Help choosing Devices to count steps and cals (

My employer raves about his Fitbit Force and refuses to return it after the recall.

I didn't want to spend that much money. I just wanted an accurate pedometer. I ordered an Omron HJ-720iTC USB pocket pedometer for $35, which should be arriving today. We'll see how that works. Omron has a website and app, I think, that you upload the pedometer data into. I don't think it syncs with MFP yet.

I had the fitbit flex for about a year. I felt that it was missing a lot of steps if I was using that arm for pushing grocery carts, carrying things etc. anything where my arm doesn't swing. That and after only a year the battery life was way down. I replaced it with the simple Zip. $47 on Amazon, free shipping. And it has a battery, you don't have to charge it which is a plus to me.

Also you don't have to put it in a pocket. I wear it clipped to my undies

i have a fitbit flex and love it... i wear it 24/7 and it is not a bother.. i actually forget it's there..

I use the Polar FT4. It is the most accurate. It doesn't sync to myfitnesspal, but it is a heart monitor. You wear a band around your chest and then wear a watch. It tracks your calories only. My nutritionist said this was the best thing to purchase. The fitbit is not as accurate. Love my watch!!!

Absolutely no context to your claims.

Is it most accurate because it's different than other estimates of calories burned?
If so, different is accurate then? But then aren't all the other estimates different than your HRM, why aren't they accurate?

Besides which, the cheaper Polar's are going to be very off - don't even have required stats for making good calculations of calories burned.

And for this topic, daily activity trackers, totally incorrect tool for perhaps the 4% of weekly time, and perhaps max 20% of daily calories when you workout amount of tracking it is used for.

Might test your own, and be surprised. Because your's isn't even as nice as the one in the study, nor do you have lab tested stats to use even if you could.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/459580-polar-hrm-calorie-burn-estimate-accuracy-study

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/773451-is-my-hrm-giving-me-incorrect-calorie-burn

Love my fitbit flex, one down side is it counts steps when i ride my motorbike.

i have a fitbit one, and i have pretty mixed feelings. mine is dead on for steps, but if you have it in your hand and move your hand around, it counts that as steps, too. calorie burn is for all the time, not just workouts, so if you want to know what you're burning on a walk, you're better off just using mapmywalk or mapmyfitness on your phone or - even better - a HRM. fitbit calorie burn is pretty iffy, as it's based on BMI, which - at least in my case - is a full 25% off on body fat - two weeks ago i was 40% body fat, but my BMI was 30.5%.

my fitbit dash definitely picks up my MFP info fast - i just added a cup of water and it was up on the fitbit website immediately. so that's very cool. i like the way the fitbook looks and feels, it's small and unobtrusive, and since i wear it on my waist, i got it a pedometer leash so i won't lose it. it counts a variety of foot moving stuff i do as steps, stuff that some pedometers missed, and since they can be part of my workout, i was pretty happy about that.

wearing it on floppy clothes like collars or loose pockets or loose short legs leads to false steps and inaccurate count.

it counts an hour of driving as literally thousands of steps. i got drivebit, as it's much easier to use than logging drivetime via fitbit, but the problem i have is that when you're doing a bunch of errands, and have to get in and out of the car frequently, it's very easy to forget either to turn drivebit off or back on. my son took me to 4 stores and a restaurant, and i didn't get any of my steps in ralph's counted.

so like i said, mixed feelings. later on i may get a polar H7 and use it with mapmyfitness or a polar FT60 and just use that. we were broke this month, so i'm using an FT1 right now, which i don't recommend although it does the job to some degree and inexpensively.

I have the fitbit and it works great.

i have a fitbit one, and i have pretty mixed feelings. mine is dead on for steps, but if you have it in your hand and move your hand around, it counts that as steps, too. calorie burn is for all the time, not just workouts, so if you want to know what you're burning on a walk, you're better off just using mapmywalk or mapmyfitness on your phone or - even better - a HRM. fitbit calorie burn is pretty iffy, as it's based on BMI, which - at least in my case - is a full 25% off on body fat - two weeks ago i was 40% body fat, but my BMI was 30.5%.

Just a clarification on this.

Non-moving time, sleep or awake or standing non-moving (latter 2 obviously burn more than sleeping) - is based on your BMR based on gender, age, weight, height. So that time is generally under-estimated calorie burn.
It's very close to MFP's Mifflin BMR if you do the math.
Your Activities tab, 5 min blocks of the low calorie burn - divide by 5 x 1440 is their BMR being used.

If your Katch BMR based on BF% is well off Mifflin BMR, and it may be - you can adjust the height on Fitbit so that it is using same BMR amount as Katch BMR. You'll have to use manually entered stride length though, which is a good idea anyway.
If interested, just ask how.

Moving time is based on very accurate formulas for walking and jogging - mass and pace.
So pace is from time (easy) and distance covered - which is based on stride length assumed and what your impact is compared to expected results.

So while the formula is very accurate (in studies 4% of lab measured) - getting to best stats could be a problem.
Stride could be way off - you could be a huge toe walker really impacting on frequent steps, making it look like jogging slow which is bigger burn. or a smooth low strider. Extremes can fool it.
Or could be walking/running hills which would throw it off too.

Or any of the number of non-step based exercises that the formula just isn't correct for even if it could see all the "steps" that aren't really steps - elliptical, bike, rowing, lifting, ect. All must be manually entered.

But if you got a past route on one of those sites, you can compare the results here. Gross is what HRM, Fitbit, anything would be reporting.
For % grade, the maymy..... sites give elevation gain, as long as you came back down you want to double that (as it takes more energy than flat coming down). So 2 x gain / miles walked / 5280 x 100 = grade.
In case you did enough incline and it matters.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

What is a good way to measure stride?

This post is a little above my head lol. I'm new to all this and don't understand it all.
I'm looking for something to wear all the time to get an idea of what I'm burning so I can make sure I don't eat too much. I would like sleep included and stairs are part of my work day so id like to count those.

I do a lot d hand movements with work (data entry/ typing and xray tech/ moving machines/ helping patients etc) so was thinking a wrist based one may not be good for me? Plus I'm a hand talker.

The wrist one is out I'd suggest. Going to get a lot of false steps there in work. You'll want hip one.

That post was purely addressing the comment about Fitbit being off and what it bases calorie burn on. May be useful to keep in back of mind.
Just reread the post regarding the types of workouts you'll need to manually log.
Which if classes and walking/jogging - you have none. Yet.

Stride measurement easiest on treadmill.

Walk at 3.5 mph, or if that is too fast right now, whatever speed is normal walking speed, not exercise pushing it speed. May need to do this later as normal speed increases moving less weight around.

When treadmill rolls miles from 0.49 to 0.5 - start counting each right foot landing.
When it rolls over to 0.6 - stop counting.
Double that figure for number of steps.

528 / steps = stride length in feet.

Do the same jogging whatever speed is realistic right now. Obviously that could change, and should be correct on Fitbit on timely basis. Should be normal jog, not sprinting, not going super slow.

If you only have a High School track (gotta be accurately measured), then you'll have to do a count for 1 lap, and know what that distance is. I think most track are metric now, right, 400 m (close to 1/4 mile). But you might have to be in correct lane. I've not looked that up yet.

I like the Jawbone UP. It not only tracks steps, but you can add in other workouts on it. It syncs with MFP also. You wear it on your wrist. It lasts for 10 days before you have to recharge, I never take it off. It works off my android and they have UPs that work with iPhones too.

i have a fitbit one, and i have pretty mixed feelings. mine is dead on for steps, but if you have it in your hand and move your hand around, it counts that as steps, too. calorie burn is for all the time, not just workouts, so if you want to know what you're burning on a walk, you're better off just using mapmywalk or mapmyfitness on your phone or - even better - a HRM.

Any FitBit, as with other activity trackers, are not designed to be waved around in your hand, and I don't see where a person would need to do so, so that is not a real negative against them. I personally prefer the One out of all the FitBit units, small, unobtrusive and it has a great display that I can check my current stats whenever I choose to.
With the One it is very easy to identify all data for a walk or run, simply use the device's excellent timer for your activity, Your steps, calorie burn, distance will all be noted in the activity, and while you are on your walk, looking at the display would only bring up the current stats of the activity, so if you were walking to a specific target or goal, this would be easy to identify.

There are not many wrist type units with this functionality and display, (especially here in South Africa), the Polar Loop and the Garmin Vivofit being two that immediately come to mind. But wearing a strap is just not an option for me and my lifestyle.

An HRM might give a slightly better calorie estimation based on elevated heart rates, but one must realize that it is still an estimation, and I personally believe the lower end units are less accurate than the higher end stuff.

The other thing to consider is that these Activity trackers that can couple up to a transmitter will only incorporate heart rate readings with the strap on, meaning if you wanted to monitor your heart rate over a day, you would need the transmitter on. This has a few negatives, being worn for extended periods would impact battery life, but more importantly, you would find periods where the readings would become erratic as lack of lubrication between your skin and the strap would affect its function. For 90% of an average day the calorie burn estimation between a FitBit and a HRM would be extremely close in any case if the devices are configured accurately, variations will always occur in any case..
I often train with numerous devices simultaneously just for comparative purposes, a few different Polar watches, and a couple of mobile apps, and none are ever the same!

So for general all round day to day activity tracking and estimation, I personally would still suggest the new age pedometers like the FitBit. Just get the right model for your needs. These coupled with a HRM for dedicated workout monitoring form a formidable combination!

Lastly, being that they are all giving us an estimation, especially regarding calorie burn, we must remember this, make sure sll physical stats are 100% correct, especially weight, keep updating as you lose weight. And use them to monitor trend, if your existing set up would somehow have your calorie estimation so far out that you are not losing weight over a period of time, do not be afraid to re-adjust your targets, so that it all works in harmony for your needs.

I have the fitbit zip I love it I have had mine since I think February this year

I tried one a while back that went around my upper arm - day and night. Wanted me to sleep in it. It wasn't comfortable and felt like bulky and I didn't like it. I can't remember the name of it but I think it was grey. It could have been fitbit but really can't remember.

That was probably a BodyMedia FIT... which is the most accurate one on the market. I love mine and I don't care about the armband. *shrug*

^^ This. I LOVE mine!! I charge it every three or so days while I'm in the shower, or if I'm just laying on the couch. I make sure I wear it to bed though, since it tracks my sleep - which I find very informative. The armband doesn't bother me at all, even while I'm sleeping. It's pretty accurate on how much weight you'll be losing each week.

I bought the bluetooth enabled version, as I like to upload wirelessly to the app on my phone.

Me too!! I love it!! So much better than the others out there.