Considering Buying a Fitbit

JulieMarieLopez07

Hey there everyone! So just a little back story, I'm currently deployed and looking to lose about 36lbs. So far I've lost 8 of those 36. Being deployed it's nearly impossible to properly measure my portions so I've been doing my best based off of the internet and guessing. So far it seems to be working out. I can deal with that. However, I'm trying to find a more accurate way to keep track of my calories burned rather than just guessing the closest that I can.

I recently came across someone talking about a fitbit and began my research. I'm strongly considering buying this but I want to know if it's worth it.

I currently have a Nike+ sportwatch that I use when I run and that's great but I need to be able to track other workouts as well.

dbmata

I've got a fitbit flex I picked up from REI for $20, neat toy, but I'd be amazed if it was accurate.

I ended up getting it to track sleep. The options it gives are neat, if it actually works accurately, then it's a slam dunk and totally worth it.

SkimFlatWhite68

I have a FitBit One and I love it, wear it every day to track my steps and I find it to be very accurate. It's really good for those days when I think you have been busy and then look at it and see that I've only done minimum steps, so I get off my butt and go for a walk.

There is a group here if you have more questions that might be a good place to start, but as far as I'm aware people who have a FitBit really like them

Sobus76

i have a fitbit one, used it for about a month or two and dont use it anymore, it was cool at first to see how many steps etc. i was taking a day, but after a while the novelty wore off and i stopped bothering because the numbers every week were pretty much the same so i figured whats the point.

clackamas1911

You should consider the Polar Loop as well. While it does not have an altimeter, it is water resistance ( to 20M or so). I have had mine since January and wear it the shower daily.

Shropshire1959

I have a FitBit One and I love it, wear it every day to track my steps and I find it to be very accurate.

How do you know that it's accurate?

breesie11

I have the fitbit force and love it. Its pretty accurate too. When I first got it I went for a walk and counted steps and it matched. It even keeps track of steps when I'm pushing the kids in the stroller. I don't know if the calories are accurate, but figure that they are probably pretty close since you input all you info onto the site. Its nice for it to track sleep. I was surprised how restless I actually am when I sleep. It helps push me to keep moving, and I can see how much i have done for the day, which in the end, is what matters.

elienc

I also have a Fitbit One, tracking sleep and motivating me to take the stairs more & keep an eye on steps. I'm not sure about the accuracy, though I did measure my normal steps, adjusted it in setting, then went on a long walk which I tracked in Google Maps, and that was accurate. Of course, my 'office' steps might be different from my 'long walk' steps.

I also found it keeps counting sometimes when I'm cycling, but not in the car. It's very wearable, battery goes a long way and I'm fond of the graphs and things like that on the website :-)

I don't rely on the calories though, find them a bit on the high side, if I get to 10 000 steps a day, it easily adds up to 2100-2200 cals, which seems a bit much as I'm sitting at my desk most of the day, apart from walking to and from the trainstation.

Mixed review, I personally am quite happy with it, because it really motivates me to move a bit more during the day at the office, it keeps me accountable and I'll decide more easily to go for a walk in the evening instead of TV or some other lazy activity. I'd be a bit more cautious about using it as a caloriecounter though.

Shropshire1959

I also found it keeps counting sometimes when I'm cycling, but not in the car.

Unless you walk (or jiggle about) in your car - it won't count ... it's an accelerometer not a gps...

Sobus76

I have a FitBit One and I love it, wear it every day to track my steps and I find it to be very accurate.

How do you know that it's accurate?

walk, look at it and it should show you the correct amount of steps. it can be calibrated too.

lewoldt

I love my fitbit. The best part is that it syncs with Myfitnesspal and mapmyrun.

marshallexi

I have a Fitbit Zip and I've been using it for over a year.

Is it completely accurate? Probably not, but then nothing is, your body can't really be counted second by second. Before this I had a Nike watch (for running) and I used a Polar FT7 HRM for all my workouts. The calories burned numbers have been consistent between all of them.

It syncs with MFP which allows me to get an idea of how many calories I've burned, but I tend not to eat back many of my exercise calories. It's easy to wear and encourages me to meet all my targets.

For my needs, it's perfect.

elienc

I also found it keeps counting sometimes when I'm cycling, but not in the car.

Unless you walk (or jiggle about) in your car - it won't count ... it's an accelerometer not a gps...

Lol, apparently I'm not a jiggler ;-) I just wanted to mention it, because I used to log cycling apart, but it messes up a bit with the steps then, so now I leave Fitbit off while cycling and log it, or keep it on and don't log it, just not both.

FitWarrior7

I'm with Lewoldt, I love that it sync's with myfitnesspal also so your not double counting your steps/workouts. I also enjoy monitoring my sleep patterns.

LWBanks

I wrote an article on my blog about my FitBit experience if you want to check it out

http://fitlifepursuits.com/returned-fitbit-husband-kept/

SKME2013

Fitbit One, better than flex in my opinion as it has a display while the flex has not. I love mine for tracking my daily steps. For other activities I use a Polar multisportswatch RCX5 with heart rate monitor. The combination of both is great to measure my daily activities.
Stef.

gabrielleelliott90

PLEASE DON'T! I had mine a year was very expensive not worth all that money. It has recently died on me. It was charging but when I took it off charge would not switch on. I tried resetting and all that. I would suggest buying something like a polar heart rate monitor- heaps of people have those and they seem good.

gabrielleelliott90

Also, fitbit only counts in steps. So if you are doing anything other than walking or running, it isn't going to help much.

TheStephil

I currently have a Fitbit Flex and I've had a Fitbit One in the past. I love my Flex, it stays on my wrist, its small and unnoticeable and it tracks very accurately. I've considered upgrading to a Fitbit Force because having a display with the time on my wrist would be cool but the Force is not waterproof and that is one of my favorite features of the Flex. I have my Flex on 24/7 even when showering, swimming, hiking in the rain, etc.

I find that Fitbits are the most accurate activity tracker out there at this moment, despite which model of Fitbit you get. There are some exciting new activity trackers coming out that will be able to track heart rate along with other activites that don't involve steps but there hasn't been enough reviews and research done on them yet so I'm keeping my Fitbit at this time. However, I suggest looking into Amiigo if you are patient enough. It's highly anticipated and I've saved up the money to buy one once more research and reviews have been done on it. If you do something like strength training, you can set a timer on Fitbit then go on the website and tell it what you were doing and it will calculate the calories. It's really accurate.

With that being said, I don't think its necessary to track activity with FitBit. Fitbit is just an estimate and I got the same estimate with an online TDEE calculator for free. I think FitBit is good for someone that wants to be motivated to exercise more but it sounds like you get plenty of exercise and don't need the extra motivation that fitbit would offer. You can easily just do a TDEE calculator and adjust if you end up losing more/less than what is expected.

Red_sparkling_Titania

I have a fitbit flex and have only used it once. I prefer the polar. As it only counts in steps it doesn't help with all my sports activities I do.

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sidleake

I chose the Garmin Vivofit. Great battery life, waterproof, Garmin connect website is awesome. Also use the Garmin 310XT that tracks all my cycling data (HR, Cadence, etc.) and integrates into Garmin Connect so you get the full fitness snapshot. Also integrates with myfitnesspal to add calorie in/out.

clackamas1911

After reading this and other threads, I finally decided to dump my Polar loop which I have been using for the last 6 months. Once I started using MyFitnessPal App and combined it with the Digiifit app, I understand why people also like the fitbit. I also own the Polar H7 heart rate monitor.

The real power of monitoring food plus calorie expenditure is the digifit app. What really impresses me is the ability to isolate activities with DigitFit which I cannot do with the the Loop. For example, when I walk home at night, I can start a "Walk" Exercise and Digifit will use the sensors from the fitbix flex and iphone to more precisely measure that activity. I can then combine it with the heart rate monitor for my P90X3 work outs. So, in essence, the fitbix is nice because it fits into a large ecosystem of sensors that the DigitFit application uses to measure and coordinate with MFP.