New Fitbit owner needing advice

hailzp
hailzp Posts: 903 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

I have just ordered a fitbit ultra and I am mega excited. I just wanted to ask you all if you have any little bits of advice for a newbie. I also have a polar Ft4 HRM and do you recommend that I use it for exercise as well as the fitbit? Is it possible to wear both together without one interfering with the other? Also if they come out with differing amounts burnt shall I just go for the lowest one or find a middle ground? I suppose the heart rate monitor might be more accurate for high impact exercise..?

Does fitbit link up to MFP? Does it alter my calories the more I do?

Is there anything else you think I should know?

I am not very good with technology but I think it is important for me to persevere with these things :tongue:

Thank you in advance for any advice offered.

Replies

  • hailzp
    hailzp Posts: 903 Member
    bumping
  • RockinSkiBunny
    RockinSkiBunny Posts: 152 Member
    I just started using my fitbit yesterday. Yes you can ink it to MFP by going to the tools section and it will walk you through the process. I have asked many questions out here about it as well. Alot of it is personal preference. I take mine off when I excercies and log that myself. I also do not wear mine to bed because I am a major tosser and turner. Liking it so far!
  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
    Use the fitbit all day if your exercise is walking or running. Or, set the stop watch on fitbit when you are exercising and then manually add the calories from your HRM onto fitbit site. The stopwatch. Prevents the exercise from being counted twice.

    I set my MFP activity level to decent weary and then when my fitbit syncs, it adds on the extra caliries from my steps which I find motivating.
    You add it into MFP using the options in the tools menu.
  • LollypopGinger
    LollypopGinger Posts: 21 Member
    I wear it all day and all night. I find it's very accurate even for exercises on the elliptical and stationary bike. I dont even use my hrm any more! It does sync with mfp but if you sync it early in the day and aren't very active afterwards, your calories burned might go down for the day the next time you sync it.
  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
    I wear it all day and all night. I find it's very accurate even for exercises on the elliptical and stationary bike. I dont even use my hrm any more! It does sync with mfp but if you sync it early in the day and aren't very active afterwards, your calories burned might go down for the day the next time you sync it.

    I don't think mine does that. Is it because I've turned off the calorie estimation function?
  • Melodypharmon
    Melodypharmon Posts: 56 Member
    I wear my fitbit day and night. I love it. It does alter your calories on mfp if it's linked. So you probably don't want to link it to mfp, and log exercise in mfp because it would add too much.
  • dldnvr
    dldnvr Posts: 22 Member
    Love the fitbit, I think you will too. I do use digifit and and HRM sometimes to monitor workouts. Since they also link to fitbit, which links to MFP, the whole thing works pretty seemlessly.

    Even though it's not what they recommend, I take of my fitbit, only when i'm recording a HRM workout on digifit, this seems to work well and prevent any double input. But to be honest, I use the fitbit most of the time, the person above is correct, it does a pretty good job on most exercise.
  • Vicki_78
    Vicki_78 Posts: 81 Member
    bump
  • dldnvr
    dldnvr Posts: 22 Member
    If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
  • dldnvr
    dldnvr Posts: 22 Member
    As for your other question, yes you will get an entry that updates during the day "Fitbit Adjustment" that will add calaries to MFP based your calaries burned on fitbit. If your set to sedintary on both MFP and Fitbit (recommend), then you will start to get calaries once you go past the seditary baseline.

    Don't worry about the numbers the first day you set up fitbit, you might get some weird ones. All should be good by your first full day.
  • BlackTimber
    BlackTimber Posts: 230 Member
    I am also a big fan of the Fit Bit. I use it for everything but when I go for a bike ride. I think that the available calories is a little more accurate (lower) than MFP. After a month my cals in vs cals out is a pretty close representation of my actual weight loss. I do all my logging through MFP and the Fit Bit site syncs to MFP

    1. Wear it at work - you will come home and have some extra calories waiting for you.
    2. Wear it for your walks or runs - you get rewarded with good data and more calories available.
    3. Wear it all the time - It will keep you honest, regarding your actual activity and probably motivate you a little too.
  • dldnvr
    dldnvr Posts: 22 Member
    If your not using digifit for the HRM, just read the how to on fitbit for HRM. It has good instructions if you want to use the HRM for workouts.

    Basicly.

    1. Set the fitbit to stopwatch mode when your start your HRM workout. Stop stopwatch mode when done.
    2. Record your HRM workout in MFP (record in MFP, not on fitbit).

    This should work and prevent double counting.
    I'm a bit lazy and like digifit, which records my workouts with HRM and transfer them to directly digifit, which in turn sends them in the adjustment to MFP. But as I said, I found the best way to get the most accurate is just to take off my fitbit when i'm using the HRM.

    I'm not sure many people are using all three. If anyone else is, what do you do?
  • flechero
    flechero Posts: 260 Member
    Fitbit is a good thing to have. Be sure to calibrate your steps (measure strides and change default settings for walk and run).

    Use the HRM to measure calorie burn during workouts and use the fitbit for all day passive data collection. Fitbit works great with MFP. I recommend setting your activity level to sed. and using the fitbit and HRM to adjust your cal needs.

    To log your workouts, you can also override the fitbit calorie estimation for that time period (if you use the stopwatch feature) and enter the HRM value.
  • hailzp
    hailzp Posts: 903 Member
    Thanks everyone. Good info :) Now I just have to wait for the post. :D
  • lveh8lve
    lveh8lve Posts: 162 Member
    I use the fitbit along with my Polar FT60. It wasn't working a few weeks ago, but it is now. I do the following:

    1- Wear my fitbit day and night. It's only off when I shower.
    2- In the gym I start up my heart rate monitor and record the whole session
    3- I hit the stopwatch function on my fitbit
    4- When Im done I stop both
    5- At home I sync my fitbit and wait a minute
    6- Find the start time on my fitbit website and use it as my start time to record on MFP
    7- I manually edit the calories burned on MFP to match my HRM. I find that MFP is sometimes higher and the fitbit can be way off depending on what you did.
    8- Figure out what I can have for dessert with my extra calories!

    After you add in MFP you will see your fitbit calorie adjustment go down. It's removing the calories from the time you were in the gym.
  • CDG1013
    CDG1013 Posts: 106 Member
    Use your HRM for exercise...use the fitbit to track all your other activity.
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    Basically understand that the fitbit has no real way of measuring your vitals. It's basically just a pedometer with a computer inside, so it's not a replacement for a HRM and it can only be used really for forms of exercise that revolve around walking/running.
  • tialynn1
    tialynn1 Posts: 884 Member
    Thanks for the information! I just ordered one on Sunday. I hope to have it at the end of this week or beginning of next week.
  • kmcb7
    kmcb7 Posts: 8 Member
    How do i set the stopwatch on my fitbit/ I want to do excercise using my HRM and log it in manually? This is my 1st day using it :)

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