Fitbit VS Bodymedia Fit
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I have only used the FitBit, which doesn't monitor heart rate. But I really love it and the company's customer service is awesome!0
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I definitely recommend BodyMedia!
I bought FitBit first. When I took it home, it wouldn't sync to my Macbook Pro. I went to the store, and they couldn't get it to work either, We tried a second FitBit incase the other one was faulty. The problem still existed. Others I've talked to haven't had this issue, but it was so frustrating that I'll never attempt purchasing from FitBit again.
Then I discovered BodyMedia and fell in love. It's even better than what FitBit offers! It tracks much more and with better accuracy, such as calories in and out, steps, amount of sleep vs. just laying down, etc. It uses science to calculate the data, whereas the FitBit using Wii technology. So, the FitBit is more like a pedometer, in my opinion. BodyMedia tracks everything, even when you are just sitting at your desk burning a small amount of calories.
I've used my BodyMedia for almost two months now. It's helped me tremendously stay motivated and lose weight. My first week, I lost 7 lbs with it! Here is a demo of everything it tracks: http://www.bodymedia.com/Products/Learn-More/How-it-works
I use MyFitnessPal to track my food and BodyMedia to track my exercise and sleep. BodyMedia offers a food database to track food, but I find that MyFitnessPal is much better. You can sync both accounts together so that the food and exercise display the same numbers on both sites.
You can sync your BodyMedia data with reward sites such as EarndIt and EveryMove. For so much exercise, you gain points. Then you use these points to get rewards (healthy food, exercise items, charity donations, etc). These sites also work with FitBit.
The only downfall about BodyMedia is it's an ugly grey armband, while the FitBit is a cute little device that can be hidden in a pocket. The BodyMedia device can be hidden under the sleeve of a shirt. I wish it was more attractive!
Overall, I recommend BodyMedia and feel like it would really help you lose weight.
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Bumping 4 later- wondering differences too;-)0
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Depends on intended use.
If you are looking to track steps and calories based off of that the fit bit will be the better option, for a more well rounded tracker the LINK tracks calories in and out and estimates your days burn based of off activity and will monitor your sleep patterns.
Now if you want to get an accurate all around caloric burn read I would suggest and HRM or an HRM in combination with the BodyMedia Fit LINK.
Hope you find the right option!0 -
I have the fitbit...getting disappointed with it though. For example..Saturday..went for a 5 K..did over 14k steps..and said i burned 544 cals..whereas on Sunday i did an 8 mile run..and sat around for the rest of the day..over 17k steps..and said i burned 61 calories..WTF..
I bought the BMF today at Costco..it was only $99 with 1 year free subscription..should be interesting..0 -
I'm getting a Fitbit Flex for my husband and one for myself next week when they come out. We have the Fitbit Aria scale and love it so far. I'll be glad to give you more info after we get them.
Curious why you are deciding on the flex? I have a fuelband and a fitbit and it is shown that movement tracking on the arm is nowhere near as accurate as on the core..............0 -
I researched this to death before I chose. I ended up going with the Body Media. It is an unobtrusive arm band that is well hidden under my shirt sleeves even with short sleeves on, however as a guy our short sleeves don't tend to be as short.
Body Media actually takes five hundred scientific measurments about what your body is really doing every single minute fo the day. Tht's five hundred data points per minute. The fit bit is a pedometer with some inteligent software behind it but is guessing your burn based on a formula and your steps. While the Body Media is aware of your movement in three dimensions, your body temperature flux (How hard you are working) your sweat levels, (through galvanic skin resistances) and your heat output.
It adds to the data some very smart formualas and gets a lot closer to your actual burn within 10%.
It syncs with MFP so I use MFP to input my food and Body Media to track my exercise. Then I use Body Media to print out an amazing report for the day week or month that tells me down to the minute what I was burning. (2.4 Cals per minute sleeping, up to 25 cals a minute at full tilt exercise!) You can graph your workouts and zoom into a mere moment or back way out and see a graph of the whole day. so you can analyze your exercise effectiveness. Body Media also tracks your sleep patterns and effectveness, as well as food water etc... I love mine! I being an analytical guy hooked on numbers and science etc... Found it VERY helpful and I do not believe I would have made the progress I have made without it. I could look down at the LCD screen that receives real time updates form the arm band and see exactly what I was doing during a workout. I reset the trip meter right before I start working out and throughout the workout it flashes between calories per minute averaged since the reset and the total burn since the reset. It obviously also counts your steps, but it does so much more than that. So I can set a caloric burn goal for the workout and go until I hit it. It's also compatible with a number of smart phones (that then run the Body media App) for even better access to your current data. But my phone is one that it will not work on.
If you want real accuracy and access to as much or as little real data a you want the Body Media is my recommendation.
#1 - It is far from unobtrusive........It's pretty big and bulky
#2 - People have tested/worn them side by side and they were very close on calorie burn with the fitbit sometimes underestimating slightly.0 -
I have the fitbit...getting disappointed with it though. For example..Saturday..went for a 5 K..did over 14k steps..and said i burned 544 cals..whereas on Sunday i did an 8 mile run..and sat around for the rest of the day..over 17k steps..and said i burned 61 calories..WTF..
I bought the BMF today at Costco..it was only $99 with 1 year free subscription..should be interesting..
Did you check the actual FitBit site for your calorie burn? MFP is set up with a formula that "estimates" your calorie burn projection for the whole day based on activity levels. It's difficult to explain, but if you spent the whole day sedentary, then MFP may have adjusted the calorie burn for your sedentary time of the day. You have to turn that feature off.
In other words, it probably wasn't FitBit. It was probably MFP that jacked up your calorie burn.0 -
I have the Fitbit and I love it! It tells me exactly what I want to know -how active I am. Some folks may like the 500 data points (or whatever) that the armband tracks, but I just wanted a simple way to track my activity level. I think the calories burned is fairly accurate, but I never eat back all my Fitbit adjusted calories unless I had a hard work out that day. Overall it has helped me with my weight loss goals and I love that it is small. I wear it in my bra and no one knows it is there.
It depends on what your needs are. I wanted small and simple, and Fitbit has been perfect for me.0 -
bump to read later0
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The main reason I am wanting something is calorie burn. I have contacted Polar and they are sending me a new transmitter for my HRM, so hopefully I can get that working, but it would still be nice to have something to wear all day to track calories burned for daily activity.0
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The main reason I am wanting something is calorie burn. I have contacted Polar and they are sending me a new transmitter for my HRM, so hopefully I can get that working, but it would still be nice to have something to wear all day to track calories burned for daily activity.
IMO, the Fitbit is ideal for this. It's accurate, extremely unobtrusive, and won't leave dimples in your arm.0 -
I have the fitbit...getting disappointed with it though. For example..Saturday..went for a 5 K..did over 14k steps..and said i burned 544 cals..whereas on Sunday i did an 8 mile run..and sat around for the rest of the day..over 17k steps..and said i burned 61 calories..WTF..
I bought the BMF today at Costco..it was only $99 with 1 year free subscription..should be interesting..
Did you check the actual FitBit site for your calorie burn? MFP is set up with a formula that "estimates" your calorie burn projection for the whole day based on activity levels. It's difficult to explain, but if you spent the whole day sedentary, then MFP may have adjusted the calorie burn for your sedentary time of the day. You have to turn that feature off.
In other words, it probably wasn't FitBit. It was probably MFP that jacked up your calorie burn.
Calorie Burn from Fitbit site
Saturday:2206
Sunday:1723.
So yea..not accurate..0 -
I have the fitbit...getting disappointed with it though. For example..Saturday..went for a 5 K..did over 14k steps..and said i burned 544 cals..whereas on Sunday i did an 8 mile run..and sat around for the rest of the day..over 17k steps..and said i burned 61 calories..WTF..
I bought the BMF today at Costco..it was only $99 with 1 year free subscription..should be interesting..
Did you check the actual FitBit site for your calorie burn? MFP is set up with a formula that "estimates" your calorie burn projection for the whole day based on activity levels. It's difficult to explain, but if you spent the whole day sedentary, then MFP may have adjusted the calorie burn for your sedentary time of the day. You have to turn that feature off.
In other words, it probably wasn't FitBit. It was probably MFP that jacked up your calorie burn.
Calorie Burn from Fitbit site
Saturday:2206
Sunday:1723.
So yea..not accurate..
Why is that not accurate? A 5k will burn about 350 calories. Something clearly went wrong Sunday. Did you not wear the Fitbit or something? :laugh:0 -
I researched this to death before I chose. I ended up going with the Body Media. It is an unobtrusive arm band that is well hidden under my shirt sleeves even with short sleeves on, however as a guy our short sleeves don't tend to be as short.
Body Media actually takes five hundred scientific measurments about what your body is really doing every single minute fo the day. Tht's five hundred data points per minute. The fit bit is a pedometer with some inteligent software behind it but is guessing your burn based on a formula and your steps. While the Body Media is aware of your movement in three dimensions, your body temperature flux (How hard you are working) your sweat levels, (through galvanic skin resistances) and your heat output.
It adds to the data some very smart formualas and gets a lot closer to your actual burn within 10%.
It syncs with MFP so I use MFP to input my food and Body Media to track my exercise. Then I use Body Media to print out an amazing report for the day week or month that tells me down to the minute what I was burning. (2.4 Cals per minute sleeping, up to 25 cals a minute at full tilt exercise!) You can graph your workouts and zoom into a mere moment or back way out and see a graph of the whole day. so you can analyze your exercise effectiveness. Body Media also tracks your sleep patterns and effectveness, as well as food water etc... I love mine! I being an analytical guy hooked on numbers and science etc... Found it VERY helpful and I do not believe I would have made the progress I have made without it. I could look down at the LCD screen that receives real time updates form the arm band and see exactly what I was doing during a workout. I reset the trip meter right before I start working out and throughout the workout it flashes between calories per minute averaged since the reset and the total burn since the reset. It obviously also counts your steps, but it does so much more than that. So I can set a caloric burn goal for the workout and go until I hit it. It's also compatible with a number of smart phones (that then run the Body media App) for even better access to your current data. But my phone is one that it will not work on.
If you want real accuracy and access to as much or as little real data a you want the Body Media is my recommendation.
#1 - It is far from unobtrusive........It's pretty big and bulky
#2 - People have tested/worn them side by side and they were very close on calorie burn with the fitbit sometimes underestimating slightly.
For me, there was a 300 Calorie difference - Fitbitbwas lower.0 -
I have a body media, and I really like it. It can be a bit obvious when I wear it, but I don't mind. I have even had students ask me what it was, and I will explain what it does and they think it's pretty cool! I really don't give a rats @ss what people think of it when I wear it...It has become a part of me in a sense that I wear it daily, and I barely know that it's there. It has NOT left indents on my arm, and I have been wearing it for quite some time. I really like that I can get a semi-accurate calorie count. It is 90% accurate. I can deduct or add 10% from my totals and at least find an accurate range.0
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Did you follow the instructions on the HRM?? Wet the strap, etc...?
My dad always says HRMs were hard for him to use because they don't trasmit well for him. It's not the HRM's fault, it's the person's body haha.0 -
I have the fitbit...getting disappointed with it though. For example..Saturday..went for a 5 K..did over 14k steps..and said i burned 544 cals..whereas on Sunday i did an 8 mile run..and sat around for the rest of the day..over 17k steps..and said i burned 61 calories..WTF..
I bought the BMF today at Costco..it was only $99 with 1 year free subscription..should be interesting..
Did you check the actual FitBit site for your calorie burn? MFP is set up with a formula that "estimates" your calorie burn projection for the whole day based on activity levels. It's difficult to explain, but if you spent the whole day sedentary, then MFP may have adjusted the calorie burn for your sedentary time of the day. You have to turn that feature off.
In other words, it probably wasn't FitBit. It was probably MFP that jacked up your calorie burn.
Calorie Burn from Fitbit site
Saturday:2206
Sunday:1723.
So yea..not accurate..
Why is that not accurate? A 5k will burn about 350 calories. Something clearly went wrong Sunday. Did you not wear the Fitbit or something? :laugh:
Oh I wore it alright..kept checking to make sure it was there during my long run..well Iets see how the BMF works..Love that Costco takes anything back..just in case its not good..0 -
My sister bought me the BodyMedia Fit LINK as a graduation gift two weeks ago and I absolutely love it. I love being able to track what I have done throughout the day. It syncs with both my phone and my tablet via bluetooth, so no matter where I am I can upload my data to the web. I love the fact that it also syncs with MFP. I think that you should go with the BodyMedia...it has over 90% accuracy.0
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^ThisI have a body media, and I really like it. It can be a bit obvious when I wear it, but I don't mind. I have even had students ask me what it was, and I will explain what it does and they think it's pretty cool! I really don't give a rats @ss what people think of it when I wear it...It has become a part of me in a sense that I wear it daily, and I barely know that it's there. It has NOT left indents on my arm, and I have been wearing it for quite some time. I really like that I can get a semi-accurate calorie count. It is 90% accurate. I can deduct or add 10% from my totals and at least find an accurate range.
Except I haven't had anyone ask me what it is on my arm (not that I'd mind if someone did as I'm not self conscious). I also like that I can put the device in my bra when I'm being sedentary or am dressing up and don't want the armband as an accessory :P readings are pretty close to when I wear it on my arm.
My main reservation about the fitbit was the size. It's tiny size is not a positive for me, too paranoid I'd lose it somehow *shrug*
FYI - the BodyMedia requires a monthly subscription to use their site (around $7) but if you buy it through Costco, the first 12 months are included.0
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