FitBit Flex or Jawbone UP

Hi,

I have the Flex and really like it. I was able to link it to MFP and mapmyrun and now the three interact (mostly) seamlessly. The one problem I've had is the battery life. I have to charge it every 5 days and i thought that would be long enough, but I've already had it die on me twice because I forget to bring my charger with me to work. I really like how it will calculate calories for me throughout the day and give them back if I'm particularly active--so on days that I walk more, I can eat a healthy snack and still not go over my calorie goal.

i really wanted to know but never found anything online! Its supposed to be able to track calories, but if so, is it capable of tracking weightlifting burned calories etc. ahh really hope this gets answered , otherwise the flex has everything going right. @fidgit813

Wife has had one of the Body Media link armbands for 5 months or so. She loves all the info it gives her.
Only complaint is she can't take it with her when we go kayaking.

I have the up and absolutely love it... Helped me realize that MFP way over estimated even just my normal daily calories burnt from sedentary life style and seeing how many steps I have taken so far pushes me to try to hit my daily goals...I track my food on MFP as i believe its more accurate and my exercise on the up where if its none step you can log it by type durations and effort level and based on your weight gives you a more accurate idea of what i burnt... I do use a swim calculator as it isnt one of the standard exercise on the up... but log it as other and its pretty accurate 10 cals out from the swim calculator, but can log weights and circuits and you can time it through a stop watch function.

Its really simple to use and love the long battery life i can go 10 days before charging, I was worried about the none wireless sync but that hasnt been an issue I sync about 4 times a day now, sometimes a more depending if i know i have logged a workout or been inactive more then usual.

The sleep tracker is pretty damn accurate as I know i wake up alot during my sleep due to a little monkey needing attention!
I also loves how it wakes me up in the morning and feel so much more refreshed waking up now then before... i used to hit snooze a lot but since the up never felt the need... I have the alarm set for different times for weekend and weekdays, and the power nap function.

The other useful function is the vibrations to tell you to move your *kitten* you have been idle for to long... week days i have it set from 7am to 9pm on a 45 minute alarm so if im at my desk to long i know to get up and move.

The insights and trends / comparisons are great like tracking how much i slept to how active i am or calories consumed etc and you can compare everything it tracks against each other. Or you will get daily messages that look at what you have achieved or how to improve. The graphs and data are presented great and easy to understand

I tend to forget I have it on its so comfy to wear and i love the design and get quiet a few people asking me what it is... I was trying to choose between the two and was bought it for my birthday so in the end didnt make the choice myself but so glad I have it

There are some negatives the meals don't transfer over as meals just the micro nutrients / macros etc and some times there can be a delay in the sync from MFP to up for food... but the exercise from up to MFP is about 5 after you sync to allow you time to add in and change things if needed. Also the fact there is no desktop way to access the data through a upi... which would make life a bit easier. Also forgetting to push the button to sleep mode which I have done a few times grrr.

Overall very happy with it... Sorry for the long post and hope this helps.

I have the Flex and like it. It does have some quirks, though.

Going into sleep mode can be irritating
Turning off the alarm can be irritating
Not going into sleep mode while turning off the alarm almost never happens
Sometimes the sleep won't register
The calorie burns it estimates for runs vs. what i see with my HRM and Endomodo vary a lot, but walking looks right
It doesn't tell time, which I wish it did to prevent some awkward moments when I look at my wrist for no reason

I have the nike fuelband and I love it!!! It really helps keep me motivated and everyone says it just looks like a bracelet. the only con I have is that it is not water proof

I was just debating this myself. I ended up getting the Fitbit Zip to try. I wanted the Flex or the One, but I don't care about sleep pattern, and the Zip basically does what I need it to. I've only had it for a day, but so far so good.

Hey, I can't help much about the flex thing but I do have a fitbit and wear it daily.
I do love the dashboard to log in (racking up rewards for floors and miles) I track all my food on MFP which shoves the calories into the FitBit dashboard. I chose Fitbit as I don't want something on my wrist, so can clip it to my clothing but that's a personal choice. I found the sleep monitoring helpful to begin with it helped set my sleep up in a better way although I rarely use it now.

I also have the fitbit aria scale, I love the way I can just jump on and this will sync with my fitbit app and MFP.

Basically, I put my food into MFP, get on the scale and everything is sorted for me. the only thing I have to manually track is swimming. I find this helpful as when I used to go to dance classes weekly I'd be logging the same amount of calories for the exercise but once I got the fitbit I saw that some weeks with a bit of a half-hearted effort was making me over estimate the calories burned. Weeks I really put my all into into it showed :happy:

Thank you so much "ze_hombre"! The info was very helpful!!! Way to go on the 77 lbs lost!!!

Thanks!

Other than having a Flex I have the same setup as EasilyLed and have no complaints in that regard. The Aria is really nice.

A friend of mine has the Nike Fuel band and he seems happy with it. I would be hesitant to go that route since Nike doesn't sync with MFP though. I consider MFP integration a bit of a show stopper.