Bodyfit vs. Fitbit vs. HRM vs. Other

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doing the bump! i want to know too.

Hi,
I've just finished reading most of the posts on this subject already and the only thing I can conclude is that I need to stop researching and go out for a walk. I've been sitting here for 2 hours and 50 mins. :yawn:

Sooo, with that, I'm hoping someone can tell me which is better If I want to track:

Heart rate
Calories burned for a full-day
Distance walked/hiked
Connect with Earndit or similar rewards program for motivation
Food diary
Would be great to use swimming but I'd be willing to add a separate device for that

Thanks everyone. I'm going for that walk now and would appreciate any final thoughts from you. :happy:

Sounds like you want the BodyMedia Fit/Body Bugg and a HRM. The BodyMedia Fit/Body Bugg will give you:
- Calories burned fora full day (estimate)
- Steps taken
- Offers an online food diary

Since the BodyMedai Fit/Body Bugg can not be worn in water, you'd want a HRM that can be used while swimming and to provide your heart rate (BodyMedia Fit/Body Bugg do not use heart rate)

I can only speak from my personal experience. I had a body composition analysis completed so I know my exact BMR (Calories burned in a day if I lay in bed and do nothing) so I don't feel the need to try to figure out the calories burned all day. I have, however seen some imporvement in my results since I started using a HRM to track the calories burned during my workouts. I am also much more diligent about tracking my calories consumed in my diary by logging EVERYTHING as much as humanly possible. I have some friend who have multiple devices and that works for them. For me, I wanted the simplest and best way for me to understand calories in versus calories out so I use the food diary for calories in and the HRM for calories out with my minimum calorie intake set to BMR.

Might not be the best or perfect solution but it is working well for me.

Do they really have an HRM or anything like that for swimming?

Go with a HRM of some kind.. most are water proof so you can wear them while swimming

I wore a Fitbit and Bodybugg(Bodyfit) simultaneously for two weeks - here is my review : http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Masq

I returned the Bodybugg mainly because I didn't like wearing it on my arm (is very obvious if you are wearing short sleeves) and that it didn't sync with MFP

Neither the Bodybugg or the Fitbit will give you heart rate and can not be used for swimming.

Both Bodybugg and Fitbit will give you calories burned, and a food diary. Bodybugg did not give total distance for the day.

I really enjoy the Fitbit, I think it is pretty accurate for calories burned and it's fun to see how much you move or don't move during the day. It also shows your sleep patterns and gives you a weekly report of everything.

Two things that I had to 'work around' with the Fitbit. For me, during the day, the Fitbit calorie adjustment that will pull into MFP was too high, so I would go over my calories for the day if I ate everything it gave me. I solved this problem by setting my MFP fitness profile to 'active' instead of 'sedentary'. For me setting it to active is closer to my total calories burned average than it was at sedentary.
Second, it does record some things that you may need to adjust manually. Like a bike ride. I wore mine for a bike ride and it counted them as steps..... even when I put in an activity of 'bike ride' the steps didn't change. I don't wear the fitbit on bike rides anymore. Also, if you take a long trip in the car... it will count as floors and steps. I found this out when I was in a car for 10 hours with only one stop to gas up and change drivers. I got more steps, floors and calories burned that day than I did for the following day when I was on my feet for hours setting up and decorating for a graduation party. BUT, Fitbit has 'riding in' and 'driving' a car as an activity. Once you enter that you were doing that and the times, the fitbit website will adjust your numbers to reflect what you were actually doing. I only do this for long trips.....
:flowerforyou:

The Motorolla MOTOACTV seems to have all the hardware features.
http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers/8GB-or-16GB-MOTOACTV/79070,en_US,pd.html
https://motoactv.com/ is the web app site.

Don't know too much about the apps and rewards though.

The Nike Fuel has great reward apps.

I don't know why FitBit and Fuel were not designed to be able to access a HRM chest strap. Seems like an easy function to imbed. That is what I would want to do if I was designing it (but some marketing guy would veto me ) .

Check out Polar or Garmin HRM with strap: http://www.polarusa.com/us-en
http://www.garmin.com/us/

Heart rate YES
Calories burned for a full-day -SOME OF THE DEVICES THE SELL HAS THIS OPTION IM NOT SURE HOW WELL IT WORKS
Distance walked/hiked -YES
Connect with Earndit or similar rewards program for motivation- IDK
Food diary -NO
Would be great to use swimming but I'd be willing to add a separate device for that -YES

Bodyfit aka Body bugg

Heart rate NO

Calories burned for a full-day YES as long it is for one of the following activities --"free living" activities, including brisk walking, running, bicycling, sedentary activities, home activities, home repair, occupational activities, strength training, and ball games.
Distance walked/hiked--- however i had one of these and it's very inaccurate for cycling and other exercise machines.

Connect with Earndit or similar rewards program for motivation: IDK

Food diary-YES

Would be great to use swimming but I'd be willing to add a separate device for that -NO

FITBIT this is a tri or multi-axis pedometer, so it sense every move and step you take in every direction. why not get a tri-axis pedometer like omron makes and save yourself 50+ dollars?

Heart Rate-NO

Calories burned per day: yes; accurate? I don't know. I think that some people have a high burn rate at rest than the fitbit will calculate and this is where I see the pedometers' inaccurate calculations. if you're a person with muscle mass and burns quite a bit at rest this may throw off your numbers for fitbit.


i hope this helps...

Hi,
I've just finished reading most of the posts on this subject already and the only thing I can conclude is that I need to stop researching and go out for a walk. I've been sitting here for 2 hours and 50 mins. :yawn:

Sooo, with that, I'm hoping someone can tell me which is better If I want to track:

I have a fitbit and heart rate monitor that I use.

Heart rate = heart rate monitor, fitbit and bodymedia do not track heart rate, which is okay for what they are intended for.

Calories burned for a full-day= fitbit or bodymedia. Heart rate monitors are not designed to semi-accurately track calorie burn for non-exercise activities. I know fitbit will let you overwrite your exercsie calorie burn with a heart rare monitor if you want, not sure of bodymedia.

Distance walked/hiked= Throughout the day=fitbit or bodymedia, my fitbit distances are very accurate though I did take the time to test and calibrate it on a running track. For just one walk or hike then either of those or maybe a Garmin or similar GPS heart rate monitor with a foot pod, or even a gps app on a smart phone might do it for you.

Connect with Earndit or similar rewards program for motivation= fitbit or bodymedia. As far as I know, no heart rate monitors currently link to earndit. A garmin gps monitor will through "Garmin Connect" but it only uses the GPS data not the heart rate data. Also, since you say "other", a smart phone with one of several gps apps or a Nike+ also can link with earndit.

Food diary - here! Fitbit and bodymedia have food tracking so that is a possibility. MFP and fitbit can sync so there would be no need to change food tracking if you already track here.

Would be great to use swimming but I'd be willing to add a separate device for that -- swimming would be a heart rate monitor that is waterproof not either bodymedia or fitbit. Also there is something called a "poolmate" that has an acelometer in the waterproof watch that can track swimming strokes and laps. I don't have one, but it sounds good. I just use my heart rate monitor for water exercise.

I am not sure one device can actually do everything you want. I supose for what you want to hit all the points, your cheapest option would be:
*A pedometer + waterproof heart rate monitor and basically just trust your activity level burn on mfp + logged exercise. You would have your distance all day if properly set up and calibrated,heart rate data, calorie burn during exercise, etc.
*For all you ask for: A fitbit + basic waterproof heart rate monitor or Bodymedia + basic waterproof heart rate monitor. These would give you a place to track food, etc, ability to link with earndit, general activity data, distance for one session and all day, estimated total calorie burn, workout heart rate tracking, and swimming tracking. If you went with fitbit, it would be a little less expensive and you could continue to track food on mfp. I've used fitbit for a couple years and am happy with it especially since it is small, comfortable and discrete. I imagine Bodymedia may be a little more accurate as it has more sensors than just movement, but the numbers fitbit gives me actually seem pretty accurate to me so the extra expense and wearing an arm band just are not worth it to me personally.

ETA: I didn't read all the posts before I posted. Someone mentioned why not just a pedometer rather than a fitibt? I had a pedometer first and it is not the same in my experience. My pedometer was not as sleek, I wear the fitbit on my bra and no one sees. My fitbit is more accurate for me with steps and distance and can also track flights of stairs and hills. It ranks each minute by activity level which roughly corresponds with METS and for a lot of activity it is pretty accurate when all is set up. I do think there is a little bit of a learning curve to make the best use of the features and information it offers. I am sure there may be some pedometers that are accurate and offer some similar benefits, but they are not exactly the same in my opinion.