Fitbit. There must be some disadvantages surely

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  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
    I love my fitbit! I wear it everyday and there arent many disadvantages. It helps monitor my TDEE and shows how active I am throughout the day.

    I can only think of one downfall, is that its not waterproof and easily scratched (just my opinion) It also guesses calories over a bit. I walked with my HRM with my fitbit at the same time. I burned 133 calories with my HRM and 165 calories with the fitbit.

    Does your HRM take your BMR into account? the difference between FB and HRM could be your BMR for that time period....Just about every morning I have 400-500 calories burned before I even get out of bed!

    I have a polar FT4, it knows my weight and height and age. Not sure about BMR though.

    I did the math...my BMR is 1540, and there are 1440 minutes in the day... So of the 843 calories my fitbit is showing I have burned today, 517 of it is BMR and not activity ( it is only 838am and I have walked less than a mile). Therefor, the 32 cal difference in the OPs example is most probably BMR for the walk ( that I am assuming was about 30 minutes)
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    I'm doing JM body revolution and for running I use a gear rate monitor and GOS for distance. I want something to encourage me to move around moor in everyday life.

    I agree that my fitbit motivates me to move around more in the time when I am not officially exercising. As a formerly very sedentary person, my hobbies are reading and knitting, checking my steps periodically during the day keeps me up and walking. As a teacher, I'm eager to see how my movement changes when I return to school on Monday. What's a few more trips to the office?

    I like seeing the activity log at the end of he day. I can see the spikes when I was on my treadmill or walking my dog and the flat gray line when I was fooling around on the message boards or knitting a sleeve. I also have been tracking my sleep and have learned some useful information about my sleep cycles.
  • unkeptwalnut83
    unkeptwalnut83 Posts: 33 Member
    I think whether the fitbit is good for you is really based on what you want. For instance, my activity levels vary greatly from day to day (easily over 10,000 on days at one job, and at my other job I sit), so it helps me adjust my intake to my activity which can be done without syncing. If it says I've already burned 2500 calories and its 3pm, I should probably eat more. If I find myself wanting to eat at 3pm, and I've only burned 1000 calories, then I think about the other reasons I might want to eat.
    It is a glorified pedometer. It's not going to be exact or as accurate as a HRM, but it definitely showed a difference in slow days at work and crazy days (in both number of steps and intensity).
    I don't wear it to work out, I have a HRM for that, but general daily use I find it helps me a lot. As far as syncing with MFP, it's somewhat frustrating because it gives a fitbit adjustment assuming you will continue at the same activity level for the rest of the day, so I have ended up going over my goal a few days because of that. Now that I see that pattern, I can allow for that in my head. It's a tool, it has its limitations just like any tool, but I like it.
  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
    I'm doing JM body revolution and for running I use a gear rate monitor and GOS for distance. I want something to encourage me to move around moor in everyday life.

    I agree that my fitbit motivates me to move around more in the time when I am not officially exercising. As a formerly very sedentary person, my hobbies are reading and knitting, checking my steps periodically during the day keeps me up and walking. As a teacher, I'm eager to see how my movement changes when I return to school on Monday. What's a few more trips to the office?

    I like seeing the activity log at the end of he day. I can see the spikes when I was on my treadmill or walking my dog and the flat gray line when I was fooling around on the message boards or knitting a sleeve. I also have been tracking my sleep and have learned some useful information about my sleep cycles.

    OMG! get outta my head--I am an avid reader, and I crochet! I have myself set as sedentary here on MFP so I can *claim* all my fitbit calories. I can go anywhere from 5,000 steps on a sedentary day to 15,000+ steps on a super busy day ( like Fridays when I exercise AND go grocery shopping at 2-3 stores).

    This week I should have wild blackberries ready at the back of my 5 acre property. That means hour long walks to collect them several times a week. It'll be interesting to see how far I actually walk those days ( especially if I exercise too).

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