Is a fitbit worth it??

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  • jkestens63
    jkestens63 Posts: 1,164 Member
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    I like the Fitbit One. Wear it every day and really helps me to keep track of activity. Serves as a goof reminder to get up and moving. Its small and inconspicuous. I prefer the One to the Flex because the flex is a wristband and I don't want to wear that all the time, especially on hot summer days or with my nice jewelry.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    My favorite form of aerobic exercise is bike riding, and I take the Fitbit off for that (using MapMyRide). When I'm done with the ride MFP syncs both the ride via MapMyRide and Fitbit exercise for the rest of the day separately, and the Fitbit website also shows the increase calorie burn from the ride without counting extra, bogus steps since it was sitting still.
    There's never any need to take your Fitbit off.

    Exercise can be logged either in Fibit or in MFP—never both. (I find Fitbit's burns to be way more accurate than MFP's one-size-fits-all guesstimates.) If you want to use HRM burns, you have to log in MFP. You're asked for start & end times, then MFP overrides your Fitbit data during that time.
  • Bryan190
    Bryan190 Posts: 54
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    My favorite form of aerobic exercise is bike riding, and I take the Fitbit off for that (using MapMyRide). When I'm done with the ride MFP syncs both the ride via MapMyRide and Fitbit exercise for the rest of the day separately, and the Fitbit website also shows the increase calorie burn from the ride without counting extra, bogus steps since it was sitting still.
    There's never any need to take your Fitbit off.

    Exercise can be logged either in Fibit or in MFP—never both. (I find Fitbit's burns to be way more accurate than MFP's one-size-fits-all guesstimates.) If you want to use HRM burns, you have to log in MFP. You're asked for start & end times, then MFP overrides your Fitbit data during that time.
    I've tried leaving the Fitbit on while riding, but the combined calorie burn between Fitbit and MapMyRide is higher than than just using MapMyRide alone (not good) and also has a weird time offset (MapMyRide data appears later on Fitbit website than reality), so that's why I take the Fitbit off - it only tracks BMR calories during that period while it's sitting still. MapMyRide is not connected to an HRM so it's only an estimate, and an optimistic one at that; but eating back no more than half my exercise calories takes care of that. I have an HRM so I know what the difference is, but the HRM is a bit of a PITA to use and since I know what it generally reports vs. MapMyRide, I can allow for the difference, and eating back no more than half those calories takes care of it.
  • Shockakahn
    Shockakahn Posts: 11 Member
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    I love my fitbit.....only take it off to shower. It keeps me motivated and accountable. The only thing is that without a heart rate monitor device you won't know the real calories burned.....Fitbit measures calories by your weight height etc.....but if you are working out and your heartrate elevates you burn more cals and fitbit doesn't account for that...because of this I purchased a heart rate monitor 2 days ago and wear both...during my workouts it's about 200 cals different between my fitbit and heart rate monitor...even still I'll never give up my fitbit. I love it
  • getnfit87
    getnfit87 Posts: 34 Member
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    I love my fitbit I have the one, still glowing from my first ever 5k a few hours ago, when I got my fitbit, 30 minutes of walking a day was what I was pushing for, I found it to motivate me to go both farther and faster, 4 weeks ago I thought I would die after jogging 100 steps, I just scored a personal best 45 mins on my 5k, and picked up 38 very active minutes doing it! I'd buy it again in a heartbeart, it really works for me :) almost 19,000 steps today :)
  • photochik71
    photochik71 Posts: 37 Member
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    I've got the Bodymedia Fit Link. I wear it 23 hours a day. It tracks all calories burned and was a real eye opener to see that I don't burn as much as I thought! It also tracks sleep patterns and syncs with MFP. Best thing I've bought in a long time!
  • fvtfan
    fvtfan Posts: 126 Member
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    My favorite Fitbit feature is having friends connected - it makes me move more, if I want to be at the top of the leaderboard I need to move way more than I normally would. There have been times when I have actually walked up and down my hallway before I went to bed to get ahead of someone :)
  • maburrell92
    maburrell92 Posts: 21
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    I have a Fitbit Flex and I LOVE it. It really gets me off my butt and moving. I try to walk 5 miles a day and burn 3000 calories. The Flex is only $99 (cheap compared to other trackers) and comes in a bunch of different colors too. The Fitbit community is also pretty great. Oh and MFP integration! What more could you want? :)
  • kc5grw
    kc5grw Posts: 12 Member
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    I have had a Fitbit One for about a month now and love it. It really helps keep you motivated to move more. I really try to get my 10,000 steps every day. Weekdays it's pretty easy. I work in a long building, 0.25 mile. About every 1.5 hours I walk to the end of the hall, down 2 flights of stairs then to the other end and back up 2 flights of stairs and back to my desk. 0.5 miles in about 8 minutes in air conditioning. I usually get 4 laps through the building in a work day then walk 3 miles after work. It really keeps track on how active you are and linking it to MFP and turning the negative calorie option on it will actually take calories away from your budget if you aren't moving enough in the day so it's a great incentive to keep moving. It's been a great help so I think it's definitely worth it.

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