Fitbits ... yes or no

yirara

I have one. I don't use it for calories, as like other say these devices estimate calories based on movement, but also heartrate, and this doesn't work at all for me. There are quite a lot of studies out there, including a Norwegian meta study that show that approximately 50% of all people (depending on gender, ethnicity and other things) are more than 1 standard deviation away from the 220-age equation. That means, for about 50% of all people these devices estimate calories rather poorly. Plus those that are unfit and just get a higher hr from actvities. Maybe those with conditions that might slow down the heart (thyroid maybe). It's still interesting for data nerdery reasons.

james_m92

I have a Garmin watch and using the watch has kept me going, doing the cardio/steps/ sleep tracks everything gives you the kick up the *kitten* to actually complete things ( that’s if your competitive like me )

Jackie9003

IronwomanOne wrote: »

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

I love my Fitbit, although right now keeping it in my pocket instead of my wrist. Kept getting too wet under it, lol.

It works in your pocket? I don’t like it when it gets wet from doing dishes or shampooing my kids’hair.

Having said that Fitbit has a community, like here, but I like it better, it’s organized under specific categories. Also, you can compete with your new friends and earn badges which I like, I like competing. Unfortunately, the community there is infected with hundreds of fake accounts that will add you right away, and they will try to chat you up. Many real fitbiters have been told a sad violin story to get them to lend them money. It’s so annoying! They act like it’s a dating site. Ugh! I’ve gotten good at knowing which accounts are real and which are fake. They use a lot of good looking old/young male/female models’ pictures from Instagram and well known romance scam pictures like army guys, there’s lots of self described brain surgeons lol and the famous influencer Dr. Mike, If you don’t know who he is look him up and you’ll know why. Anyway, other than that, I like learning about the sleep patterns, opening up challenges with amazing photography, and my personal favorite, the snacking and healthy meal posts. Oh, and the private groups, those are fun!

I really like the challenges with friends, but the fitbit community can be horrendously bad - it's like our forum without the moderation, loads and loads of dodgy advice and recommendations for "quick win" diets and I must get 2 or 3 fake friend requests a week.
I have a charge 3 and love it, the app is really nice and there's a lot of good stats if you like that sort of thing.

yirara

Jackie9003 wrote: »

IronwomanOne wrote: »

RetiredAndLovingIt wrote: »

I love my Fitbit, although right now keeping it in my pocket instead of my wrist. Kept getting too wet under it, lol.

It works in your pocket? I don’t like it when it gets wet from doing dishes or shampooing my kids’hair.

Having said that Fitbit has a community, like here, but I like it better, it’s organized under specific categories. Also, you can compete with your new friends and earn badges which I like, I like competing. Unfortunately, the community there is infected with hundreds of fake accounts that will add you right away, and they will try to chat you up. Many real fitbiters have been told a sad violin story to get them to lend them money. It’s so annoying! They act like it’s a dating site. Ugh! I’ve gotten good at knowing which accounts are real and which are fake. They use a lot of good looking old/young male/female models’ pictures from Instagram and well known romance scam pictures like army guys, there’s lots of self described brain surgeons lol and the famous influencer Dr. Mike, If you don’t know who he is look him up and you’ll know why. Anyway, other than that, I like learning about the sleep patterns, opening up challenges with amazing photography, and my personal favorite, the snacking and healthy meal posts. Oh, and the private groups, those are fun!

I really like the challenges with friends, but the fitbit community can be horrendously bad - it's like our forum without the moderation, loads and loads of dodgy advice and recommendations for "quick win" diets and I must get 2 or 3 fake friend requests a week.
I have a charge 3 and love it, the app is really nice and there's a lot of good stats if you like that sort of thing.

Yes, the Fitbit community is rather bad. And added to that the fitbit employees who answer questions completely rubbish. Their general advice if something doesn't work is to read a document and follow it step by step, which the people complaining have likely done already. Then you get a cheerful: "that's how it's supposed to work. Have a fab day", and that's it.

I'm also quite worried about the takeover by google to be honest. Whatever their listening in thingy is called has already been implemented into more advanced/expensive devices. I don't want google to handle my data, and I don't want anything to listen along in case I have a question that needs answering immediately. I'll stick with my Charge 2 as long as it still works, and then maybe upgrade to a charge 3. But no way would I take anything more advanced.

autumnblade75

AnnPT77 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

Mine’s an Apple Watch but wow, what a difference it made. I think any tracker would, to some degree.

Reminders to stand, goals to reach, stats to review, little firework graphics for accomplishments, “personal” congrats for milestones. It just rings all my hot motivational buttons.

I honestly don’t think I’d be as far along as I am today without it.

Without the slightest intent of criticism (quite the reverse, because I love human viewpoint diversity sincerely) . . . the ones I bolded, when applied to me, just make my eyes roll when they show up on my wrist device/cloud app, and I've turned off a lot of that.

I think it's great that those help you, and know that's true for others as well. It's kind of miraculous how much is designed into these tiny devices, things that can serve so many different interests, needs, and personalities. (I think you, like me, are old enough to remember before there were even basic-arithmetic pocket calculators . . . ? Heck, I'm old enough to remember before transistor radios . . . and even to know what a "transistor radio" is !)

I actually even feel kind of validated by this difference, not in a judgemental/critical way, but in the sense that I feel like I'm alla time telling new folks around here "what's motivational/works for you depends on your personality", and fussing about "one size fits all" recommendations from others. Everyone's mileage really does vary!

As a data geek, I do love my activity stats (and what I can learn from them, especially for on-water rowing), and some of the benchmarks like resting heart rate, though.

This diversity makes for great feedback to OP, I think. Some people don't love the devices; some do; those that do, can love them for very different functions. Good stuff! :flowerforyou:

I have also turned off the alarm for "you've been sitting for an hour - go get some steps" and most of the congratulatory Hoo-rah. I don't mind knowing when I've hit 15,000 steps, so I let that notification stand. The job is to collect data and send it to the computer, where I can see all the shiny charts and graphs. It'd be nice if the resting heart rate graph showed more than the past 30 days, though.

I go through spurts where I don't even look at the data, too - and it's just a fancy alarm clock that lives on my wrist. Totally still worthwhile to me.

RetiredAndLovingIt

@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.

missysippy930

Yes. I’ve had one since February 2013

heybales

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.

They had body units, and some still are, that read impacts of steps just fine.
That's what they look for - impacts, in the case of wrist units, trying to be accurate despite swinging of arms. Hence extra settings to assist getting around that.

That's why if gripping grocery store cart with wrist device on many find no impacts steps seen. But put in pocket just fine.

Only problem with a loose pocket is it swinging and missing the true impact force to arrive at correct distance figure which means good calorie burn estimate.
Solid on core of body would be better than pocket, unless pocket is tight enough like jeans to be moving with core.

kperk91

For the last 2.5 years I had a Fitbit Ionic. It did everything I wanted it to: count steps/ log exercise/ sleep track. The workout calories "burned" I just see as a rough estimate to gauge my workouts. You could swim with the Ionic - I just didn't trust the device or company. Fitbit has it's issues, and the 2.5 years with my Ionic is the longest span one of their devices lasted for me. Granted - I had to buy a replacement band when the original began to tear away.

I just switched to a Garmin Venu. It's newer, but has more metrics for training as I am getting more intense into exercising/fitness. I've had it for 1 day so far so I'm still learning it

RetiredAndLovingIt

@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?

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