What to buy: HRM, Body Bugg, Fit Bit?

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  • iamstaceywood
    iamstaceywood Posts: 383 Member
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    I have the Fitbit and just sold my Bodybugg V3 and Bodybugg SP. The smart phone integration on the bodybugg sucks. You do have to plug it in to charge it but, it is an awesome product. The subscription sucks. The V3 with the watch that displays current totals would be a better option. The Fitbit I tested alongside the Bodybugg SP. If you consider the Bodybugg accurate, which I do, the FB is awesome for tracking. My calorie counts were off by under 50 calories a day when I used both and its so unobtrusive (the fitbit) that when my subscription ran out, I bought a FitBit. I LOVE IT!!! I love the friend sharing on the fitbit.com site and I love the battery life. I sound like FitBits cheerleader but, for what I want, the bodybugg helped me lose 80 lbs and then i got sick of it. It's quirky someitmes. I can't wait for MFP to sync up with fitbit.
    If you have a fairly active lifestyle and want to count every little thinga s calories out like i do, waitresing and walking and cleaning the house, the fitbit or bodybugg is the way to go. If you are more worrieda bout just your workouts, the hrm ist he way to go. I like to know how many calories i burned in a day. Regardless of what I was doing. Which is why a hrm wasn't for me.
    I hope this postsoup made sense.
  • tolygal
    tolygal Posts: 602 Member
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    I never used a fitbit, people say a lot of great things about it too. Sounds very cool, but from a programmers perspective it just doesn't make sense. If you fasten it to your belt, it won't move as much, if you fasten to your shirt, it will move a lot more. Personally I think it would be inconsistent. I never used one as i said, but people say they're great, So i don't know.

    I have also wondered about this. I've never used one, but from what I've read, it calculates by motion only (bodybugg and bodymedia calculate based on multiple things). It sounded to me like a fancy pedometer. I've heard reviews on both sides - some say it's accurate, some say otherwise. It is nice that you don't have to wear it on your arm, but I've worn pedometers before and it made a HUGE difference if I didn't have it placed just perfectly right. Not sure if this is the same.

    You could probably do a search in the forums here for fit bit and bodybugg/media and you'll find TONS more info. Good luck!
  • VelvetKey
    VelvetKey Posts: 193 Member
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    ?
    this sounds amazing - can you send a link to the product?

    Sure: http://www.fitbit.com/product

    And I was wrong; the FitBit Ultra is the newer model of the FitBit. It has more features, and I don't think there is a subscription fee unless you want to have personal trainer guidance or something.

    :smile:
  • deja_blu
    deja_blu Posts: 359 Member
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    This thread has been most helpful. I was planning to by an HRM next week. now I don't know if I want a BodyMediaFit or a BitFit!

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  • MEMoggridge
    MEMoggridge Posts: 151 Member
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    Bump!!! Useful opinions!!! Thanks!!!
  • Kagard11
    Kagard11 Posts: 396 Member
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    I have the Polar FT4 and love it! It helps me track my calories during my workouts and how long during a workout I was in my target heart rate. This works for me! Only about $60 on Amazon.
  • staceyb2003
    staceyb2003 Posts: 203 Member
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    I ended up getting the polar FT7. Today I ran 3 miles and walked 2 on the treadmill. My HRM said I burned 857 cal and the treadmill said I burned 636. I like the HRM figures better. Just hope it's right.
  • TonyaCrego
    TonyaCrego Posts: 59 Member
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    I just got a new heart rate/calorie counter for Christmas that sounds like exactly what you are looking for. I bought it at Costco, and it is made by New Balance. You can enter your own personal information like weight, height, age, etc. and it will calculate your heart rate at different percentage intervals. For instance, I do a lot of spinning as well as weight lifting. For the longest time I thought I was burning about 700 calories an hour for spinning. When I bought my new HR monitor and wore it, I was completely amazed to find out that I actually burned 1085 calories in that one hour of spinning. Of course, it will calculate how hard you are working. If you are only working at 60-70 percent of your recommended HR, then of course you will see much smaller results. When I spin, I usually am between 85 and 90 percent of my recommended HR, so that is why I burned so many calories.

    I feel if I am going to take the time to get on that bike and ride it for an hour, then I am not going to just keep the tension at an easy pace and pretend that I'm working hard. I am going to get on that bike, turn on some great music from my MP3, and I am going to ride that spinning bike with everything that I have in me. Just think about how much more you could eat if you burned 1085 calories a day by spinning for 1 hour.

    If spinning isn't your choice, then this works on the ellipticle and other machines as well. I get on the ellipticle machine and crank up the resistance levels so that my body is working. By watching my HR monitor, I know if I am working or if I'm being lazy and wasting my time on the machine. This monitor will calculate your percentage heart rate, total calories burned, body fat burned in grams, percentage that you were above and below your specific heart rate, etc. I think I paid less than $100 for this monitor. My older Polar HR monitor only monitored your heart rate and nothing else. I wanted something that calculated my calories burned. There are no dues to pay., and you don't have to sync it with a smartphone.

    Hope this helps!!



    Whats the specific name of this? Sounds great!
  • FitForLife81
    FitForLife81 Posts: 372 Member
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    i have a polar ft4 for workouts. i do have a fitbit but stopped using it because it calculated steps while driving!?!
  • sar04tamu
    sar04tamu Posts: 27
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    I have a BodyBugg and a FitBit. For me, FitBit is the winner, hands down. I got tired of paying the subscription fee for Body Bugg, and because of its size and where it is worn, it's very noticeable. The fitbit is much smaller and I put it on the useless tiny pocket on my jeans. I've compared it to some gps pedometers on my iphone, and the steps and distance seem fairly accurate and consistent.

    And FitBit is integrated with MFP. I use MFP to track my food because FitBit doesn't have a barcode scanner. When I exercise, I use the stopwatch on my FitBit, then I log the activity on MFP using the activity record data.

    Hope that helps :)
  • supershiny
    supershiny Posts: 170 Member
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    The FitBit is a one-time cost (no subscription fees) and extremely small (so I could wear it to work every day, all day), so I went with that. It's a pretty neat little device, doesn't track heart rate or anything, just a sophisticated pedometer. It uses accelerometer data to figure out how much you are moving and based on your height/weight/age it calculates how much you burned.

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