Fitness Trackers. Are they worth the hype?

MellowGa wrote: »

I have a Vivosmart made by Garmin, What I have noticed, it will change my goal as I become more or less active. Also it seems to measure your gate, So I counted 20 paces and it reported accurately 20 steps. I do Weightlifting, it does not measure any of my weight training as in Bench press, but will measure the steps I am doing in between sets, etc. You can connect it to a heart monitor and use Garmin connect to map your running. I am quite happy with it and so is my wife.

I also have a vivo fit by Garmin. I love it! I don't use it to keep track of calories, although I could. I use it to count # of steps. Yes, it does measure things like teeth brushing -- although if that bothers you, just remove it for that. i like that it reminds me to get up and move. I enjoy the sleep feature -- when you sync it with the computer, you get a graph of your sleep pattern. I find it very accurate. I got it for chanukah this past december and haven't taken it off yet (except to shower)!

http://time.com/516/26-fitness-trackers-ranked-from-worst-to-first/

When I was shopping for my fitness tracker the link above really helped. I really liked Fitbit flex because it motivates me. I take the stairs more and make more trips through the office. It's synced with MFP and each week I get an email from Fitbit that shows my weekly steps, distance, calories in, calories out and sleep patterns in a dashboard. I know these aren't all accurate but it's great to see the weekly totals. Also if you friends have one too you can challenge them to contests like most steps and such.

Sense Me is a great app for smart phones, though it is supposed to be worn on the arm while in use. It can track cardio and also some strength training moves like squats and push ups. It tracks sleep and commute time as well. I didn't explore it very much and navigating it is a little hard at first but I think it's good to get an idea of what you do.

evileen99 wrote: »

TR0berts wrote: »

There is no possible way for a fitness tracker to accurately calculate how much work you've done (which is equivalent to how much energy you've expended) over the course of a day (or any time period). As such, I find them to be not worth the expense.

I have a BodyMedia Fit (which, sadly, is no longer made since the company was bought by Jawbone) and it looks at sweat production, heat production, and heat flux along with an accelerometer. It was shown in clinical studies to be within 5% of body box measurements, which is the gold standard for metabolic studies.

This for me too... I love my BodyMedia FIT and I hope the UP3 will be just as accurate.

I did use the apps on my phone for awhile, before investing in a fitness tracker. The apps work well, however, sometimes they would freeze up, or I would lose connection on my phone....

beemerphile1 wrote: »

I personally don't have or want one and millions of people for centuries have done fine without them.

Millions of people have also done fine for centuries without phones, cars, fridges, electricity, central heating, running water, or pretty much anything we would consider a standard amenity of modern life. But I doubt any of us would want to live without any of those things. Not saying that a fitness tracker is the same as running water or whatever, just saying the 'people did fine without them before' argument doesn't really mean anything.

To answer the actual question, I love my Fitbit One. Walking is the only exercise I get so I don't need to worry about it not picking up certain exercises. I don't carry my phone around everywhere so an app wouldn't work as well for me. It syncs automatically with MFP to add on the calories that I've burnt, so if I've been active one day I get calories back, and if I've just sat around another day I don't. This means I don't have to bother with logging all my walking for the day, trying to remember how far I walked for how long or for how fast, and it means I don't have to worry about overeating if I were to give myself a higher activity level then then do nothing one day (I'm currently set to sedentary). Weekdays I usually walk around 15,000 - 20,000 steps, weekends I can walk less than 1,000. My Fitbit means my calories are all done automatically. And even if it isn't completely accurate, it's going to be more accurate than MFP's generic '4.0 mph for 60 minutes'.

elizabeth413watt wrote: »

http://time.com/516/26-fitness-trackers-ranked-from-worst-to-first/

When I was shopping for my fitness tracker the link above really helped. I really liked Fitbit flex because it motivates me. I take the stairs more and make more trips through the office. It's synced with MFP and each week I get an email from Fitbit that shows my weekly steps, distance, calories in, calories out and sleep patterns in a dashboard. I know these aren't all accurate but it's great to see the weekly totals. Also if you friends have one too you can challenge them to contests like most steps and such.

I have a flex also. Like Elizabeth stated, I really like the nofitications from Fitbit that tells me when I am close to my goal and cheering me when I meet my goal. It also lets me know how my Fitbit friends are doing when we are on challenges together (person A is closing in on your steps; or you have pulled in the lead). The sleep function is informative to me, since I knew I slept oddly and not too soundly; it also lets me know I sleep according to how my husband sleeps (when he is restless, I sleep restless also). Since he knows I have this monitor on, when he is restless, he gets up and sleeps in the other room. Then my monitor shows I slept soundly for longer periods of time.

I have had my Fitbit Zip for about two years now. It doesn't track sleep or stairs, but I find it to be really accurate when I compare it to the distance on a cardio machine or using an app like RunKeeper. I just clip it to my pants and go about my day. The motivation part of it plays a huge role for me. When I have my days where I'm just not feeling I check the app to see where I am on steps and it keeps me going, especially if I'm participating in a challenge.

I also like the negative calorie feature that it has here on MFP. I feel that for me it keeps the exercise calories added more realistic than what a cardio or the MFP database tells me I burned.

I had the Fitbit Charge HR for all of 24 hours before I returned it. I didn't like wearing it all the time, and I didn't find it as accurate as I had hoped, both with steps and with stairs climbed. It told me I slept well that night, but I knew that anyway. I found my Polar FT4 heartrate monitor with the chest strap to be more accurate and I really just want to know what I'm burning during scheduled exercise, so I'm back to using that. If it had been more comfortable and the band itself been more attractive, I might have given it more time, but for the money spent, I didn't think it was worth it.

9Rounder wrote: »

Worst case, you buy it, try it for a few days, and return it if you didn't like it. That's what I did.

I don't think 24 hours is enough...might be for the fitbit (I don't like them at all) but to see trends in sleep etc you need to use one a bit longer....for example I woke up tired a few days back...even tho I got a good amount of sleep and didn't wake at all...so I checked my jawbone...bam 1.5 hours of deep sleep and 7 hours of light sleep...explains my tiredness.