Fitbit VS Bodymedia Fit

I actually just ordered one of these. I found a few links that might help you guys from other threads:

http://www.bodymedia.com/Products/Learn-More/How-it-works

http://www.getgrok.com/2013/01/a-comparative-review-28-days-with-the-fitbit-one-jawbone-up-nike-fuelband-and-bodymedia-link/

Edited to clarify that I ordered the BodyMedia Fit LINK armband. :-)

OK, I bought a Polar FT7 HRM and can't get the thing to transmit my heart rate for nothing and I give up... I'm looking at the Bodymedia Fit armband and the Fitbit... Anyone have experience & prefer one over the other before I invest more money in something?

The Bodymedia Fit is probably a bit more accurate, but wearing a big clunky thing on your arm is a PITA and looks stupid. And if you wear it all the time you get dimples in your arm (I'm not joking).

The Fitbit is very accurate in my experience. I add a little bit on top for weight lifting though.

I just got a Fitbit less than a week ago and love it. But it's different from a HRM -- it doesn't actually measure your heart rate. Calorie burn is just a guess over the course of the day. It helps to link it to MFP and input your exercise here -- then Fitbit reconciles the proposed calorie burn on here with itself during the time you say you exercised. I feel like Fitbit and HRM are not comparable gadgets. I use both. Sorry yours HRM sucks. Mine sometimes takes a few minutes to transmit my HR to the watch.

ETA: I think I have that same HRM! Yeah, it can take a while. I find that when it says "0" if I just ignore it for a minute more, it finds my hearbeat. Sometimes I just keep hitting stop and restart and it eventually gets it. Sometimes it comes on right away. Frustrating!

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.

I have a body media link arm band. I love it. I don't know anything about the fitbit so I can't help you there.

This....:flowerforyou:

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.

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.

No.

The fitbit measures your movement the exact same way as the Bodymedia: with a 3-axis accelerometer.

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.

No.

The fitbit measures your movement the exact same way as the Bodymedia: with a 3-axis accelerometer.

Yes but it has other sensors too.

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.

No.

The fitbit measures your movement the exact same way as the Bodymedia: with a 3-axis accelerometer.

Yes but it has other sensors too.

The Fitbit also has other sensors.

The Bodymedia Fit measures more things than the Fitbit.. but they are of questionable value. Skin temperature and sweat are of dubious use when it comes to estimating calorie output. I think the downsides of the Fit compared to the Fitbit (having to wear a box on your arm all the time that can actually cause semi-permanent skin deformation) far outweigh the benefits (skin temperature and sweat level measurements).

They both measure actual body movement in the exact same way.