Pro's vs. Con's How's it going Flexers?

MsMarlaJean
MsMarlaJean Posts: 1,741 Member
I finally got my Flex in the mail yesterday, YAY! :happy:
But guess what!? I can't run the setup yet because my home computer is on the fritz :grumble:
I may even need to get a whole NEW computer before I can download the set-up! :sad:

So it may be a while before I can start using it, but I figure :ohwell: I guess I've waited this long!

How are things working for you all and your Flex usage? Any things you Love? Any things you hate?
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Replies

  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
    I love my Flex. I do miss the display, but not as much as I worried I would. I love that it flashes & vibrates to let me know when I've hit my primary daily goal. It's very comfortable and since I only have to take it off to charge it, I don't have to worry about forgetting it. I find it very comparable in accuracy to my Ultra & One (for activities I do often where I know my general step count). Hope you can get yours set up soon!
  • MsMarlaJean
    MsMarlaJean Posts: 1,741 Member
    I love my Flex. I do miss the display, but not as much as I worried I would. I love that it flashes & vibrates to let me know when I've hit my primary daily goal. It's very comfortable and since I only have to take it off to charge it, I don't have to worry about forgetting it. I find it very comparable in accuracy to my Ultra & One (for activities I do often where I know my general step count). Hope you can get yours set up soon!

    I wondered that about the display, I was torn between the One and the Flex because of the display and the step/stair counting, but then I decided I don't have a lot of steps regularly in my life and I liked the idea of not having to worry about losing the one (I would have immediately I'm sure!), witht he wrist band. Looking into a new laptop now, but don't want to rush because it's gonna have to last me a while-LOL! I'll get there eventually!
  • shellygirl
    shellygirl Posts: 36
    One con I have so far is that whenever I go shopping and push a shopping cart, the vibration of that puts my flex into sleep mode. Just annoying. Too hard to push the cart with one hand. I don't want to take my flex off at the store since I am walking around and want the steps recorded, but it vibrates constantly with going in and out of sleep mode. Anyone else having similar problems?
  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
    I haven't noticed that with shopping carts, but if I'm clapping it does that.
  • MsMarlaJean
    MsMarlaJean Posts: 1,741 Member
    Interesting, shopping carts and clapping...good to note. I haven't had that problem, that I know of, although I guess there may have been a time or two when it vibrated and I didn't know why, so maybe that is what was happening...I guess I should pay more attention.

    I love the way it wakes me in the morning! I like the sleep tracking, I didn't realize how interesting to me that would be! And I love it when I hit my daily goal, although i am discovering I don't always hit it which is partialy because I'm less active than I thought and partially it has to do with My one complaint about the Flex which is: it's not the best on tracking exercises other than walking or running...at least compared to the tracking I do on my own...say on an elliptical. The walking/running is great tho and I use the Flex to record those calories burned, but all others I use the actual machine reading (ellipticals) or I stick with the MFP guestimation.

    I am now looking into a heart rate monitor for my "other than walking/running" workouts...any advice there? So far, my research has me looking at the Polar FT40 or the Polar FT 7
  • Mine doesn't go into sleep mode when I clap, but it does light up as if I've tapped it. But I wear mine on my dominant hand and have marked it as such now.

    I've had mine almost 2 weeks and I'm new to MFP because I found all my nutritional searches were leading me here (since the Fitbit database is limited, I added a lot of foods in).

    Any advice for combining the two? I know I'm supposed to log food and exercise here now, but the rest still on Fitbit? I really like the water tracker there.
  • Annie_on_the_way
    Annie_on_the_way Posts: 5 Member
    I haven't had that problem at least not yet
  • Annie_on_the_way
    Annie_on_the_way Posts: 5 Member
    There is a water tracker on here too. Same thing happens to me when I clap, just lights up. Most important thing with the flex synced with MFP is to put in the time you exercise. You also want to allow "negative" calories to make the most accurate calorie count. If you post food on both it will sometimes mess up your numbers. I still go to fitbit to see my sleep and my final numbers.....
  • tamserles
    tamserles Posts: 1 Member
    I'm fairly new with the flex also. I think I read somewhere, you can put it in your pocket and it will still track your steps. Just a thought if you're having problems while pushing the cart. Just be careful not to lose it when you're done shopping:smile:
  • I agree with the shopping cart thing except that I've noticed it doesn't get my step count right at all. Maybe that's because it's going to sleep and I don't notice.

    One con I've had, not with the device bit with the site is that it's never the same as MFP on the cals I need for the day or what I've used. Would manually making fitbit match MFP mess things up?
  • I did allow the negative calories. So far, so good. I really like how Runkeeper links here and then to Fitbit! We will see tomorrow if it really overrides my activity calories from my run as I keep reading it does.

    I actually like the FB water tracker better, since it's by ounces and not cups, especially for drinking pre bottled water.
  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
    There's only been one time when I was pushing a shopping cart where it didn't get all my steps, but ordinarily it's been really good.

    I log all my food in MFP because the FB database is so limited, and I like the bar code scanner option in the MFP app.

    The only activity I enter on MFP is where it's not counting steps (like yoga or strength training). Otherwise I just let it pull my activity calories pull over from FB to MFP.

    Anybody else have a problem with the battery going dead without notice? I synced one day just before noon & it said the battery was at medium. When I got home that night I realized sometime shortly after that the battery had completely died, so for 4 hours (including a long walk) I didn't get credit for any of my steps.
  • Good point on what activity to add in!
    No problem. On the battery yet. But I have the notification enabled as well as the partner app that emails you.
  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
    Good point on what activity to add in!
    No problem. On the battery yet. But I have the notification enabled as well as the partner app that emails you.

    When my battery went dead the dashboard was still telling me it had medium battery life so it didn't give me the notification. But how do you set it up to get an email? That would be great.
  • Annie_on_the_way
    Annie_on_the_way Posts: 5 Member
    True, I drink bottled water too. Runkeeper? I haven't seen that.
  • Well that stinks on the battery!
    The emails I found in the partner app gallery (link way at bottom of any FB page). It's called Low Battery Notifier. But I find my iPhone or iPad notification comes up first.
  • Runkeeper is another app and website. You can connect it here in the supported apps section and it syncs from there. It's good for running, walking, biking and elliptical. If you have a Garmin, it can sync to it too.
  • maybaby916
    maybaby916 Posts: 24
    I can't find a Flex anywhere. I've been to 4 different Best Buy's and they are completely sold out everywhere.
    I had to order one online directly from fitbit.
    4-6 week wait! I hope it goes by fast! :flowerforyou:
  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
    My Flex just let me down. I just went to Target, walked around the entire store, and it gave me about 30 steps. I wish I understood why it worked most of the time but not all of the time.

    whodatlisa I have the iPhone 4 so I don't know if I can get notifications on that about my battery - I can't sync off it because it's the older bluetooth. I'm using the Active C25K app right now but I'm in my final week - maybe I'll check out Runkeeper next. Thanks for the info!
  • Sure! I have the 4s, upgraded in January. I notice the phone battery can lose a lot of percent fast compared to the 4 :(

    I did notice that logging into the FB site also told me the battery for it was low.