HRM Vs FitBit Vs Body Media - Which is best?

I have a bodymedia armband which is what is used on the biggest loser. It is true you have a pay a monthly membership to use the program (or you can pay by year like I did). I got in on March 15th and have lost 5 pounds by simply being motivated to move more. I have the armband and the display. The nice thing about the online program they have it that it links with MFP so I can enter my food on here and it links with bodymedia.com. Bodymedia also gives you helpful tips and advice.

It's similar to fitbit in that it measures how you sleep, steps and calories burned throughout the day. I"m not sure about fitbit, but bodymedia has a setting where you can set a trip to know during a particular workout how much you burn. It will also beep at you when you reach a goal and when you reached the goal. It stores multiple days of data at a time and is surprisingly comfortable. I chose bodymedia for the accuracy. Bodymedia has a 90% accuracy, I'm not sure about fitbit's accuracy, but since bodymedia is an armband it does a great job with precision and accuracy. If I do not wear it for more than 30 minutes, when I plug it into the computer to sync it asks what I was doing during that time so it can accurately determine my calories. Over time it becomes more accurate based off of your activity.

HRM's by themselves just aren't that useful as it's not just your heartrate that determines how many calories you are burning at any particular time. When I'm walking and moving around my heartrate is about 80, my at rest is about 60, so the difference isn't large enough for the HRM to accurately depict how many calories I'm burning. Having a HRM as well as the fitbit or the bodymedia is the best method.

Either way you go is a great idea, not only to help lose weight but to be more active. I recently had an injury and can't workout hard like I was when I first got it, but I have found that I actually reach my goal earlier in the day because I am naturally being more active. It's a great motivator. And as you get more active you can up your personal goals through the website to fit your new active lifestyle.

I'm really considering getting a fit bit. I walk my dog between 3-7 miles a day depending on which dog I walk. I also do 30DS. Would the fitbit be accurate when doing something like the 30 day shred where its a combo of cardio/strength/abs??

At the minute I use the runkeeper app to calculate my calories during walking and just half whatever it tells me as I dont know how accurate it is. With the 30DS I use the calories MFP gives me for circuit training but again not sure how accurate it is.

I got a FitBit at the beginning of April and I totally LOVE it! You do not have to sync it to your phone, you can sync it to your home computer. It doesn't work with my phone but I still love the Fitbit. It encourages me to be more active. Since I got it my activity level has definitely increased and I started losing again after being on a 3-4 week plateau by following the calorie guidelines set by the Fitbit. You can set it up so the Fitbit and MFP talk to each other so you just continue to log everything into MFP and the Fitbit knows what you did too and makes adjustments based on what you tell MFP you are doing. I also like how it tracks sleep and the interface, the Fitbit dashboard, is very cool if you ask me. It cost me $100 on Amazon but luckily I had a $50 gift card so I only paid $50 out of pocket. I wear it attached to my bra and it is very inconspicuous and when I sleep there is a wristband included that you can put it in. It is tiny, like the size of a stick of gum, which is good because I don't want to wear a watch or an armband all the time. When I got the Fitbit I changed my settings on MFP to sedentary and I just let it tell me how much I can eat each day based on my activity level and I eat back most of my exercise calories. At firsts I was entering walks into MFP but after a week or two I decided that the Fitbit could adjust for walks on it's own so now I just enter non-walking exercise. I have an open diary so if you are interested in how it works take a look

I don't have an HRM but I know a lot of people love them. I don't know anything about the Body Media but I would not want to pay a monthly fee.

I use a HRM, but that's because I only track calories burned and only when I'm exercising. I don't account for calories burned during the day or while at work. I'm a nurse so I know I burn major calories at work but my body's already use to that. So the HRM works well for me as I use it limitedly.