To anybody thinking buying an activity tracker

Fitbit One!! Amazing and wonderful. It has online tools which sinc with myfitnesspal. Awesome!

I bought a FitBit One and I am not loving it, it is OK, but it misses A LOT, I thought it was better than just a pedometer, but it is really not that great.

I am looking for alternatives.

I prefer my BodyMedia FIT. Not a fan of the Fitbits.

Is your BMF still working correctly? Mine went haywire when they changed the algorithms back in March and now it's useless. It gives me insane credit for every activity. Customer support says it's more accurate now and won't do anything about it. I don't think it's very likely that I, as a 40 year-old 132 pound woman with a desk job, burn 2700 calories on a rest day. :frown:

The same thing happened to me. I used to love my BMF Core, but it started overestimating by 500 cals a day--useless. Customer service insisted that the calories were correct and that this was an "improvement". I discontinued my account and went back to my old fitbit. I love the fitbit, but miss my BM core!

The LINK doesn't have this issue.

Do these things work with biking? Because they are on your wrist, right? And a wrist on a handle bar really doesn't move.

I have a jawbone and some recommend putting them in a pocket for more accurate reads for things like biking or pushing a cart (groceries/baby carriage)...

I wear mine on my dominant hand to get accurate reads and work around the arm swing requirement when doing other activities.

Other's have suggested putting it on your ankle (need to order a large size) or tying to your shoe (scary if it gets too wet)

I have found my jawbone with repeat calibrations (you time walks and it calibrates to you personally) gets better and better everyday.

The other option with the Jawbone is to log and an extra activity (they have about 12 extra ones) and it credits you steps...not sure if that is accurate as it gives me just under 500 for 30mins of heavy lifting.

I have the fitbit force, and I am so sad they discontinued it. Combined with the scale, it has kept me motivated. Unfortunately, my force is falling apart and they won't replace it, so I'm looking for a replacement. I want to upgrade to a legit smartwatch if I have to switch.

I agree that gadgets are pretty cool and can be very helpful. To anyone buying I would advise you do your research and think about WHAT INFORMATION you want your device to track for you. Too often I see posts about people unhappy with their $100+ device simply because they bought the wrong one for what they wanted.

It seemed like a neat gadget at the time to encourage me to walk more. After buying it, I realized I don't have the time nor the desire to walk more and the fitbit is all but useless for tracking the physical activities I do. The alarm clock feature was pretty nice though if you remember to put the bracelet on before going to bed.

I had the same experience - ten fold when i started working at a grocery store, and it would log my hours working as 'running' due to how frequently my arms moved during bagging. I know you can log specific time periods with activities, but quite frankly it was far too much of a hassle to be worth it. Fitbits are glorified pedometers, and i personally think people would be better off with a run-of-the-mill pedometer if they're looking for something to track their steps.

Activity trackers are not for everyone, but mine ended up being much more useful than I predicted.

I bought a Fitbit Flex about 7 months ago. If I'm honest, it wasn't about fitness, I just wanted a new gadget to play with. I decided on the Flex rather than the One because I know myself well enough to know that in the mornings I would forget to clip-on the One whereas the Flex is always on my wrist.

Like many people, I thought that it would probably end up just telling me how lazy I was, and for the first 3 months that's exactly what it did. I knew I was somewhat inactive, but I had no idea how inactive I really was until I could compare my steps to other people (whom I also thought were sedentary).

I got a new job and decided that rather than paying for parking, I would park a few KM away, and walk for 30 minutes to get there. The first few days I walked in and caught the bus back to my car. Then after about a week I started walking both ways. Not only did I feel good because my step count was now at an almost acceptable level, but also I enjoyed the mental time-out I got from walking before and after work. I wouldn't have made the decision to start walking had it not been for the motivation provided by Fitbit monitoring and reporting on my inactivity for the previous 3 months. I really didn't think it would motivate in the way that it has.

I now use the Flex in combination with the Aria (scales) and MFP food diary to lose weight and it is proving to be an reliable, easy, fun way to do it!

Hahaha I'm loving all the "my gadget's better than your gadget" posts!

I use the Fitbit One and a Polar FT4 HRM. I can say hand on heart that if one broke I would replace it on the very same day!

I must admit I'm curious about the possibilities of this Apple watch though...

It could be fun to compete with friends etc but I really don't need one to keep me motivated.

And being competitive... this is actually my main reason for even considering it. I've been using MapMyFitness, which is nice. But adding some friendly competition to the mix could only make it even more fun!

Love my Jawbone UP!

I am not at all interested in something I have to wear around my wrist, that is why I am considering a Polar Loop, looks like you can wear it on upper arm or other places. I got the FitBit one because I just stick it in my bra and forget about it, which to me is a real plus. Once in a while I wear it in my pocket (if I have to).

I want one so badly, but cannot afford the cost. Glad someone said to avoid Ebay, because that was where I was planning on getting mine, but now, I am not going to do that.

I bought a Life Trak from Amazon. Cheaper then a fit bit and actually does more. It's a watch, heart rate moniter, calories burned, steps taken, and it even monitors sleep patterns. It is a great motivator for a little less money. Battery good for one full year (no recharging) and is water proof.

FitBit One also monitors sleep patterns, but you either have to put it in/out of sleep mode, or manually put in the hours you slept so it knows and of course it has to be on you. As far as the HRM, if it doesn't have a chest strap, I don't put a lot of stock in it, can you get a chest strap with it? If the watch is not ugly I might consider it, I do wear a watch every day, but if I am going to go that route I could also just get a nicer Polar watch with chest strap. I keep going back to the Loop, going to have to do some research. The only thing that gives me pause is that post about better things coming out. I would hate to buy one and have something better come out the next month...I really have to do more research.

Love my Jawbone UP!

I am not at all interested in something I have to wear around my wrist, that is why I am considering a Polar Loop, looks like you can wear it on upper arm or other places. I got the FitBit one because I just stick it in my bra and forget about it, which to me is a real plus. Once in a while I wear it in my pocket (if I have to).

The Polar Loop is a bracelet.

Considering it costs as much as any tracker plus HRM and all it saves you is the moment of manually logging your HRM calories for an HRM workout (which also doesn't track resistance well), I'm not sure I'd find a whole lot of reason to spring for it, given the initial reviews. Though maybe they've improved. The trackers are often very glitchy when new to market.

I love the Shine and would have bought one by now but it's only IOS compatible, no web app, no other phones, and the synching method concerns me. If I have it clipped to my bra, do I want to have to press my phone up to it to synch to check my progress? It's bluetooth so I hope they make it synch from a greater distance (or have already).

I love the Shine and would have bought one by now but it's only IOS compatible, no web app, no other phones, and the synching method concerns me. If I have it clipped to my bra, do I want to have to press my phone up to it to synch to check my progress? It's bluetooth so I hope they make it synch from a greater distance (or have already).

I've been following their page on FB. Here's the latest link and they're Android compatible now. Not sure about a web app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.misfitwearables.prometheus&hl=en