Fit bit or Jawbone Up?

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cdez80421
cdez80421 Posts: 88 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am trying to decide between the Fit Bit or the Jawbone up, I have friends that have Fit Bit and love it, but I am really interested in the Jawbone Up because it gives you more detail on your sleep patterns... any thoughts or recommendations out there?

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  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    I think it comes down to if you want to take the Up off and plug it into your phone to see how you're doing throughout the day. Or pay $149 and wait for the Up24 (assuming you have an iPhone). The Fitbit synchs wirelessly to your PC via bluetooth, and some models synch wirelessly to some phones. And it has a display in the device so you can check your progress without checking your phone or PC.

    I never found the sleep data useful so I can't help you there.
  • aubiefan122013
    aubiefan122013 Posts: 21 Member
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    I've been using my Jawbone up for a week and just finished a customer service call to arrange returning it for a refund. It just seems like an expensive way to do very little. I think it performs best as a sleep tracker, but I am very frustrated at how difficult it is to log non-walking workouts (I cannot for the life of me get the "timed activity" function to work), the confusing and inconsistent way it interfaces with MFP, and the inane way it seems to calculate calorie burn. I ended up unlinking it from MFP and returning to just logging workouts manually, which made me question why I'm bothering to wear the thing in the first place.

    The Jawbone greatly overestimates my workout burns if I log them manually, but still manages to greatly underestimate my daily calorie needs (I'm an athlete trying to gain weight and boost performance at the same time, and I DO have the weight gain goal programmed in wherever possible). To be honest, over the past 5 days there have been at least a couple of times a day in which I tried to do something with it and had the thought "what a piece of junk."

    I have not tried a FitBit, so I can't compare the magnitude of these issues between the two devices, but I wouldn't recommend the Jawbone.
  • Elpaw4mbv
    Elpaw4mbv Posts: 43 Member
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    I bought the Jawbone Up originally because Verizon told me it would work with my upgraded phone (it didn't, it worked with the phone I upgraded from...go figure) so I returned it to the Verizon store and switched to the FitBit.

    I like the fact that if I can't sync with my phone, I can through any computer that has the software downloaded as long as I have the dongle - and the computer will sync with the phone app.

    The main selling point of the Up over the Fitbit for me was the enhanced sleep functionality and the idle alert. I'm hopeful that FitBit will upgrade its sleep functionality and I get around the idle alert by setting alarms to remind me to get up and move around.

    Other than those two issues, I think the devices are more or less the same.

    I've heard some folks complain that the calorie burn data and steps aren't that accurate on the Fitbit. I guess if you are using it to manage your calorie intake and exercise to a precise degree it would be a problem.

    For me, I am in this weight loss thing for the long haul so I can't let myself get too wrapped around the axle or I will get frustrated if the math isn't exactly right and that may increase my risk of quitting. Example - had a calorie deficit a few weeks ago between exercise and diet of just over 6000 calories. In theory, I should have lost at least a pound, right? (Calorie in/calorie out deficit = weight loss.) Nope. I lost .2 but that's okay, scale went down - that's all I care about.

    If you are looking for a device that will give you a ballpark on your calorie in/out status, you sleeping habits, and remind you to do stuff - FitBit is not a bad choice and you can change the bands to match your outfits if you want to have it double as an accessory...:smile:
  • cdez80421
    cdez80421 Posts: 88 Member
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    Thank you all for your feedback... sounds like I might just keep with my garmin and save me some money...

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