The best fitness monitor for UK users?

I'm UK based and I have the UP by Jawbone bracelet and I love it! With that said I would never rely on that as my only "device". The app itself is fine for logging food, you can enter things manually, scan bar codes and even take pictures of your foods/meals and have the app analyse them if you want to be a bit extra adventurous... Foods are divided into categories like snacks, breakfast food, fruits etc. and it's a beautiful app that's very colourful and fun.

I never got into using those features personally as I find MFP easier and quicker and I was used to MFP already when I got it.

I never take the bracelet off, but when I go to the gym I wear and use my Polar HRM together with it to track things like my calorie burn, fat % burn and heart rate. That gives me a much more accurate idea of what I'm doing, how I'm improving and what I need to do to push myself. Something like UP really just tracks the steps you take in a day and convert them to a distance and a calorie burn. It doesn't know how hard your heart or muscles are working to take those steps and it will do absolutely nothing if you lift weights or cycle.

You can manually add those activities in the app but it's not very precise so I never bother. I just use the UP mainly to log my sleep as that's an area I know I need to work on (I have barely no deep sleep at all most nights) and to track the correlation between how well I have slept and how much I have moved about during the day. My mum and brother both have UP bands as well so we compete a bit when it comes to the steps. The social aspect of the app is great for that. You team up and you can then see in your feed how your family/friends are doing and you can comment on their logs.

The UP can be set to vibrate on your wrist when you have been sitting still for 45 mins (for example). I love that because I have an office based job so it reminds me to get up and walk about for a bit, maybe pop out for air. I also use it to remind me to go drink water.

This turned into an essay now but what I love about UP is that it keeps me moving a little bit extra (just to beat my team mates...) when I'm not at the gym. If I have to choose between escalators and a lift at the train station I take the escalators and I walk up them just to get those extra steps in for the day. That's what it's good for, the every day outside of the gym exercise. If you want something to push you IN the gym go for a more accurate HRM instead in my opinion.

Take a look at the Kifit - the UK version of Bodymedia fit. It's supposed to be the most accurate.

UK Fitbit one user here & I love the way it works with MFP BUT unless you do lots of walking/Running I can't see the point in having this sort of device.

I walk loads so the fitbit is the perfect device for me but if your doing more cardio or weights or classes then a good HRM will be better for you, I got one from Argos for £20 & it worked great but did upgrade it only because I wanted one with a PC link.

Good luck

UK Fitbit one user here & I love the way it works with MFP BUT unless you do lots of walking/Running I can't see the point in having this sort of device.

I walk loads so the fitbit is the perfect device for me but if your doing more cardio or weights or classes then a good HRM will be better for you, I got one from Argos for £20 & it worked great but did upgrade it only because I wanted one with a PC link.

Good luck

Thanks maca! Sounds like I should just get myself a ten quid pedometer and a new HRM and save a few £££

Yer, if you just want to log steps then a good £10 pedometer is all you need the only difference with my fitbit is that it logs sleep & stairs then logs everything to my phone/PC which is mainly why I wanted one.

These things can never know exactly how many cals you burn they just guess the only indicator to your progress is the scales as you know loosing 60 lbs. Sounds to me that you are doing OK so ask partner for something special & treat yourself for doing so well.

Happy Christmas