Fitness bands.... Worth investing in one?

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jsadqi
jsadqi Posts: 31 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am thinking about buying a fitness band but don't know if it is worth it. My main goal is to lose weight. My question is I don't want to spend a lot of money on one but don't want a piece of crap either. Any suggestions?
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Replies

  • Brobill64
    Brobill64 Posts: 3 Member
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    I like Jawbone Up, but I just got Garmin Vivoactive because i started jogging.
  • Ad141274
    Ad141274 Posts: 13 Member
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    I love mine
  • smashley_mashley
    smashley_mashley Posts: 589 Member
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    I had a fit it flex. Hated it sold it on kijiji in a month. I use a HR monitor for just work outs.
  • jenniferinfl
    jenniferinfl Posts: 456 Member
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    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.
  • cindytw
    cindytw Posts: 1,027 Member
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    I love my Fitbit products!! I had a One, but got a Flex so I wouldn't lose it so easily. I owuld get a Charge HR but it's big for a girl not used to wearing anything. I love their interface, its motivating as are challenges.
  • aaliceinw
    aaliceinw Posts: 747 Member
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    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
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,476 Member
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    herrspoons wrote: »
    Honestly? No. They aren't.
    I'm also in this boat.
  • alpine1994
    alpine1994 Posts: 1,915 Member
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    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.
  • jsadqi
    jsadqi Posts: 31 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your input.
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    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.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    For some they are useful tools to get them up and moving. For others, they don't provide any meaningful data. I fall into the latter category. The GPS devices that track my runs and rides give me useful data ... the HR strap gives me useful cardiac info (I don't use it for caloric estimation) ... but I have different goals than a lot of people on MFP.
  • Bry_Fitness70
    Bry_Fitness70 Posts: 2,480 Member
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    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?
  • tiffbeckett336
    tiffbeckett336 Posts: 139 Member
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    I have the new balance one it does HR calorie steps and miles just got it yesterday anyone else have one or no if it is accurate
  • dougpconnell219
    dougpconnell219 Posts: 566 Member
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    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.
  • peachyfuzzle
    peachyfuzzle Posts: 1,122 Member
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    I bought one yesterday, but only because I had already proved to myself that I knew what I was doing after losing a significant amount of weight over the winter, and also because I would like a better picture of my daily activity during the next six weeks as I try to lose a good chunk of weight for a goal I set in front of myself. If it wasn't for setting the aggressive goal, I probably wouldn't have bought one.

    Like it has been said though, it's only a tool, and you're still the one who is going to have to put in the work either way.
  • cetababy1973
    cetababy1973 Posts: 1
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    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.
  • Talan79
    Talan79 Posts: 782 Member
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    I've had the jawbone up since xmas and love it. Keeps me motivated. I used it to track my daily burn so now I can see where my maintenance is on active days vs none active days.
  • NateMcG76
    NateMcG76 Posts: 44 Member
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    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
  • kgmcgee
    kgmcgee Posts: 34 Member
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    I love my Jawbone Up. I work a desk job and it reminds me when I've been sitting too long. I get up and move around then. It's also like a game to me to see how many steps I can get in. You can log workouts as well. My hubby has one and we compete to see who can get the highest number of steps. The sleep data is interesting to see and seems accurate but not much you can do with the info and it's somewhat annoying to wear at night. I think it's a great tool to help you move more when you are just starting out.
  • NekoneMeowMixx
    NekoneMeowMixx Posts: 410 Member
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    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.

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