Fitbit Zip

Like Editorgrrl said, all the fitbits will calculate your calories burned throughout the day and sync to MFP. If you are curious of which fitbit does what you can check out:

http://www.fitbit.com/compare

Got my daughter a Zip. Before giving it to her, I wore it for a few days and compared to my One. Very similar #s in terms of steps, calories burned. Zip is the lowest model, does not track sleep or floors climbed. But a reliable device for steps. No activity tracker can be perfect for calories, but Fitbit seems to do a pretty good job.

Personally I also tried the Polar A300 and while it was good during actual cardio, it was useless as a daily tracker. When pushing a shopping cart, holding things with the arm that wore the device, etc. - it didn't count my steps fully. Gave me something like 250 steps for a grocery shopping trip, and it was at least 100 each way from car to entrance. Returned to Amazon...

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

No arm based pedometer is going to give you accurate steps, the poster said she wanted something that was good for doing exercise which is what a HRM (A300) does.

I lost the weight & have maintained for a year with first a Fitbit Flex (which doesn't even have a heart rate monitor) and now a Charge HR. My step count may not be 100% accurate (I get "steps" drying my hair, and miss steps pushing a shopping cart), but my Fitbit burn obviously is. And that's all that really matters to me.

The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. Buy a device at a store near you, keep the receipt, and return it if you don't like it.

One advantage of Fitbit over other devices is the social aspect. Fitbit challenges against your friends are great motivation—and fun.

venuila wrote: »

I didn't do a lot of research before I got my zip. I don't know why but I thought it was going to show me calories burned during exercise but it doesn't. I still use it though with a hrm I bought off amazon.

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), the number of calories necessary to maintain your current weight. Your default MFP calorie goal is activity level minus deficit. When you connect your accounts, MFP sends your water & aggregate meal data to Fitbit, and Fitbit sends your burn to MFP. MFP projects your burn at 11:59 p.m., compares that to your MFP activity level, and adjusts your calorie goal accordingly.

If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, eating back your Fitbit adjustments means you're eating TDEE minus deficit.

If you want your Fitbit exercise to appear in your MFP newsfeed, post a status update.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

editorgrrl wrote: »

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

No arm based pedometer is going to give you accurate steps, the poster said she wanted something that was good for doing exercise which is what a HRM (A300) does.

I lost the weight & have maintained for a year with first a Fitbit Flex (which doesn't even have a heart rate monitor) and now a Charge HR. My step count may not be 100% accurate (I get "steps" drying my hair, and miss steps pushing a shopping cart), but my Fitbit burn obviously is. And that's all that really matters to me.

The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress. Buy a device at a store near you, keep the receipt, and return it if you don't like it.

One advantage of Fitbit over other devices is the social aspect. Fitbit challenges against your friends are great motivation—and fun.

Polar has the same social aspect with the flow app, the only advantage fitbit has is the advertising, Polar just came out with 3 activity monitors. but you haven't seen one commercial for them. As far accuracy, I use a V800, and wear a pedometer. Today, I did 66 mins on the elliptical, at 160 to 170 strides per min, the V800 is off by 1500 steps due to my arm not moving sometimes. that's the only downfall. But the things it will do, give you and accurate heart rate while working out, display your heart rate and adjust level/resistance on most cardio equipment, give you your heart rate while swimming, waterproof to 30m. It's nice to know that I'm putting in more effort to get my heart rate to the level that I used to put in little effort before. Also, with polar it seperates BMR/activity/training calories,it adjust MFP for BMR/activity calories, and put your exercise calories in for you. With the polar you control what profile you are using IE: crosstrainer (elliptical), treadmill, walking, running, swimming and my other exercise, and when you sync with the polar flow app, that information syncs to mfp.

Any time you're more active your going to maintain or lose weight.

I have a One. It basically is an expensive pedometer, but an accurate one. Cheap pedometers have never worked correctly for me, but the Fitbit One does. I don't regret the expense at all as I think I've had it for two years and I wear it nearly every day. I've promised myself that I can look into one of the fancier models when it dies, but I believe it will last for years as it has even been through the washer a few times. I don't feel the need to upgrade otherwise. I think the Zip is a fine investment if you just want to track steps.

If you do something other than walking, you can enter the exercise in the Fitbit dashboard and it will still sync with MFP. Otherwise, a Zip or One will not distinguish between types of movement. I am not sure about the other models, but I'm a little suspicious anyway of the reliability of anything that claims to do more than count steps.

TheGaudyMagpie wrote: »

I have a One. It basically is an expensive pedometer, but an accurate one. Cheap pedometers have never worked correctly for me, but the Fitbit One does. I don't regret the expense at all as I think I've had it for two years and I wear it nearly every day. I've promised myself that I can look into one of the fancier models when it dies, but I believe it will last for years as it has even been through the washer a few times. I don't feel the need to upgrade otherwise. I think the Zip is a fine investment if you just want to track steps.

If you do something other than walking, you can enter the exercise in the Fitbit dashboard and it will still sync with MFP. Otherwise, a Zip or One will not distinguish between types of movement. I am not sure about the other models, but I'm a little suspicious anyway of the reliability of anything that claims to do more than count steps.

While fit bit just started doing more, Polar heart rate monitors have been around and used for 30 years, they just got into the activity monitor market in the last 2 years they are very reliable and have great customer service.

Oh, and it syncs to MFP and only adds calories above my base metabolic rate. It's smart. I don't know how.

My two cents. I started with a ZIP and really liked it as it was cheap, small, and displayed the steps. My wife had a flex and I did not like the non display of steps. She then got a ONE. I liked how it kept a charge and was easy to recharge via her laptop. I on the other hand had to buy new batteries every three months and then for some reason it began to eat them more frequently. So I went with the ONE and have been very happy. So yes it is a pedometer, how expensive is relative. For $99 I thought it was a fair deal. For my running I use a Garmin forerunner 10. Again a lower end device, low cost at under $100, but it does what I want - pace, time, logs to a website. I like to use what I need and what is made for the activity.

jgnatca wrote: »

I love my little zip. This is my third one, as I have lost a couple; boo. The one advantage the wrist versions have is that they recharge. Every few months I have to get a new battery for my zip. I don't like things on my wrist other than my motivational running band.

The zip DOES NOT accurately log activity on a stationary bicycle and of course I don't wear it in to the pool. It has it's limitations.

I've done a few tests with this. If I invert it and clip it to the bottom of my workout capris, it registers pretty close to the expected burn of a stationary bike. It doesn't catch every cycle, which is a good thing. You ride 3 miles and it registers less than 1 mile walked, but it seems to be pretty good when matched up against other charts I've found. Try it out.

Get a Garmin Forerunner 15. Steps, HR, GPS, and will sync to MFP as well. Way more accurate in calories than fitbit (fitbit are very generous for that).

And water proof....... not just water resistant like the flex.

I have a Fitbit one and my Garmin...... I wear both at the same time. I love my fitbit & will always love it..... but my Garmin FR15 is the bomb.

I like my flex alot - like the sleep thingy, silent alarms, iPhone app/PC dashboard, etc. It isn't as accurate step-wise as my zip was, but it's "about" which is good enough for me.

christinev297 wrote: »

A heart rate monitor would be useless for me, as I'm not an arm swinger when I walk, and I never do any full on cardio exercising.

Swinging your arms might throw off your step count, but it does not affect your burn.

I two activity trackers—only one of which has a heart rate monitor. Yesterday, they were within 85 calories of each other. So which model you choose is entirely a matter of personal preference.