Fitbits ... yes or no

autumnblade75

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

@heybales. I have had a Fitbit One which I always wore on my pocket, now my hubby has that one which he puts in pocket. I am wearing jeans whenever I have the Charge in my pocket, so are you saying in that case probably decent accuracy?

I'd say you're probably getting a reasonable step count accuracy. The altimeter ought to work from your pocket, too - so you should get a reasonable stairs count. It might make a difference to your calorie estimate that your heart rate is not being recorded.

Ironwoman1111

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

@IronwomanOne I have the Charge 2. If I am doing something like the treadmill, going for a walk, or now mowing the grass, I wear it, but otherwise I have been leaving it in my pocket. It does record some "steps", although I think not as many as when I wear it on my arm, since it isn't moving. That's why I'm not really trusting how accurate it is, but I just didn't like it wet as much as I was washing hands, etc. & I wear it at night, because I want to track my sleep. The funny thing is, I usually have to adjust my sleeping time, because it thinks I start when I am sitting watching tv at night, lol. I was trying to get at least 10,000 steps, but right now, not my priority, lol.

I was feeling a bit down and out of it for a couple weeks there and my activity went down. I have the Versa and I’m happy to have it now that I’m getting more active and I’m able to see that my steps are increasing. I use both of these apps. I think they both have unique and useful features. I really like that new feature on the food diary here where it shows you recipes with the calories and everything else.

StargazerB

I think if they help keep you motivated then go for it. To me it was just a watch that read my heart rate. mine broke a few months ago and I have no intention of replacing it.

RetiredAndLovingIt

@autumnblade75 Neither my One or the Charge2 have ever given me accurate stair count, but have felt like steps were good.

heybales

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

@heybales. I have had a Fitbit One which I always wore on my pocket, now my hubby has that one which he puts in pocket. I am wearing jeans whenever I have the Charge in my pocket, so are you saying in that case probably decent accuracy?

Probably as great accuracy or better, as if clipped to the jeans as are the devices that are meant to clip to them.

Going to see impacts just fine.

I always recommend walking a known 1/2 to 1 mile at 2 mph to confirm it sees the distance right, since that is middle of the daily range from grocery store shuffle to exercise pace.
In case you do tons of steps and that distance inaccuracy could lead to decent calorie burn inaccuracy.

The flights of stairs is always iffy, if the weather is changing much.
But that just a figure like glasses of water - no math done on it.

swimmchick87

I love mine. I have my account here on mfp set to "lightly active" because I'm a teacher, and getting the fitbit and seeing how little I walk on weekends (even if I felt like I was really "out and about"- it was nothing like a day at work) or meeting days was very eye opening. I'm not sure how many calories the extra walking really burns and I do think it overestimates quite a bit once I get past 10,000. I'm not sure if that's a fitbit issue or just me.

That said, it really keeps me in a healthier mindset all day and also helps me stick to my food goals, which is really the most important thing. Especially as of late since I've been working at home for 1.5 months now. I march in front of my TV to get my steps in still. Since being quarantined I get very few "unintentional" steps so this takes quite a bit of time. It keeps me from feeling lazy/depressed just laying around all day and also helps me stay focused on my goals. I'm not going to spend an hour marching only to sit down and completely blow my calorie goal.

The important thing is that you have to commit to wearing it all of the time and actually using it to get more steps, or it won't help you any. I know a shocking number of people who will only wear their fitbit on days they know they're going to be walking a lot/will purposefully leave it off on "lazy days" and even people who only wear it on weekdays.

hipari

I love mine as well. I have the Alta HR, I wear it everywhere except shower and bed. For me, the calorie burn count is accurate, or at least any inaccuracies are balanced out by inaccuracies in my food logging, so the math continues to work and my calculated deficits match my loss rates. The only somewhat annoying inaccuracy is that if I want to measure my workout by starting and ending it manually instead of just letting auto-track do its thing, it seems to measure distance by about 10% less than the actual distance. However, I rarely bother with manual starting and stopping for walks and runs, since the auto-track works well enough and at my fitness level I care more about duration and heart rate than speed/distance.

I like that the Alta HR is slimmer than what I had previously (Charge HR), and I have bought a metallic wristband for it so it looks more like a watch than an activity tracker. I’m so used to having it and also using it as a watch that if/when I eventually have to give this one up, I will definitely get a new one. If I had to upgrade, I’d have no reason to switch to a different brand unless there was something new and super compelling on the market.

sijomial

Not worth it for me.

No great interest in tracking my general activity.
I used to casually track my steps with my phone when I was working a desk job just to make sure I hit a reasonable step goal (6,000) but when I retired I stopped carrying my phone everywhere. Wore a cheap step counter that was given to me for a while but trashed it while doing DIY. I rarely even wear a watch these days.

For my main exercise (cycling) there's a far better option for estimating calories - a power meter, which also gives me a valuable training metric which a wearable can't.
My HR while cycling is significant to me so I link a chest strap to my bike computer but I don't need to know my HR otherwise.

BruceHedtke

I love mine. I had no idea how invested I would become in tracking steps/exercise until I began tracking steps/exercise. I don't take the calorie burn as gospel but I think it does a reasonable job of keeping track of activity.

The only downside, for me, was that I really enjoyed buying watches and always had about two dozen or so to cycle through wearing. Now, my Ionic is my only watch. Which is good as I was spending way too much on watches. Now I spend way too much on shoes instead

Rebecca5120

I have a Versa 2 & really appreciate its features