Vivo vs Fitbit

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allycat5723
allycat5723 Posts: 189 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone. I currently use the Fitbit One, but I am looking to upgrade. I want a device that measures heart rate as well. I'm stuck between the Vivo Smart and Fitbit Charge HR. Do you use or recommend either? Why? Water resistance is important as well because I am a cook and wash my hands a lot. I'm by lookin for a strictly HRM- I have the polar ft4 but the chest strap irritates my skin. Thank you!

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  • allycat5723
    allycat5723 Posts: 189 Member
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    That should say "I'm not looking for a hrm"
  • dougpconnell219
    dougpconnell219 Posts: 566 Member
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    allycat5723 wrote: »
    Hi everyone. I currently use the Fitbit One, but I am looking to upgrade. I want a device that measures heart rate as well. I'm stuck between the Vivo Smart and Fitbit Charge HR. Do you use or recommend either? Why? Water resistance is important as well because I am a cook and wash my hands a lot. I'm by lookin for a strictly HRM- I have the polar ft4 but the chest strap irritates my skin. Thank you!

    I have the charge hr. It's good. I am also a cook, and also wash my hands a million times a day. No problem. (of course, here, the health code prohibits wearing anything on the arms. I ignore that and plan on just slipping it in my pocket if the health inspector shows up lol).

    The fitbit app is also great. I hear the garmin one sucks, but I've never used it so I dont know.
  • Bageeeta
    Bageeeta Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I'm no help because I just got my Charge HR today. I am looking forward to hearing what others have to say though!
  • Khukhullatus
    Khukhullatus Posts: 361 Member
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    allycat5723 wrote: »
    Hi everyone. I currently use the Fitbit One, but I am looking to upgrade. I want a device that measures heart rate as well. I'm stuck between the Vivo Smart and Fitbit Charge HR. Do you use or recommend either? Why? Water resistance is important as well because I am a cook and wash my hands a lot. I'm by lookin for a strictly HRM- I have the polar ft4 but the chest strap irritates my skin. Thank you!

    I use a Garmin Forerunner 15. I know it wasn't one of the ones you listed, but if you run, you should really consider it. It has the GPS tracking for things like pacing and whatnot as you run, but also has all the vivo features. There is the same step tracking for the Garmin Connect site. The same heart rate monitor attaches if you want to use it. My favorite thing is that it just looks like a watch. I'm not a big fan of how conspicuous a lot of the trackers look. It's not exactly a majorly sexy watch, but it doesn't shout TRACKER!!!
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
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    I used the Fitbit Force last year. Considered the Charge HR but didn't like what I was hearing reviewers say about its accuracy as a heart rate monitor (for heart rate monitor purposes eg heart rate training HIIT sessions -- I don't care for calorie burn purposes: they're all nonsense for that, I think). I was also getting kind of annoyed with Fitbit because it felt like last fall they had started forcing some firmware changes on Force users that were making the device less accurate and reliable -- at least for me.

    So I got the VivoSmart about a month ago. I like it. I really like that I can swim with it. But be aware that it's much more of a sport-oriented device than most of Fitbit's devices just because that's how Garmin thinks; their whole ecosystem is kinda based on that. It won't really tell you your minute-to-minute calorie burn, for example, and the sleep data is just silly; if you just want to track steps it's both overkill and somehow not really great at it. It is great though for actual real workouts.

    You do have to buy a compatible chest strap HRM separately (or as part of a special bundled package); the HRM function does not just come with the VivoSmart automatically. If you don't like your Polar due to comfort issues, I strongly recommend that you NOT get the bundled HRM with the VivoSmart and instead buy a comfort strap separately, which costs a little more.

    Also, the Garmin website that you use to see your data is kinda ... crap. I don't bother to keep it linked to MFP (I don't want to track exercise calories separately as I use a TDEE method rather than eating specific workouts back), but I hear nothing but complaints from people who try to do that. You have to use your phone (mostly) for device-to-web syncs, and the phone app on Android is exceptionally poor with highly unreliable syncing (it does sync for me: but I have to reboot the phone every time I want to sync; it rarely does it on its own or on command from the device). That works for me; it's not the most annoying thing in the world for me, but I can see many people getting really ticked off by it.
  • HelenWater
    HelenWater Posts: 232 Member
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    I have the charge hr. It's good. I am also a cook, and also wash my hands a million times a day. No problem. (of course, here, the health code prohibits wearing anything on the arms. I ignore that and plan on just slipping it in my pocket if the health inspector shows up lol). [/quote]

    Typhoid Mary didn't follow the rules either...

  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    allycat5723 wrote: »
    ....the chest strap irritates my skin.

    The Vivofit HRM uses a chest strap

  • blackcoffeeandcherrypie
    blackcoffeeandcherrypie Posts: 486 Member
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    I just got a charge HR and I love it. Very impressed, and none of the problems I'd read about.
  • makelemonade14
    makelemonade14 Posts: 46 Member
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    I'm returning my charge hr today. The HRM during workout isn't accurate enough for me. Once it realizes I'm exercising it takes a couple minutes to catch my rising rate. As long as I don't change intensity on the elliptical machine it stays fairly accurate, but if I do change there's a bit of delay.

    The all day hrm feature is a fun novelty. It doesn't actually give me any useful information though.

    I'm going back to my flex for overall activity and sleep tracking and will pick up a polar hrm with chest strap for an accurate workout hrm.
  • glassgallm
    glassgallm Posts: 276 Member
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    Love my fitbit charge hr. I got tired of wearing the Garmin chest strap with my watch. This does it all and you can track a gps run with the phone app. That being said, when synced with MFP, the 2 sites do not calculate your calories the same way. Fitbit figures out calorie burn on a 24 hour basis, so it adjusts your MFP calories accordingly, calories allowed may fluctuate during the day depending on how active you have been. It is a bit of a learning curve if you've never used a fitbit device before. But I love mine.....
  • allycat5723
    allycat5723 Posts: 189 Member
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    Thank you everyone. I all ready loved the Fitbit, and the app works perfectly for me. I'm not looking for exact calories, so I think the Charge HR is going to be the right fit for me. I appreciate you all taking the time to get back to me!

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