I run around the building like a chicken with its head cut off). I set my Fitbit to remind me to get up and move every hour while I'm at work.

I'm also the type of person that likes to see charts and graphs, so the Fitbit app gives me the ability to do this with my sleep habits, steps and weight.

As far as apps go, I use the weather app and the barcode app regularly. I put my gym barcode into the app so I can just scan my fitbit when I go to the gym, rather than dig out my phone or the physical card.

No fitness tracker is going to be 100% accurate, but I've been pretty happy with what my fitbit can do. I have noticed that my newer fitbit with a heart rate monitor does seem more accurate than the more basic one I had. I like that Fitbit integrates so nicely with MFP.

sarko15

I love my Fitbit. I don't know exactly how it works, but I can tell it's pretty accurate with my steps (not accurate with percieved calorie burn, but I don't use it for that).

If nothing else, it's an effective tool to keep me moving throughout the day.

ChickenKillerPuppy

LOVE my fitbit. It motivates me to move more and I love that it syncs with MFP. It does overcount (I am someone who talks with my hands and I have noticed it has counted steps when I am just gesticulating with my hands), so I tend not to eat all of the points I get from it, but it's easy and I find I want to do things like walk the dog (instead of letting my husband do it) so I can get the steps. It is satisfying to see that number go up.