FITBIT OR NOT

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.....

I am a huge fan of the fitbit.

I also love my fitbit zip. Got it on ebay for $30. Syncs with mfp. I only want the pedometer function.

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!

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?

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.

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.

My fitbit is great motivation for me, but it doesn't like to sync well with MFP

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.

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.