How effective is an Activity Tracker with HIIT?

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qmlucinda
qmlucinda Posts: 2 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I just bought a Fitbit Zip Wireless Activity Tracker, which should arrive today. I do a lot of full body workouts and some HIIT, so tracking calories burned has been a guessing game. I'm hoping it will put an end to guessing how many calories are burned during a workout, and with the after-burn. I'm also wondering how to sync the tracker with Fitness Pal. Hopefully it will come with clear instructions.

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  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
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    A fitbit is a pedometer, so no it does not work well for workouts that are not step based.

    Your best bet for workouts is to get a heart rate monitor. Tge cheapest version is, e.g. a Polar H7 and then download the free app Polar Beat. Unfortunately, this only works on ios devices, such as iPad, iPhone...

    There are other activity trackers out there that can be combined with heart rate monitors.

    Heart rate monitor straps work best and most accurately if they are combined with a device that can measure your very own VO2max, resting heart rate...to create your very own individual profile.

    I have the Polar RCX5 multi sports watch and combined with the heart rate monitor strap it gives me a very accurate idea of my calorie expenditure when doing sports. This is though a very expensive device, but for me worth every penny.

    Some people will accurately say that heart rate monitors work best for steady rate cardio work, but I use mine for all of my workouts, even weight lifting and it is spot on. Why do I know this? Trial and error. I log my food as accurately as possible and for some time ate ALL of my exercise calories back with no change in weight. So for me this works best.

    Stef.
    .
  • WTramontana
    WTramontana Posts: 10 Member
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    I highly recommend using a Polar H7 HRM (with bluetooth), $53 at Bestbuy as of a couple of months ago ... I use mine with an app that's available on both Android and iOS devices called iCardio. The app is 'free' however you'll need to shell out $2-3 to 'enable sensors' which will let the heart rate monitor sensor connect.

    The great thing that I found about iCardio (by Digifit), is that it uploads my workouts to the Digifit website- and just like My Fitness Pal, Digifit/iCardio will send your calories burned to Fitbit's website (and even update your Fitbit device on it's next sync).

    I bought the Fitbit Flex, and I love it because it monitors where I'm at with my calories at any given time. I use MFP to input all of my calories IN, and then iCardio sends over all of my calories BURNED during high activity periods (i.e. the gym, a hike, etc.)

    When the calories get sent to Fitbit's online dashboard- they OVERRIDE what the Fitbit device's ESTIMATION was. This can be confirmed by viewing the activity page and comparing steps to calories. You'll see that the steps will be very accurate with hills and valleys of your step activity, but the calorie display will be all equal during the times that the Digifit/iCardio entry covers.

    Good luck on your fitness endeavors!

    --
    W. Tramontana | NREMT

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