FitBit. Own one? Like it? Motivating?

Happy_Harlow

I'm considering getting a fitbit! Do you like it? Has it been helpful for you in your fitness goals? I would love more info/opinions on it!

ChikFitness

I just got mine yesterday and today's my
First full day wearing it. I love it so far, it's so simple and gives you so much information.

I can already tell it's going to motivate me to get moving.

editorgrrl

MFP has a "Fitbit Users" group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/1307-fitbit-users

Here's something I posted there:

When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex & height, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (your TDEE). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.

Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account (via the "Apps" tab at the top of every page), you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)

I wasn't losing much weight when I got my first activity tracker. At first, the adjustments didn't seem very accurate. But they got better, almost as if the system was "learning" my routine. It took a lot of trial & error to find the settings that worked best for me. But then everything clicked. I changed my MFP settings from sedentary to lightly active (even though I have a desk job), and now my adjustments are pretty minimal. And I'm losing!

I find my step goal really motivating. If I get home at night and see I'm thisclose to making goal, I'll walk around the block. A little bit more every day really adds up.