Scale Recommendation & Fitness gadgets

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fishsquishy
fishsquishy Posts: 35 Member
in Getting Started
Looking for advice on buying a scale and also fitness gadgets that you love. Considering a Fitbit or similar. I'd like to track sleep patterns as well as workouts, etc.

Thanks for your help/advice. Very new here but excited!

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  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Looking for advice on buying a scale and also fitness gadgets that you love. Considering a Fitbit or similar. I'd like to track sleep patterns as well as workouts, etc.

    Thanks for your help/advice. Very new here but excited!

    Tracking workouts..............this is tough to get a handle on.

    A FitBit is an activity tracker......it's designed for tracking step type movements.....not necessarily workouts. Use a FitBit to guage your daily activity level. If it encourages you to move more....then it's a good thing. Running or walking workouts.....not the best indicator because walking quickly burns more calories than walking slowly.

    A HRM (heart rate monitor) - is designed for steady state cardio. The chest strap models measure your heart rate during your cardio workout & compare that to your resting heart rate. This heart rate measure indicates your exertion level.

    Neither device will give you an accurate number for strength training.
  • fishsquishy
    fishsquishy Posts: 35 Member
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    Thanks, I do plan to log my workouts here, but good to know that the fitbit won't help me with exertion level, I was thinking it may pick up on cadence but haven't really done the research. Appreciate the adviceI I may go another route as I could strap on a pedometer for activity steps for a lot cheaper. I should also say that I'm looking at the gadgets because I won an award at work and get to pick from some cool stuff from a prize catalog so I decided to do fitness items and I need a scale anyways. I work from home, so hoping the Fitbit (or similar) will remind and encourage me to move around or walk outside more often to get a break.

    Does anyone use the Wi-Fi scales to track weight and if so, have a preference on brand? Thanks for the help!
  • marina80498
    marina80498 Posts: 4 Member
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    I use my smartphone (iPhone in my case) with a combination of a FitBit, MFP and RunKeeper. MFP gets info from both FitBit for steps and Runkeeper for other logged workouts and the integration seems to work really well. If you log a workout in Runkeeper, it sets the calories for the workout and therefore can deal with peed and elevation change. It also has different activities like snowshoeing or hiking that are considered more intense than just walking.

    I have a FitBit One, but others in my FitBit group use their other products and like them too. Seems to be a matter of what form factor you like.
  • PrincessKOut
    PrincessKOut Posts: 4
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    Try the FItbit Aria... Its amazing and automatically updates to MyFitnessPal through WiFi. As well it will help measure your BMI.
  • jaz141
    jaz141 Posts: 32
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    I love my Polar FT4 heart rate monitor. It will calculate your calorie expenditure based upon your weight, gender, height AND heart rate, which I think is the most accurate. I find that the Polar calorie calculations are usually less than what the machines or MyFitness Pal calculate, and I think it's better to be more conservative with the estimates anyway.

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