Thinking about purchasing a FitBit...

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  • thesimsisters
    thesimsisters Posts: 73 Member
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    Im getting the Fitbit Zip for Christmas and really look forward to trying it out! I'm looking forward to it syncing with MFP. I appreciate the tips on getting it setup accurately. I'd read another post on her about the Fitbits before choosing the Zip. It seemed more what I wanted since I didn't care about monitoring sleep and I'd seen some bad reviews of the Flex.

    I'd seen a tip about Velcro to keep it from falling out of the holder, so I already have two of the Velcro dots ready to adhere to mine :) Thought that was a great tip I'd pass along from the other thread.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    That Velcro tip is actually pretty good.
  • velvet4899
    velvet4899 Posts: 16 Member
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    I just got the flex about 3 weeks ago and I love it. It's helped me stay on track and I do find it to be accurate. I log weight training separately with my Polar HRM and let my flex log the treadmill. I think its a great investment as I've wasted more money on other things.
  • hbmcracer
    hbmcracer Posts: 105 Member
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    Everything everyone that likes their fit bit said plus I'd like to add one thing. I run and walk for exercise and use run keeper for GPS tracking and my flex is usually within about 8hundreths of a mile of my GPS after a 3 mile run. That is using the default stride length for my height. I was surprised and thought I would have to tweak that setting by trial and error a lot.
  • hbmcracer
    hbmcracer Posts: 105 Member
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    Has anyone else compared their fit bit distance to GPS? What were your results?
  • whitebalance
    whitebalance Posts: 1,655 Member
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    Not a lot to add here, most of the good information has been shared already. Just one or two comments.
    - Worth it: Hell yes. It's the main thing I can credit with my weight loss and my new enjoyment of running. Not just for tracking, but also for feedback and motivation. There's no way I'd ever have gone out and climbed 100 flights of stairs just for the hell of it without this thing.

    - Accurate: Hell yes. As long as the Fitbit app knows your stats. I have an Aria scale, so my Fitbit app knows my weight and (kinda-sorta) body fat percentage every day. I've been maintaining reliably for six months, and only started having weight fluctuations after I added heavy lifting to my routine -- something that the Fitbit isn't designed to track and that I'm still figuring out and fine-tuning for myself.

    - Syncing with MFP: Uh, this is not as wonderful. It's sporadic. Sometimes the sync will be instantaneous; other times, it may be a full day or longer before MFP syncs up properly with Fitbit.com. This can be frustrating; however, if you're reasonably good at basic arithmetic, it's pretty easy to estimate your remaining calories by doing some quick mental math. That becomes second nature after a while anyway.

    - How to use it with MFP: I'll just repeat... do what stumblinthrulife said, and profit. :smile:

    ETA: I wear my FB One on the waistline -- either in the coin pocket, facing inside, or clipped to underwear. This is my second One; the first one fell off sometime during a sprint or stair climb. Its clip was worn out and it was attached to the thin sewn-in belt of my shorts; it came off, clip and all, and I never noticed until I tried to sync. I've been more careful about this one.
  • segwayne
    segwayne Posts: 52 Member
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    My question is, how can I force the fitbit to update more often? I usually workout in the evening and it doesn't always update MFP, I know I can estimate how many calories I can eat back by using the fitbit app but is there a way to just manually update the fitbit info with MFP?
    Jess,

    Inside the Fitbit App (at least on the iPhone/iPad), click on "Account", then click on your device (Flex, One, etc) and you should see a setting for "Background Sync". Turn that on. (green)

    The explanation on that setting is "{device} will sync periodically when the app is running in the background".

    It's not perfect, and it does require that you not actively kill the app (through multitasking) to leave it running in the background, but I find that mine syncs automatically every 30 minutes to an hour.

    Since the Fitbit app is linked to MFP, it should -- in theory anyway -- update to your MFP automatically ever so often.

    In practice however, some times that's a "hit or miss", so just remember to go into the app and manually sync it whenever you add your food to MFC (or after exercising) and you should be golden.

    Wayne
  • egrusy
    egrusy Posts: 196 Member
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    I got the Fitbit Zip maybe 6 months ago and I LOVE it! I bought the Zip because it was the cheapest and I wasn't sure if it would "take" with me or end up just sitting in a drawer. Also I rarely have stairs to climb (one-story house and work is on the first floor) and it doesn't matter to me that it doesn't track sleep; I sleep plenty. Love that it syncs to MFP and sends me weekly progress reports with stats including calories in vs calories out :smile:
  • cvstokke
    cvstokke Posts: 249 Member
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    Haven't read through all the comments yet, but if you've misplaced it, you can reach out to their customer service. I lost mine (it fell out of the holster) and they replaced it for free! It had to do with the holster not working correctly so I'm not sure if they replace any of them, but it's worth a shot.

    To the OP - echoing what a few people said, I adore it! Like I said above, I lost mine and replaced it. When I was wearing it, I was losing consistently and when I lost it, I was simply less motivated and started gaining weight back. To me, it's less about the calories and more about challenging myself - "How can I get to my 30 flights of stairs goal today? Oh I'll go to the upstairs bathroom instead of the one down the hall", "I can take the long walk home", etc. It's definitely not for everyone, but maybe for the type-As among us, it works :) I wear mine on my bra for best reference and I had no problem syncing between my phone, the website, and MFP.

    Feel free to message me or reply with any specific questions!
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    I don't think you can get an accelerometer pedometer for $2 yet. Maybe a $40 pedometer with $45 of software (my One was $85). I don't much like the idea of not being able to see my historical steps/calories without manually logging them at some specified point in the day, so the software is worth it to me. No manual logging, full historical data.

    I wear my One on my bra facing in, so even if it falls out of its holder, it'll fall into my bra. But I still have my Fitbit Classic from 4 years ago and those are really easy to lose, so I think I'm just careful.

    I'm nervous about the case getting stretched out so I don't take it out except to charge it, every 7-10 days. And I will probably spring for a new case when this one shows signs of not being snug. Fitbit sells them for like $15. Some people stick the One in a velcro closure flash drive case but that's only handy for wearing it on your waist.

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