Do you use a fitness tracker?

melissaka7 wrote: »

Like fitbit, jawbone, polar hrm, garmin, etc? What do you like about it? What all does it do?

I've researched these damn things to death and cannot decide if I need one. I work a sedentary job, but I do fitness vidoes like Insanity, T25, PiYo, and Insanity Max:30. I also weight train 2 days a week. My wants are something that tells me how many calories I've burned either through the whole day or just during my work outs. I'd also like to know how many steps I've taken. I just don't know if I really need something or not.

You might find these articles from the NY times helpful in making your decision


What Your Activity Tracker Sees and Doesn’t See
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/2014/03/accelerometers.html


The Well Guide to Activity Trackers
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/activity-trackers

melissaka7 wrote: »

@meanderingmammal Instead of telling people what doesn't work for the types of activites we're mentioning you could say what does. And I'm pretty sure heart rate monitors that we're describing are exactly what you use for things like Insanity, etc.

Nothing does. Best bet is to make an assessment of time and effort then use an online calculator.

Lots of people assume that a number from a gadget means accuracy, but if one isn't using said gadget as it's designed to be used then the number isn;t meaningful.

For stuff like Insanity you'll get a significant over estimation. Same with HIIT and resistance training.

I use and highly recommend the Polar FT7 watch. I have also had the F4. if you are weight training its the only real way to calculate calories burned during a lifting session. It keeps me on track as i super set to make sure my HR stays high.

Jennifer_Lynn_1982 wrote: »

Will it be better than MFP's estimates though? I think that's all I'm looking for...well that and my heart rate throughout the workout.

There's no way to meaningfully tell, they both depend on a range of assumptions.

With anything that takes the heart rate into the anaerobic range then the forecasting breaks down.

With something like HIIT then it depends on what you're actually doing, the types of intervals, how much warm up you've done etc.

I'd even say that knowing your HR at any point in the session doesn't mean much. On the other hand if you have a trace of HR and how that relates to other things then you can do something with the data. For example I can compare HR with a GPS trace of my run, so can see elevation, looking at the map I can understand the surface I was on at the time and what that meant in terms of my performance. Equally on the bike I can compare with elevation changes, cadence etc.

Zone trainig isn't much value unless you've got a good understanding of your maximum heart rate, and that doesn't mean 220-age. It means going into a lab and paying a good amount of money for an assessment of MHR and lactate threshold. Then you can build zone training into your plan, although for the vast majority of people RPE is good enough. If I was able to do a 42 minute 10Km race then I'd think about spending the money to get that down to 37 or 38 inutes.

I was using the Fitbit Charge for a week or so but stopped as it wasn't that accurate from what I found in my testing of it. Since I don't need to track all day, I find that my Polar FT 4 is better for my needs since I mostly do HIIT style workouts and weightlifting anyway.

@melissaka7‌ even when i do cardio i wear it. it will keep track of your HR the entire work out, not just when you want to check it. i wear it during lifting and even warm up. i like to look down at the end and see what i burned. for me its the best and i've tried a ton from the mio to the garmin to the fit bit i've tested quite a few. always go back to the ft7

You don't need extreme accuracy to lose weight and monitor your progress. You need a general idea and the motivation to keep going.

Eileen_S wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

Eileen_S wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

Jennifer_Lynn_1982 wrote: »

I mostly do at home workouts (Insanity, etc.) and/or circuit training at the gym so my main focus is to track heart rate and a better estimate of calories burned.

You're not going to get a meaningful estimate of calories expended using an HRM for the kind of training that you describe.

I have found that using my HRM during my Insanity workouts is meaningful in terms of estimating the amount of calories that I burn doing them, ymmv.

I happen to have a degree in control engineering and 25 years of experience, so I understand how to use instrumentation in the way it's designed. You'll be getting a level of overestimation, but you can't even put a figure on what that overestimation would be.

fwiw I've just done an hour of sprint training on my turbo, and running the heart rate trace through different calculators gives me a range of somewhere between 600 and 900 calories, for the same input data. It's more likely to be towards the bottom end, as towards the end of the session I was seeing heart rate drift, which is a function of hydration reducing during the session, It's very clear in comparing the heart rate trace to my cadence and estimated power output that there is no way I was generating the same power in the final interval. Taking the simple heart rate trace something like an FT4 would just assume an increased calorie consumption, but in practive it probably reduced slightly as I was slowing down.

If I'd done the same distance but at a steady pace, rather than as intervals, then the range of possible calorie expenditures would have been much narrower, because my heart rate would have been generally smoother, although would still have drifted upwards over time.

Just because you've got a gadget giving you a number, doesn't mean that it's an accurate number in comparison to anything else.

Don't believe the marketing hype. They're designed around steady state work in the aerobic range.

I don't recall my post above sating that it was 100% accurate. What I said is that I use it to "estimate" the amount of calories burned during my cardio workouts. To be honest, I really use it to as a guide to make sure my HR is where I want it when I exercise. Some people use it to see how many calories to eat back, but I don't as it isn't necessary for me to keep track of how many calories I have coming in or out. Hey, I get from reading your posts on here that you don't care for HR monitors and that is fine. But I like them and will continue to use them as long as they work for me.

I agree with your points that its valid for a small subset of activities. But it doesn't mean that it is not useful. I lost a lot of weight using an HR monitor. Here's how

I used the elliptical machines mostly with the heart rate training setting. I started zone 1 and as it got easier, I continued to increase the programmed HR level. What that did was make the resistance a little tougher and allowed me to burn more calories. When I entered the calories into MFP, and measured my weight loss versus the standard 3500 calorie a week to burn fat, it was fairly close. Was it extremely accurate? I don't know. However, I got the results I needed. I tested it with rowing, kickboxing, and biking. Was it accurate? I don't know, but I got the results I expected based on the numbers.

Does it work for weightlifting? Don't know, I never used it for that. However, you can't just deny that it is useful for something other than motivation. Instrument reliability also comes in to play. Yes it may not be accurate 100%, but this is not mission critical. Failure isn't going to cause death. If it gives reliable data every time, then I can adjust to that.

melissaka7 wrote: »

Like fitbit, jawbone, polar hrm, garmin, etc? What do you like about it? What all does it do?

I've researched these damn things to death and cannot decide if I need one. I work a sedentary job, but I do fitness vidoes like Insanity, T25, PiYo, and Insanity Max:30. I also weight train 2 days a week. My wants are something that tells me how many calories I've burned either through the whole day or just during my work outs. I'd also like to know how many steps I've taken. I just don't know if I really need something or not.

I've used Polar. It worked great. The only thing I did not like was that the model I had did not have GPS...which wasn't too big of a deal because I would track that with Map My Run.

I've since started using a Garmin product with GPS and I love it. The only problem so far is that I'm having problems syncing MFP with the Garmin software (Garmin Connect). It worked in the beginning but then stopped.

i think it all boils down to what helps motivate you, some need a tool for motivation for those hard times and others are self motivators.

I use the Gear Fit. I've had it for about a week now and I love it. It has a HRM, Pedometer, Sleep monitor, exercise tracker( you can set it to running, cycling or walking) and I can see any texts I received and send a quick response from it. I can also control my music on my phone from it.

I love it and it has given me a huge motivational boost by allowing me to track my BPM after moving around heavy boxes at work or taking the stairs. It sends all the information to my phone, directly on the app and it has charts galore on comparing my heart rate through out times of the day. I'm still playing with it and learning how to use it to its full potential though.

Even if the calorie burn is off, just be smart about it. Just cause I ran 4 miles and it says I burned 500 calories doenst mean I am going to eat another 500 calories. I just use it for motivation and numbers. I usually dont eat back any calories. I stay within my range no matter my exericse for the day. Its purely motivational for me. Plus I like gadgets not spreadsheets online. Hahaha

I have a Fitbit One and I am actually on my second Fitbit. I got my first one 2 1/2-3 years ago and had it until the case broke. I love that they updated the case and it isn't connected now. I also work in a professional environment and it I didn't want something on my wrist. I want my tracker to be hidden but I wear my Fitbit everyday.

Trackers are as useful as you want them to be. I thought it would be the THING, the KEY, the END ALL for weight loss and it isn't. It is a simple tool that helps me know how active I've been. It isn't accurate enough for me to track distance because sometimes my steps are little and sometimes they aren't. I also don't feel like is accurate at tracking calories burned.

Comparing to friends, it seems like the Fitbit One is more accurate with steps. I have tried to see if other movement adds steps and it doesn't for the most part. For me, only very strange movements will add unwanted steps. That was a fun experiment ...

I wore it at night to track sleep until I decided that it really just told me that I feel better when I get 7+ hours of sleep. I still wear it when I want a vibrating alarm in the morning so I don't wake the hubby.

It has been incredibly eye opening to see how little I walk with a desk job sometimes, but sometimes I'm just tired at the end of the day and I have 4 kids to catch up with and chase to soccer, cheer leading, and cross country that sometimes my steps are what they are. Sometimes it motivates me to move more, but mostly it helps me know how my day was. If I am going to run I do it because I want to regardless of numbers.

A tracker is simply a tool that helps awareness. I do feel like it is a fancy pedometer but I like that it is very accurate. I also have a Garmin running watch for outside and a chest heart rate monitor that works with my treadmill. Tools are simply tools.