FITBIT OR NOT

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Phattygirl14
Phattygirl14 Posts: 10 Member
in Getting Started
:flowerforyou: Is it worth my money to purchase a fitbit? If not, what is better? There are so many other similar devices out there.

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  • marjoleina
    marjoleina Posts: 189 Member
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    I have the Fitbit zip, syncs with MFP. I love it
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    Fitbit can be great if you want a daily activty tracker and get most of your exercise from running/walking type activity. Its not really a question of if it is worth if or not, its a question of what do you need your device to be able to do. If you are more of a swimming, cycling, weight lifting kind of person it is probably not the best option for you. What are your needs? People might be able to give you better advice knowing those.....
  • quatermore
    quatermore Posts: 96 Member
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    A thousand times yes! I have the fitbit one. It keeps me moving and motivated throughout the day. Love the hooray's on the site's Dashboard when you achieve your daily goals.
  • Krizzle4Rizzle
    Krizzle4Rizzle Posts: 2,704 Member
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    I am a huge fan of the fitbit.
  • Singlejules
    Singlejules Posts: 55 Member
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    I have a fitbit. I wouldn't be without it. It helps me so much on a day to day basis. I wear it 24/7 apart from when charging it or in the bath. It has a silent alarm that vibrates on my wrist so I don't wake my hubbie. I had a watch style tracker before, but didn't rate it. Good luck in what you decide. :-)
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I also love my fitbit zip. Got it on ebay for $30. Syncs with mfp. I only want the pedometer function.
  • chiccam
    chiccam Posts: 239 Member
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    I didn't think I would like one as much as I do. I find it helps me stay motivated when I'm close to reaching a step goal. I really love to be top of the leaderboard with my family and friends.
  • Tbramble73
    Tbramble73 Posts: 2 Member
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    I love my Fitbit Flex. Its great at tracking my activity and syncing with MFP. The ONLY thing that I kinda dont like is that it tracks all your steps and "activity" but if you lift weights or do another certain type of exercise that you want to log specifically you have to put it in manually. Of course its not a deal breaker but just an fyi. i think its worth the money if you are serious about keeping track of your active lifestyle. go for it! why not!
  • xcalygrl
    xcalygrl Posts: 1,897 Member
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    Depends on why you want it.

    If you want it to encourage you to move more, maybe hit 10k steps a day. Yeah, but you can get a plain pedometer for cheaper.
    If you want it to sync with MFP, then yeah, it is worth it.
    If you want it to give you calories burned, not really worth it. They use a formula, so their calories burned are just estimates. (if this is the reason, take the $100 bucks and buy a Polar FT4 HRM off Amazon for $60-70.)
    If you're already active, it probably isn't worth the investment. If you're already exercising, it won't give you much more information except how many steps you actually take.
  • ehk33
    ehk33 Posts: 33 Member
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    I was just wondering about getting a fitbit as well. So if I wanted it to count my total daily calories burned would a fitbit be the best choice? or the polar one?
  • MasonMelissa
    MasonMelissa Posts: 525 Member
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    :flowerforyou: Is it worth my money to purchase a fitbit? If not, what is better? There are so many other similar devices out there.


    I have the Fitbit one and the Aria scale and I love them both .Please don't look at my progress now cause it foes not reflect the fact that I did lose 37lbs in 2 years with by fitbit. The problem is I have gained all that back but that is because life got in the was. I could not live with out my fitbit one and will buy another when this one is dead.
  • Wenchilada
    Wenchilada Posts: 472 Member
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    I have a One and I like it. I used to have an Ultra but lost it, and decided it was time to upgrade anyway. The One has a much more secure clip than the Ultra, and I normally just keep it clipped in the center of my bra. I recently realized I could have probably done fine with just a Zip, because I hate the wristband for the One for sleep tracking (so I just don't track sleep anymore), and I don't get a whole lot of floors climbed, but I'm doing kickboxing/circuit training 6x a week now so I don't really feel like it's terribly necessary. Plus, while mine doesn't erroneously count steps as I'm driving, it does sometimes count floors if I drive uphill, and it's just kind of silly. Those two tracking methods are the main differences between the Zip and the One, as far as I know, and the Zip is about $30-40 cheaper. Also, the automatic Bluetooth communication between the device and my phone makes updating/tracking effortless.

    The main issues I've had with Fitbit and MFP communicating have had to do with weight reporting - it kept loading old weights for some reason, so I just deleted all of my data from when I had my Ultra and started over. There's also the fact that MFP and Fitbit sometimes have completely different ideas of how many calories are burned during particular exercises. I'm trying Fitbit's activity logging system this week instead of having MFP port its data to Fitbit, and so far I think I prefer it - but I still log my food on MFP and it gets sent over to Fitbit. It isn't a perfect system, but it's effective enough and doesn't garble up the data or anything. Fitbit's UI is pretty good overall, both on mobile and on the web, and you can also automate some things with IFTTT.com as far as logging/tracking and setting reminders are concerned.

    I don't have any experience with Jawbone or Polar, so I can't help ya there, but I would definitely recommend a Fitbit if you want something a little bit more elaborate than a simple pedometer. Keep an eye on Amazon - sometimes they have deep discounts that only last for a few hours. I got mine for about 20% below retail.
  • pineapple_jojo
    pineapple_jojo Posts: 440 Member
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    I love my flex! Keeps me really motivated. Can't recommend it highly enough!
  • vamaena
    vamaena Posts: 217 Member
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    I have a fitbit force and I love it! I use my silent alarm daily. It tracks my steps, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes, my sleeping patterns, and miles walked. I have daily goals set up and I do my best each day to reach them. I wear mine 24/7 except for when it charges (every second-third week) or whenever I shower/swim. It syncs with MFP which is also nice. Seeing it on my wrist is also a constant reminder to watch what I eat or to be more active throughout the day.
  • pythonsweb
    pythonsweb Posts: 49 Member
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    I have the fitbit flex and love it! It syncs with MFP and a few other sites, MFP also synces back with fitbit and you get a good idea of how you are doing, It adjusts your calories in MFP depending on your activity to give you a better idea of how many calories you are burning.
  • mgpearce4
    mgpearce4 Posts: 71
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    My fitbit is great motivation for me, but it doesn't like to sync well with MFP
  • chrissyrenee1029
    chrissyrenee1029 Posts: 358 Member
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    I have a Flex and love it. And I love that it syncs with MFP and gives me a better idea of the number of calories I need to ensure a deficit.
  • Froggymcconnell
    Froggymcconnell Posts: 92 Member
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    I love my fitbit flex and it helped me motivate myself at start and still does, I wear it all day every day. you can wear it swimming, shower, walking etc wouldn't be without it now and all the new colours are great.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    I was just wondering about getting a fitbit as well. So if I wanted it to count my total daily calories burned would a fitbit be the best choice? or the polar one?

    The Polar is a heart rate monitor and is only meant to be worn during steady cardio. It is not meant to track total daily calorie burn. FitBit, Jawbone Up, and the Bodymedia arm band are activity trackers that are worn all day.
  • 2xMommaYork
    2xMommaYork Posts: 19
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    I have a Polar Loop activity tracker and a Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor. The loop tracks my activities and sleep 24/7 and the heart rate monitor is worn (and synced with the loop) during workouts. Both are the best fitness purchase I could have ever made. They really help keep me motivated and the data they provide when you sync your activities with the Polar Flow app are invaluable for learning how to get/stay fit and track calories.

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