Fitbit charge hr.. (Need your help to answer some of my questions)

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Farahworld
Farahworld Posts: 41 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone.. I am kinda considering buying the fitbit charge hr to track my heartrate, and calories ..
But I want to have the full picture, I don't want to buy it based on false expectations..
My questions are:
1)Does fitbit tracks all kind of exercise and tell you how much calorie you burned
For example I do a lot of leg exercise, will it able to monitor my heart rate and tell me how much calorie I burned?
Or will it tell me such things only when I run or walk?
2)Does fitbit track cardio session, ?
like jumping for 5 minutes?
3)Does it work when you use another machine..'
4) does it work when I do strength and weight lifting ..
5)Should I tell it what kind of exercise I am doing or will I have to tell it what I am doing right now?
and finally
Do you recommend it? or do you have an ideal review to answer my so many questions.

Replies

  • Don_Alfredo
    Don_Alfredo Posts: 6 Member
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    https://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&cu=1&fs=ContactUs
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
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    If it worked in the pool I'd get one. But it does not.
  • rushfive
    rushfive Posts: 603 Member
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    There is a "Group" on mfp for fitbit users that may be able to answer your questions.

    I have one but I only walk/jog and it works great for that.
    you can tell it (by holding down the side button till vibrate) when you are exercising then you can label the exercise on the web site. (when done exercising you hold down the side button again to stop the timer)

    When doing weights it can till your increased heart rate. again use the timer button, to get some idea of cal. burned during that time.

    It is not completely accurate for everything, but I think it pretty much averages out to be fairly close.
    Again, ask on the "fitbit group" for more info.
    good luck.
  • lindathom209
    lindathom209 Posts: 19 Member
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    I have had the charge hr for about 6 months and I highly recommend it. It tracks your heart rate continuously so no matter what you are doing (even sleeping) it will tell you how many calories you burn. For me, it has been extremely accurate. If you want to know how many calories you burn during a workout you just hold the button on the band for 3 seconds to start and then again when your workout is over.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    No HRM will accurately estimate calories from lifting. Fitbits cannot tell what you are doing besides steps.

    If you're looking to buy some sort of tracker ... start by identifying what activities you do, or plan on doing. Figure out what data points you want to track. Understand that there are going to be activities where there simply is not a tracker to provide accurate data for what you want ... calories from lifting, yoga, etc. Match tracker capabilities to the activities you do and data you want to track ... HRMs are good for counting heart beats during cardio, the activities where they can estimate calories anywhere near accurately is limited ... GPS is good for tracking distance for walking, running, cycling outdoors ... step trackers show trends in daily activity.

    From there see if any devices provide a close enough solution.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
    edited July 2015
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    brianpperkins wrote: »
    No HRM will accurately estimate calories from lifting. Fitbits cannot tell what you are doing besides steps.

    If you're looking to buy some sort of tracker ... start by identifying what activities you do, or plan on doing. Figure out what data points you want to track. Understand that there are going to be activities where there simply is not a tracker to provide accurate data for what you want ... calories from lifting, yoga, etc. Match tracker capabilities to the activities you do and data you want to track ... HRMs are good for counting heart beats during cardio, the activities where they can estimate calories anywhere near accurately is limited ... GPS is good for tracking distance for walking, running, cycling outdoors ... step trackers show trends in daily activity.

    From there see if any devices provide a close enough solution.

    The Fitbit HR does calculate calories burned by activities that are not step-related because it's monitoring heartrate as well as steps. For example, last week I did kickboxing in the morning and in the afternoon, a thorough cleaning of my house (I have a big 2-story home) that involved lugging a vacuum all over, mopping, moving furniture, carrying thing up and down stairs. This week in addition to kickboxing, I walked for over an hour. My burn last week when I was cleaning was much higher than during my walk this week, even though the number of steps weren't different because I had been doing lifting, pushing a vacuum, climbing stairs multiple times, which was bringing my heartrate up. So I'd assume that if your heartrate goes up a lot from lifting, power yoga, or any other non-step activity, your calorie burn would also increase.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    rosebette wrote: »
    brianpperkins wrote: »
    No HRM will accurately estimate calories from lifting. Fitbits cannot tell what you are doing besides steps.

    If you're looking to buy some sort of tracker ... start by identifying what activities you do, or plan on doing. Figure out what data points you want to track. Understand that there are going to be activities where there simply is not a tracker to provide accurate data for what you want ... calories from lifting, yoga, etc. Match tracker capabilities to the activities you do and data you want to track ... HRMs are good for counting heart beats during cardio, the activities where they can estimate calories anywhere near accurately is limited ... GPS is good for tracking distance for walking, running, cycling outdoors ... step trackers show trends in daily activity.

    From there see if any devices provide a close enough solution.

    The Fitbit HR does calculate calories burned by activities that are not step-related because it's monitoring heartrate as well as steps. For example, last week I did kickboxing in the morning and in the afternoon, a thorough cleaning of my house (I have a big 2-story home) that involved lugging a vacuum all over, mopping, moving furniture, carrying thing up and down stairs. This week in addition to kickboxing, I walked for over an hour. My burn last week when I was cleaning was much higher than during my walk this week, even though the number of steps weren't different because I had been doing lifting, pushing a vacuum, climbing stairs multiple times, which was bringing my heartrate up.

    There is a difference in producing a number and accurately calculating. The algorithms used by HRMs do not support caloric estimation from anything beyond moderate to high intensity steady state cardio .. not kickboxing (interval in nature), not cleaning (too low intensity) ... most walking does not elevate the body's exertion level to a range where HR can serve as a proxy for effort.

    Marketing does not supersede science.
  • Farahworld
    Farahworld Posts: 41 Member
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    Thank you all for your replies I am thinking now about either buying it from best buy or Walmart to try it if I see it's not what I expected; I'll return it!
    Thanks again :)

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