Fitbit

Stairs is the big difference for me. I walk up lots of stairs at work, and the zip doesn't capture that. I want credit for stairs, so the one it is!

(Also I am not into the neon colors. I need a less flashy fitbit for my conservative work environment.)

Just a comment...... I LOVE my fitbit ONE!! My husband and I got ours about 1 month ago, and , esp for my hubby, it has made a HUGE difference! I am on MFP, linked ours to both MFP and to my Walgreens Rewards card, so I get $$$$ , a BIG plus, on my walgreens rewards card (yay!!), and love that it immediately shows up between the fitbit and MFP. If I am in the pool, since I can't take the fitbit one into the pool, I will manually enter my exercise for that timeframe into MFP. When I am on a treadmill, or working out at the gym, MFP will automatically tell me about "fitbit" adjustment calories", but if I choose to go in and let MFP know when/what I did, it "adjusts" the difference in that timeframe for the calories used, so I love that feature as well.

My most exciting part is that my husband, who has NEVER EVER been interested in tracking/working out, and was basically a couch potato except when he was out working, etc, is now GOING CRAZY to "beat" his best on fitbit one! He has earned several badges already , in the one month, and walked 78 flights of stairs in one day in our home, 4 flights at a time, throughout the day, just to get a 2nd badge! We have a tri-level, so now, instead of going from one floor to the next, (only 6 stairs, you have to go up 10 for it to count as a flight of stairs,) he will go up the 2nd set of 6 stairs, then go back to the middle floor, so getting in extra exercise each time! He has me doing it now, too, as , of course, I don't want to be outbested by him!! lol Also , at night, he and I both check to see how close we are to the next 1000 steps, or the next mile or the next badge, and then go for it before midnight just to get that in, so , again, great motivation and exercise being added because of the fitbit results. We have been seen walking out in our court, making laps, at 10 minutes to midnight to get to the next "level", whereas before we would have been going to bed or watching TV.

He is an open heart surgery patient, (of course, because of his lifestyle) so this motivation and support he is getting from the fitbit dashboard is just AMAZING! His tummy is losing the "shelf" that it has had, and he is getting more stamina daily!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE this!! The motivation the fitbit one is giving him (and me) is just incredible!!

Hope you enjoy whichever one you choose, but just had to share this!

Thanks for the great information. I'm confused about how I'd enter exercise to be linked with MFP. I'm really not very technically savy, so it concerns me. Or when I register food on MFP? does that change anything on the fitbit? So, if it's linked to MFP, do you set your activity to sedentary, so the calories are registered from the fitbit?

I like the idea of keeping track of how many calories I've burned during the course of the day. Is it pretty accurate on total calories burned?
How about when I do my treadmill on an incline. Will is register steps or stairs? I have so many questions, I feel like an idiot!!!!

I just read this post. Yup, I'm an idiot!!!

On the treadmill, it will register steps, even if you are at an incline. For fitbit to register flights of stairs, there has to be a certain change of altitude.

When you link the fitbit with MFP, you will log all your foods on MFP like normal. You will also want both your Fitbit and MFP set to the same activity level (I set both mine to sedentary) and MFP will adjust your calories throughout the day based on the activity or non-activity level Fitbit reports. There are only a few activities that Fitbit cannot accurately track, so those activities you would want to put in manually--and I do this at the Fitbit site... bike riding and elliptical are two, swimming is another.

It's slick. With the Fitbit linked to MFP, I hardly ever have to log any exercise manually anymore and I don't have to guess what activity level I was at during my exercise!

I had never heard of it until here. Where does most people buy the monitor? I think I really need to look into this.

You can buy it at Fitbit.com, on Amazon, or at stores like BestBuy. Our Target has them, but that might vary by store.

I love my fitbit one. It does NOT register hills on the treadmill though. Either that or it needs to be more than a 5% incline. I was actually really bummed by that. But in my experience, the stairs feature is sorta broken. I know for a fact that I've gone up and down the steps in my house at least 6 times today and it still shows only 3 floors...

I have the Fitbit Zip and actually really enjoy it for the price. I don't see a need to track my sleep at this point, so it seemed silly for me to spend the extra $40.00 just for that. I also don't go up and down too many stairs.

I still log everything on MFP, food and some exercise. Any strength training I leave out and use the Fitbit to add extra calories burned, since MFP doesn't have calories for strength training. For my cardio, I log it on MFP with whatever the machine says, since I use the Elliptical Trainer with resistance so I don't think the Fitbit accurately calculates the calories burned. Since my MFP and Fitbit accounts are synced, it knows when I started my cardio and does not register the Fitbit calories burned for that time, only the ones I logged on MFP. I'm not super picky if the calories are off by a few here or there; this is still more accurate than not wearing the Fitbit .

So far, this has worked out great. I'm planning on getting my sister the Zip for her birthday this month; I would recommend it to anyone.

I love my fitbit one. It does NOT register hills on the treadmill though. Either that or it needs to be more than a 5% incline. I was actually really bummed by that. But in my experience, the stairs feature is sorta broken. I know for a fact that I've gone up and down the steps in my house at least 6 times today and it still shows only 3 floors...

I sent a "message" to fitbit when my fitbit wasn't registering my floors in my home, either. Found that you have to be "continually" going up at least 10 stairs for it to register, so if you have 6 stairs or 8 stairs, it doesn't count, because it goes by elevation. I found that , in our tri-level, if I walk immediately up to the 3rd landing, it counts, since 2x6 stairs each, but if I slow down in between those 3 floors, on the 2nd floor, even just to put down a coffee cup, and then continue up, or even take too long just to get around the corner,( i.e.even just stopping long enough to open the dutch half door we have there to keep the dogs downstairs), then it doesn't register, so we are keeping that door open for now. It DEFINITELY has to be 10 steps, though, because, as we watched it going up 2x6 stairs, when we got to the 10th step, it registered immediately.

It also will not register "stairmasters" or "inclines" because you are actually not going up 10 stairs heightwise on those pieces of equipment, as no real elevation with those. . MFP and Fitbit both suggest that you do all your manual entering on the MFP website. So, for example, when I get on a treadmill just for a straight walk, it is registering the steps already, so I leave it off manually entering, but if I do a great incline or cardio workout on the treadmill, then I will enter that one manually on MFP if it is more calories burned than just walking steps. If I am in the pool, since it is not waterproof, I will enter my water jogging or whatever on MFP. Same as when gardening. Steps for walking around the yard will not be as many calories burned as "gardening, general", so I will put in my hour or two of Gardening, general, listing the timeframe when it was done, and the fitbit adjustment will take that time off so it isn't twice counted. This is because when you enter under MFP, after having linked your FitBit to the site, when you enter your exercise manually on MFP, it will ask you the EXACT time you did the exercise, then it will adjust the FitBit exercise calories for the day, taking off that timeframe so that they don't count twice. It 's really great the way it all syncs up, and really very motivating!

( i.e.even just stopping long enough to open the dutch half door we have there to keep the dogs downstairs), then it doesn't register, so we are keeping that door open for now.

Does this mean the dogs are getting free run of your house just so you can register stairs? I bet they think the fitbit is awesome! :laugh:

I've got an old style ultra fitbit and earned my 1,000 mile badge today. Super-pleased! :glasses:

The One is water resistant... The older Ultra was not. I am not sure about the Zip but I doubt it.