Fitbit help...

I'll give you my feedback as I have both a HRM and a fitbit.

Fitbit first-I started off with the fitbit classic last year, and loved it. Never went a day without it. It did keep me motivated as I always wanted to break the 10,000 steps mark. It tracks activity, intensity (the more active you are the more a little flower grows on the fitbit), your sleep, and tells you how many calories you are estimated to burn. I wore it clipped to my bra most of the time, and slept with it on a wrist band provided by fitbit during the night. You can also track a specific activity with a start/stop feature so you know how many steps you took on a particular walk or how many calories you burned during a workout. Again these are all estimates based on data about your height/weight you enter on the website. It holds a charge for approx 4-7 days.

That being said, six months after I got it, it broke. The plastic shell snapped so the circuitry was exposed. I emailed customer service and with a photo uploaded to them, they replaced it free of charge. Fitbit #2 lasted 6 months as well before the exact same thing happened.

Then I decided to get a heart rate monitor. I have a Polar FT4-very basic but does what I wanted it to do-tell me where my heart rate was and calories burned. I used that for six months and got the fitbit itch again.

I bought a fitbit ultra this time-the difference being it tracks flights of stairs and some other cute features like giving you messages now and then. I had it for one month and it stopped working. No clue why-I suspect I sweat too much because I wore it during a very sweaty class and that's when it died. Despite drying it out it didn't work well again. Fortunately I bought a protection plan through bestbuy this time so they replaced it for me. I wear the fitbit on the clip provided by fitbit now instead of clipping the fitbit itself to my clothing-hoping that will preserve the elasticity of the plastic so what happened to my first fitbits (the plastic shell snapping) doesn't happen again. I still use my HRM for my workouts and use the fitbit to monitor my overall activity and keep me honest about how much I sit on my duff. I love both my gadgets.

I bought the Fitbit on Amazon back in May as I started my weight loss journey to bring another dimension to losing weight. I thought perhaps it could make it fun, interesting or at least motivate me to do more as it tracked my activity throughout the day. Plus, I work as a FedEx guy, in and out of a truck 100+ times a day .. I wanted to see exactly what kind of burn I was getting at work, if much of any.

I must say .. I do like the Fitbit ... however, it does not like me. It wasn't long after getting it that I started experiencing problems with the battery. I do P90X and work extremely hard ... meaning I sweat A LOT. Most often its like walking straight from the shower when I'm done with the workout, so everything is wet, including the Fitbit clipped on the waistband. So as time went on, with each workout, things have gotten worse. For whatever reason it either doesn't hold a charge or doesn't charge all the way. I put it on the sync pod to charge it nightly and yet by 3 PM, its dead .. I've noticed this trending sooner and sooner in the day as well. So any activity after that time is not logged >>>Fitbit<<< FAIL!

I've contacted Fitbit customer support concerning the problem to which I get copy and pasted answers ... FAQ'S from their web site ... not what I had hoped for. I'm hoping for better customer service and answers to this problem, however, just like anything else you buy, there are always terms and conditions to everything. I'm guessing I'm out $90.

yes most people answerd this well, but I just use it to track my steps only. I always leave it in and when I log exercise in MFP, it will over ride fit bit (just make sure you input your start time). I think it's a great motivator to keep walking and burn those extra calories you normally would never count or track.