Thoughts On Fitbit Ultra Tracker?

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  • papate
    papate Posts: 67 Member
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    I just joined MFP as well and a friend said the Fitbit is awesome, she loves it, so I ordered one yesterday. Watch the video, very informative, motivating and HOPEFULLY worth the $. Good luck, we'll be seeing on MFP.
  • JanLeb
    JanLeb Posts: 316 Member
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    I got mine in May and LOVE IT!!

    I know it is small but I hook it to the front of my bra every morning, so I don't worry about losing it at all.

    It really does motivate you to move more and earn as many steps as possible in a day.
  • rmillsaps04
    rmillsaps04 Posts: 18
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    I've had my FitBit for about 3 weeks and am going to return it. I do some many activities that don't count accruately, like cycling and riding horses, that it's more of a pain than anything to correct on the website. Also, it gives me about 30 floors and 5,000 steps on my daily driving commute to work and back. Yes, you can go on the dashboard and cancel these out, but if I want to just look at the FitBit itself and see where I'm at, it's always wrong. Also, it's not a HR tracker so I think that a Polar watch or equivalent is more useful.
  • linder4866
    linder4866 Posts: 11,166 Member
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    I love the Fitbit Ultra. I wear it on my bra and have never had problems losing it and so far I guess I haven't sweat enough to ruin it.

    I've also never had a problem with it recording steps while I'm driving. The only issue I've had with the Fitbit is that it does not record all the flights of stairs I climb every day. I don't know if I go too slow or what but that doesn't really bother me.

    I log my sleep and wear the Fitbit on my wrist at night. To me it's quit interesting to find out how many times I wake up during the night. And also the length of time that I actually sleep.

    I also have a HRM for estimating calories burned on various activities.

    All in all, I'm satisfied with both the Fitbit and my HRM. For me, they are excellent tools.
  • doonesbury
    doonesbury Posts: 281 Member
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    I ve only been on MFP a week or two and i love this site.
    I Just saw the fitbit ultra tracker.
    Has anyone got it? Is it worth the money?

    I never take a step without mine. It's worth double the price!


    Seconds this!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  • doonesbury
    doonesbury Posts: 281 Member
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    Hmmmm interesting...

    My Fitbit has NEVER, EVER, recorded car ride or any of the issues listed above.

    I love, LOVE, L O V E it!!!!!!!!!
  • kimnsc
    kimnsc Posts: 560 Member
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    To those who have one - do you have any issue with it recording time spent in the car as steps walked? I read reviews on this product and a few people have commented on this and it has put me off getting one. Any comments are gratefully received!

    YES, it will record time in the car as steps and floors UNLESS you log being in the car as an activity. Riding in and driving a car are activities on the Fitbit website. If you do not log it this way, you will have extra steps and calories burned that you didn't actually 'do'.
    The Fitbit is a very simple device and you do need to give it the proper information for it to calculate accurately.

    I've had mine for months and I've NEVER had it do those things while in a car and I don't log any car trip activity......
  • kimnsc
    kimnsc Posts: 560 Member
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    Hmmmm interesting...

    My Fitbit has NEVER, EVER, recorded car ride or any of the issues listed above.

    I love, LOVE, L O V E it!!!!!!!!!

    Same here.
  • twaltemade
    twaltemade Posts: 68 Member
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    I ve only been on MFP a week or two and i love this site.
    I Just saw the fitbit ultra tracker.
    Has anyone got it? Is it worth the money?

    I am in week one, and to answer your question so far it is worth far more than the price for motivating me. Since I tend to obsess on my MFP calorie status (android, ipad and computer) to insure that I am on target, the linking between the Fitbit and MFP is what drives me. Any time that I look at MFP, I am reminded of my current activity from Fitbit. Case in point....on Saturday I was frustrated with the low calorie burn that I had achieved that day. I ended up getting out of my chair around 7pm and walking 5 miles just to get my numbers up. Without seeing my Fitbit activity, I would have stayed in the Lazy Boy.

    Net...if it keeps me motivated and challenges me to do a little more each day...it's doing it's job. My only fear is that I could become obsessive compulsive about this thing, but the end result should make it worthwhile. As of right now, I know that I will be ticked off if I don't get another 3,000 steps in by the end of the day. (My goal is 15,000 steps per day except on Sundays...then my goal drops to 500 or less)

    I guess it's a question of what "motivates" you. Beating my daily goals motivates me and fills a void that was missing in my previous weight loss attempts.
  • Cyndist1
    Cyndist1 Posts: 21
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    As to the question about being in a vehicle and it tracking that as walking. Funny story. I drove 2800 miles round trip from MN to WA state. Anyone who has driven that knows you have to drive over the Continental Divide. Well my fitbit showed that I had climbed like 60 flights so I guess it doesn't know the difference from driving up a hill to walking up a hill. =) On the way back I tossed both the Striiv and Fitbit into my gym bag and they both read like 50,000 steps. You can go online into the fitbit dash board and log the driving.
    Cindy
  • jasonheyd
    jasonheyd Posts: 524 Member
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    I haven't had any problems with mine recording steps during a 1.5 hour commute in stop & go traffic. It might add a step here and there, but nothing that doesn't get drowned out by the total volume of daily steps. I guess it might depend on how bumpy your ride is and how smooth your suspension is. :)

    It's been hinted at in many of the replies I think, but the Fitbit and a HRM are two very different beasts...

    Fitbit's really good for tracking general activity level, and for giving you a subtle push to keep yourself more active day-to-day. You pretty much wear it 24x7 unless swimming or bathing (although, if you're not worried about tracking how much you toss & turn at night, you can just put it in sleep mode -- start the timer -- and set it on the nightstand while you catch your Zs).

    The HRM will give you an estimate of calories burned during physical activity. You don't wear it unless you're exercising, but it will track activities that Fitbit will not (e.g. resistance training, cycling or anything that doesn't involve taking steps).

    I use both a Fitbit and a Polar H7 HRM, which I connect to my iPhone using the Digifit app (other apps like Endomondo, MapMyFitness, and RunKeeper would also work).

    On MFP, I set my activity level to "Sedentary" and I link MFP to my Fitbit account. Digifit sends exercise data from my HRM to Fitbit, and then Fitbit sends a calorie adjustment to MFP based on my combined Fitbit + Digifit (HRM) activity levels.
  • Ash_ah_lee
    Ash_ah_lee Posts: 116 Member
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    I just got mines today.. I love it so far!
  • Masq
    Masq Posts: 191 Member
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    My personal experience with riding in the car…..
    Over Memorial Day weekend, I wore my fitbit the whole time:
    Friday – 10 hours in the car with one stop for gas / bathroom
    Saturday – On my feet for 5+ hours, setting up and decorating for a graduation party
    Sunday – 10 hours in the car with two stops – gas/bathroom and lunch

    When I got home and my fitbit uploaded the data from the weekend to the computer, I was shocked and irritated when I had more steps, floors and calories burned on the two days that I was in the car than I did for the Saturday when I was on my feet.
    This was the reason I thought the fitbit was flawed and bought a bodybugg….which I later returned.
    I wrote my complaint about the fitbit on the community boards on the fitbit site and received a reply from fitbit…. I needed to record driving and riding in the car as an activity and the information would adjust. SO… for me it was a ‘user’ error. I didn’t know it was necessary to record that. When I entered my the activity on the fitbit site, it adjusted the calories, steps and floors accordingly.

    I noticed it again when I was in the car for an hour and did not go up or down any stairs…. I came home and the fitbit showed I did 8 floors. I put in an activity for riding in the car and the floors went down to 1.

    I don’t bother recording an activity for my daily commute or most times I’m in the car. The only reason I did it for the 1 hour trip was to see if it would change the floors and it did.

    I also do not wear the fitbit when I go on a bike ride. I did one time and it recorded my bike ride as steps…. Even after I entered it on the site as a bike ride…. The steps didn’t change.
  • cwade1021
    cwade1021 Posts: 95 Member
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    Can you put it on before a workout to get an accurate idea of how many calories you've burned?
  • nnylee
    nnylee Posts: 814 Member
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    I love mine so much.
  • rlynnehawk
    rlynnehawk Posts: 71 Member
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    My daughter has one (she's the one who told me about this site), and she swears by it! I just bought one tonight...it is still on the charger. I hope that I have as much success as she has had....she has lost a small person and looks great! :flowerforyou:
  • EnterFitness
    EnterFitness Posts: 24
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    In a word, POLAR! :) The fitbit is a bit of a toy tracking probably more tham you need to know -- like sleep patterns. If that is important to you and want to seriously track your sleep, your calories and things other than your heart rate while doing exercise, go for the Body Bugg.

    Also, if the Fitbit (i believe) doesn't come with an HRM chest strap then it is going to be dishonest with you about calorie burns. The only way to accurately know is when your heart beats against the monitor on the strap (in humorous lay terms).

    :)
  • mystinamarie
    mystinamarie Posts: 51 Member
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    I bought one in early June after doing MFP for about a month. For me it was a no brainer b/c my job is a 7 hour shift on my feet, constantly walking around. I wanted a reliable way to count those steps.

    I bought mine in the "other" section on Amazon, brand new, for $80. It's still holding up great and I haven't had any problems with it so far! It automatically tracks my steps and stairs climbed and syncs it with MFP at the end of the day. I have never had an issue with it counting driving steps or other technicalities.

    The only problem I've ever run into is once in a blue moon the FitBit and MFP sites don't sync as quickly as you'd like, so there's a bit of a gap in the information. I think the longest this happened was still <48 hours. Usually it syncs really quickly. It's such a great asset to have to not have to even think about your activity or counting or logging. You literally just clip it on and go. The next time you're near your computer it does all the work for you and the information automatically shows up in your diary. That makes it worth the money for me!
  • sfgonzales
    sfgonzales Posts: 110 Member
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    Loooooove my fitbit!
  • Barbellerella
    Barbellerella Posts: 1,838 Member
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    Oh my goodness, I LOVE mine waaaay more than I expected. I got it about 10 days ago. There is NOTHING more motivating or more exciting than when it adds Fitbit exercise calories automatically for you, depending on how active you've been throughout the day!!!

    PS got mine on amazon, $99, free shipping no tax

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