Thinking about purchasing a FitBit...

I have the force and have really liked it so far. I've seen a lot of posts claiming how inaccurate it is, and have been meaning to test it against a regular pedometer to see for myself.

I think the biggest thing I like about it is just the fact I can see what I'm doing and push myself to meet and beat my goals (and the people on my friends list). Even if it is off, it's off everyday, so if I do 1000 more steps than yesterday I'm improving.

If it will motivate you to move more, it won't be a bad purchase.

I got one as a gift. It's a $2 pedometer with $80 in bluetooth/wireless/software that comes along with it.

It's a fun toy.

Find me a pedometer that can actually estimate speed, which will produce over the course of a year a "calories burned" estimate that is within 1-2% of actual calories burned (as calculated using weight change and calorie intake).

Like I said, $2 pedometer with $80 in bluetooth/wireless/software.

Except pedometers don't do that.

The results speak for themselves. Over the past year, the Fitbit has estimated my daily calorie expenditure to within about 10 calories/day (as calculated based on my weight change and calories eaten).

I think you think that I'm disagreeing with you.

The heart of the fitbit is a little accelerometer, just like most cheap pedometers. And has all of the limitations on activity tracking thereof.

But is also capable of so much cool integration - and that's what you're paying for.

IN

Because I've been contemplating purchasing one for myself and would like to follow other users tips and experiences.

How does a fitbit work? Do you wear it all day then log the calorie burn no matter what you did?
How does it work with what you consume each day?

I have an UP by Jawbone http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/97 and a Fitbit Flex. (Fitbit makes other trackers that can be clipped to your bra.) http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30 They all work the same; you have to decide which app you prefer and whether you like wearing a band or not. (Also be sure to check that your smartphone or tablet is compatible.) I have both because I'm a data nerd. You only need one.

I log all my food & drink (including water) in MFP, and all exercise and activity with the activity trackers. MFP sends aggregate meal data to the trackers. The trackers send my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) to MFP.

When you set up your MFP account, you specified an activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided MFP used your answer, plus your age, sex & height, to estimate how many calories you burn every day (your TDEE). Then you set your weight-loss goal, and MFP subtracted the appropriate deficit to calculate your daily calorie goal.

Once you link an activity tracker to your MFP account (via the "Apps" tab at the top of every page), you start getting calorie adjustments. If your tracker says you burned more calories than MFP estimated, you get a positive adjustment (meaning more calories to eat). If you enable negative calorie adjustments and you burn less than the MFP estimate, you will lose calories. (But negative calorie adjustments will never drop your daily calories below 1,200.)

I wasn't losing much weight when I got my first activity tracker. At first, the adjustments didn't seem very accurate. But they got better, almost as if the system was "learning" my routine. It took a lot of trial & error to find the settings that worked best for me. But then everything clicked. I changed my MFP settings from sedentary to lightly active (even though I have a desk job), and now my adjustments are pretty minimal. And I'm losing!

Edited to add that I find my daily step goals really motivating. If I get home at night and see I'm thisclose to making goal, I'll walk around the block. A little bit more every day really adds up.

I own both the One and the Flex. My biggest gripe with the One is that I was tired of moving it from the holder during the day, to the wristband at night, and half the time forgetting to put it back on after my shower. I like not having to take the Flex off except to charge it.

Out of curiosity I wore both of them for a week (opened a separate Fitbit account under a gmail for the second account) and they were within a couple hundred steps of each other every day. I average about 12K steps a day so that's a reasonable margin of error (and one wasn't always higher than the other). I have my Flex on my dominant hand and have it marked that way in my settings.

That Velcro tip is actually pretty good.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.