Fitness bands.... Worth investing in one?

I love mine

I prefer a heart rate monitor. I also have a tri axis style pedometer that I can carry in my pocket which I use for tracking steps. It doesn't buzz, beep or have any flashing lights. But, it motivates me when I look at it and see I've only walked 3000 steps. It also only cost $12.

I love my vivofit. I'm about to try it in the pool for the first time. I got it a month ago and really does motivate me to be on track and also has enabled me to understand what 3 or 5 kms like in a day. It observes my sleep patterns also - I thought I slept well! And although it says you have to press the sleep button for it to do that, you don't have to. You can go into manually set your sleep time if you need to because it automatically records when it thinks you are sleeping.

If you are looking to monitor activity while you lose weight, you might find the trackers limiting in general because most of them do not track all activities. And I have a Forerunner with a heart monitor for my workouts.

yusaku02 wrote: »

herrspoons wrote: »

Honestly? No. They aren't.

I'm also in this boat.

Me three. I got a Jawbone Up 24 for Christmas and it just complicates things and is generally annoying. I tried to sell it on Craigslist but nobody was interested.

When I was losing weight I used the MFP app to log food and I used a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor during workouts to estimate calories burned and plugged that into MFP.

They are mere tools. They will not magically make you lose weight. Some people can use them successfully to aid in weight loss. Others find them worthless. You won't really know until you try.

aaliceinw wrote: »

I I thought I slept well! And although it says you have to press the sleep button for it to do that, you don't have to. You can go into manually set your sleep time if you need to because it automatically records when it thinks you are sleeping.
.

What sort of data does it give you on sleeping that allows for you to make improvements?

bw_conway wrote: »

aaliceinw wrote: »

I I thought I slept well! And although it says you have to press the sleep button for it to do that, you don't have to. You can go into manually set your sleep time if you need to because it automatically records when it thinks you are sleeping.
.

What sort of data does it give you on sleeping that allows for you to make improvements?

The sleep function is useless in my opinion.

It just tells me that I slept six hours, woke x number of times, and was restless y times.

Now I usually take it off at night.

For me I love my Fitbit hr it helps me move a little faster knowing where my HR needs to be to burn fat calories. Very good for working out keeps me in the zone.

I have a Fitbit Charge(not the HR). I didn't buy it, had a family member send it to me. After two weeks, I don't see the point in it. Still at the gym every day.

My wife has a Garmin watch thing with a GPS/HR/who knows what else. It seems much more useful than a band that tells me I went 1.5 miles and 3k steps during the time I was chopping/stirring dinner.

And don't give a Fitbit to a teenage boy. It will say they are running a marathon a day with all the time the spend alone in the bathroom. lol

My coworker loaned me his Fitbit Flex, and I wound up finding one on eBay for $50 brand new, so I bought it. Do I like it? Yeah. Would I have paid full price for it? Absolutely not.

I have a Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor that I wear during my workouts, and I absolutely love it. It's the most accurate reading I've gotten yet, and the chest strap is comfortable enough. I would NOT suggest getting a fitness band with HR monitoring capabilities, because the technology just isn't here yet to provide truly accurate results. (A dozen or so reviews I read on Amazon compared the Polar FT# burns to what the Fitbit Charge HR said, and there was HUGE discrepancies)

As far as the Flex though, I work a desk job, 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. Then I have an hour commute there, and an hour commute home. Needless to say I have 4 very, very sedentary days. On my days off, outside of going to the gym, I'm fairly sedentary just because I'm so tired from the work week. So it definitely keeps me motivated, and a the little friendly competition that the interface/network offers is nice as well. The ability to see how well I slept is also a huge plus. I realized that I'm sleeping pretty decent, and that it was vitamin/nutrient deficiencies that had me so exhausted all the time.

Accuracy is just as questionable as any other "fitness" device, including calculators, and the scale. Really though, I like that I can pull an average on both active and non-active days, and it gives me a nice baseline to calculate my NEAT, TDEE, etc.

My vote: Yes, but depends on what you get.

I love my Fitbit Charge HR. I work in a job that varies from mind numbingly boring to extremely physically active(think doing CPR, running to codes, etc.). I'm a numbers person so it motivates me when I'm having a lazy day to get up and go for a walk. I like all the features on it, even the sleep one.

I use a Polar FT60 for my workouts, and I absolutely love it!

I have thought seriously about getting a fitness tracker, but instead decided to save my money and downloaded a pedometer app on my phone. The one I use is called Pacer, and I love it! I feel it incorporates the same idea that a fitness band would. This app lets you set goals, connect with people, challenge people, add groups, etc. It's also motivating to see my averages, and want to increase that every week.

The only problem with these kinds of apps is you have to carry your phone with you everywhere you go to get a more accurate number (instead of having a handy dandy device clipped to yourself.) This isn't that big of a deal to me because I carry my phone everywhere; although I do forget sometimes. Also, you can turn on the GPS option which gets the most accurate reading on your steps, but it drains the battery. So I just use it normally and it seems to do pretty good. I compared it's numbers (distance wise) to Runkeeper on a run/walk and the numbers were very closely comparable.

It doesn't have the sleep functions, but there's app's for that also.

I think it depends on the person and how they plan to use it as to whether or not it is worth buying on. I just got the Fitbit Charge and like it so far for calculating my steps and miles throughout the day. However, it won't replace my Polar FT7 for my more active activities like doing HIIT and Weightlifting.

I have a sony smartband to go with my xperia z1 love the band and it's very accurate too it's just a shame it doesn't link to mfp.