Fitbit??

rachelleygirl9009

I have seen the Fitbit on a few sites and is wondering if anyone knows how effective it is. Does it really help? I'm seriously considering getting one, but don't wanna spend the money and not be satisfied. Help will be very much appreciated.

Bonnyface

Just did a podcast on this very subject. Everyone seems to love their Fitbits. Works best for walking/running, not so great on stair climbers/ellipticals. But their website allows you to enter that data manually. Plus it captures your activity all day, not just when you are working out. Only problem I heard of was getting sweat on it interfered with the readings, but putting it on a clip or band solved it. Wasn't an equipment problem at all. For the money, its a good bet.

aquamarine36

Thank you for the information! I had the same question and you answered it perfectly. I am very interested in getting a FitBit and I was wondering if it was any good. :flowerforyou:

Krisengel

My husband and I both love our fitbits! It's fun to see when you're most active and how you're sleeping at night. It has made us think about moving more.

sun33082

My question about this is why would someone choose a fitbit over an HRM? Or would you use both?

rachelleygirl9009

I think you just persuaded me to buy one. Thank you! I have needed something to keep me on track and motivate me a little more.

refeek

I love my fitbit! I did have a problem with mine, and fitbit sent me a new one for free! I say go for it!

BABetter1

I love my Fitbit, but it has limitations. Let me give you my take on it.

Why I bought it: I was losing weight too fast, and wasn't sure how many additional calories to eat to slow it down without stopping it altogether. At work, I walk a lot, which is easy enough to track with any decent pedometer. But, I was also climbing stairs all day long, and pedometers don't give extra credit for steps taken on stairs. And, I was excited that it could be linked with MFP to automatically add in the extra calories available.

What I loved that I didn't expect: The sleep tracker function seemed sort of useless to me when I bought it, and I didn't care because that wasn't why I bought it. But, I enjoy tracking my sleep, and it has shown me the need for some changes there as well. For example, I now wear ear plugs to bed. I didn't realize just how much my partners snoring was affecting my sleep. I also loved the daily badges awarded for total steps, lifetime steps, floors climbed, etc.

Has it helped: You bet it has. I now have a fairly accurate assessment of my TDEE, which allows me to eat the proper number of calories. I am still losing weight, but at a slower, steadier, healthier pace.

Limitations: I am now looking into getting a HRM. The Fitbit is great, and I will continue to wear it every single day from the time I wake up until the time I lay down. I think it has it's place for tracking TDEE. But, now that I am adding in actual, intentional exercise as well, I need the HRM to accurately show how many calories I am burning at each session. MFP and the Fitbit site both have the option to add in how many minutes you did a certain activity, but the calories burned are just an estimate. Only a HRM can tell you for sure how many calories YOU burned doing that activity.

This is all strictly based on my opinion and personal experience with it. I think if you aren't really climbing stairs, you may do just as well with a cheaper pedometer, even though the other features of the Fitbit make it more fun than a regular pedometer. If you are wanting it to track calories burned during a particular activity, you're probably better off with a HRM. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best.

Bahet

I have a fitbit. Just got it a few weeks ago. I LOVE it! It comes with a wrist band so you can wear it when you sleep. The band fabric is very silky and attaches with velcro. You pop the fitbit into a little pouch at the inside of your wrist and you really don't even feel it. I love seeing how well I slept and how many time I woke up. It also counts calories burned at 5 minute intervals. That's really motivating. You can see that you bunr 5 calories when sitting but if you get up and just walk around you might burn 3 times that amount. The stair counter is good but IMO it needs some tweaking. I wish I could edit the number of stairs on the site. There have been times I've walked upstairs and it didn't count and other times when I drove up a hill and ended up with several flights of stairs. I've started holding it in my hand when I walk upstairs then raising my arm up when I get to the top. That helps it count. Don't bother walking up and down a flight of stairs thinking you can get extra flights in. It doesn't work that way. That's part of why I want the ability to edit the flights of stairs. It also doesn't register stairs on a stepper. Aside from that though I don't really have any complaints but have tons of praise.

MMoriarty2012

I love my Fitbit, it's been a valuable asset in assisting with my lifestyle change and MFP success.

I set my MFP profile to "sedentary", MFP imports the data from the Fitbit site which pulls it from my Fitbit, and then any walking that I do that's more than MFP's calculation of sedentary gets logged as calories to eat back.

zyxst

My question about this is why would someone choose a fitbit over an HRM? Or would you use both?

A Fitbit you can wear all day. An HRM is usually only worn when working out. You can wear both without problems and an HRM is better for burn count when you're doing intense work like weight lifting or walking up hills. Fitbit doesn't play well with water.

I bought my Fitbit because I wanted something I could wear all the time and have it tell me how many calories I was burning without guessing like online calculators (am I lightly or moderately active?). The only downside for me is the floor count on the Ultra style. Fitbit Ultra has an altimeter that counts floors, but it's also affected by the wind and car rides. On really windy days, I can clock in 40+ floors on one of my walking routes that on calm days give me 5 floors.

mcarter99

"Only a HRM can tell you for sure how many calories YOU burned doing that activity."

Even a HRM is just an estimate based on averages, though it should be a better estimate for non-step-based activities.