Fitbit?

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If you own one or have tried it before, do they work? They're pretty expensive, like $120 but I want a good way to track how many calories I burn. I have an app but you have to be holding your phone while exercising for it to be completely accurate. So is a fitbit worth it?

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  • johnthomasmoore
    johnthomasmoore Posts: 59 Member
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    I love my FitBit One. Do they work? Yes, for what they do. Accelerometer based pedometer. Best for counting steps. If you want to monitor your walking, jogging, running -- very nice. As a general measure of activity, step count works for lots of us. If you do significant non-step activity, you will probably want to monitor that separately.

    I started working on the weight on advice of my doc because my blood pressure was up. My strategy was to increase my activity, emphasizing walking. I'm a 63 year old former runner, now physically challenged walker. I've had to back off the walking a tad and my FitBit is great for having a measure of what walking I'm doing.

    FitBit integrates nicely with MFP. I log all my food on MFP and my activity, blood pressure, and weight on FitBit. We also have the Aria scale which is wifi connected and logs weight, fat%, etc. into FitBit. All that syncs nicely with MFP. FitBit One also will do sleep monitoring.

    Self-monitoring is key to maintaining health for me and the FitBit is a very useful tool. I pull all my data together and can visualize how things are going. I've lost about 40 lbs and dropped my blood pressure significantly.

    I've got FitBit, MFP, Microsoft Health Vault, TicTrac and Google Spreadsheets linked to pull it all together. See my blog for details: http://johntmoore.blogspot.com/

    I did just invest in a Polar HRM to get a better handle on my non-step based activity. Customer support from FitBit is exceptional! Check the features of the various FitBit devices. I like the One (99.95). My wife uses the Zip (59.95). The One does sleep, floors - has a few more bells and whistles. The Flex is wrist band based and didn't appeal to me.

    All the best.
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    I agree with everything John said. Fit it is also a good motivator. If you link to MFP and enable negative calories, it starts deducting calories from your daily allowance if you spend too long sitting still. So I find reasons to get up and tour the building at work or go up the stairs at home. The more I move, the more I get to eat.
  • chandra2802
    chandra2802 Posts: 29 Member
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    i just recenly bought mu fitbit.. and i love it.. it was an eye opener on how active i am when out and about.. and when working..and when i am lazy and i see that my step count is low.. i get up and move lol. Dont want everyone on my list to pass me by. i do zumba and some dance at home and walk alot during work.. so i log no extra activities.. i just let my fitbit do all the work