Considering a FitBit, couple of Q's?

I've noticed a lot of people use FitBit's, I want one, I think.

My question is; I have a desk job and I use my arms a lot at my desk, I create signs (in case someone thought I was wierd). So, does the fitbit monitor your calorie burn based on body movement, or Heart rate?

I use a HRM for cardio and I love it, so will a FitBit be worth purchasing?
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Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Only the Charge HR and Surge track heart rate. All others are strictly movement. The Zip or One will most likely be your best bets, as they clip onto your clothing rather than go around your wrist, so they wouldn't pick up that little movement as steps.

    Fitbits are meant to measure your step-based activity (walking, jogging, running) throughout the day. If you're hoping it can get you to move more, then it'll be beneficial.
  • Versacam
    Versacam Posts: 109 Member
    I was looking for something to give me an accurate calorie burn, so maybe it's not what I thought it was..?

    I don't really walk much unless I'm on a day out, most of my exercise is the gym, squash or mountain biking, so maybe I should stick to the HRM.

    For some reason I thought it told you how many calories you burn that day based on your HR.
  • Llamapants86
    Llamapants86 Posts: 1,221 Member
    There are different models that do different things. I have a simple model (the One) that just clips to my bra. It doesn't look at my heart rate but the calorie burn for my normal daily activity is pretty accurate based on how my weight reacts to a deficit. And it gets me to get up and get moving through out the day otherwise I won't hit my step goal.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    It tells you the amount of calories you burn based on your stats and the number of steps you take (and how fast you take them). It's not exact but it does give a good estimate.
  • soapsandropes
    soapsandropes Posts: 269 Member
    If you only want the HR part of it and not the step/movement tracking then it isn't the right device for you.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    No, it calculates your TDEE for the day based on your steps and if you've logged exercise.
  • FinntheVeggie
    FinntheVeggie Posts: 74 Member
    I have a Fitbit Flex and I wouldn't reccommend it. First of all, yes, it will count all your little arm movements as steps, but the opposite is also true - it counts running, hiking, etc. as just plain old walking steps. Steps are literally the only thing it's capable of counting (the sleep function is useless - it counts every little movement as "waking up" during the night and tells you what a horrible sleep you had, and the calorie-counting widgets on the website are about the same as MFRs). So basically I'd go for a $10 Walmart pedometer and use MFP for free rather than the $100 flex and get the same experience.

    I can't speak for the other types of Fitbits, I've heard the HR one isn't bad. Just wanted to share my two cents.
  • Versacam
    Versacam Posts: 109 Member
    Okay, thanks for the advice everyone.. I guess as I hardly ever just go for a stroll then I may be better using the HRM for the actual exercise I do.

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Versacam wrote: »
    I have a desk job and I use my arms a lot at my desk, I create signs (in case someone thought I was wierd). So, does the fitbit monitor your calorie burn based on body movement, or Heart rate?

    I use a HRM for cardio and I love it, so will a FitBit be worth purchasing?

    I have a Fitbit Flex and Charge HR. I get "steps" drying my hair, and miss steps pushing a shopping cart. But I lost the weight—and have kept it off. You can't get any more accurate than that. (Only the Charge HR and Surge are heart rate monitors.)

    Fitbits calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). When you connect your accounts and enable negative calorie adjustments, MFP adjusts your daily calorie goal to TDEE minus deficit. Fitbit challenges are great motivation—and fun.

    Why not buy a Fitbit at a store near you, keep the receipt, and return it if you don't like it?
  • Hi... I have A Fitbit Charge HR. It's brill for every day walking around. When I started running... not so brill. So I now wear a Polar M400 on the other arm for my exercise. I'm a walking gadget. Ha ha ha. The M400 combined with the HRM strap is brill. I don't however trust it for my normal step count. I rely on my Fitbit for that.

    So you may find something like the Polar watch better for you in exercise terms :) HTH
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    Versacam wrote: »
    Okay, thanks for the advice everyone.. I guess as I hardly ever just go for a stroll then I may be better using the HRM for the actual exercise I do.

    Ah, but the thing is it tracks ALL of your little activities. At least the One does for me. I may not do any formal exercise in a day, but one day might be 1750 calories burned and another might be 2150 calories burned. No exercise to track. Just I popped in for groceries, cleaned the house, stood around doing dishes, etc. With the FitBit I have, it keeps track of ALL THAT and helps me see the patterns of activity. Until you track it, I'm not too sure you realize how much all those little things add up. For me they typically add up to more than any formal exercise does in my daily burns.

    YMMV.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    I have a Fitbit Flex and I wouldn't reccommend it. First of all, yes, it will count all your little arm movements as steps, but the opposite is also true - it counts running, hiking, etc. as just plain old walking steps. Steps are literally the only thing it's capable of counting (the sleep function is useless - it counts every little movement as "waking up" during the night and tells you what a horrible sleep you had, and the calorie-counting widgets on the website are about the same as MFRs). So basically I'd go for a $10 Walmart pedometer and use MFP for free rather than the $100 flex and get the same experience.

    I can't speak for the other types of Fitbits, I've heard the HR one isn't bad. Just wanted to share my two cents.

    That's only if you entered your stride. Then it adjusts to that. Don't enter your stride, and you will get accurate results on how many steps you took, whether baby steps, long steps, steps upstairs or downstairs, or steps walking in place in front of the television.
  • airbent
    airbent Posts: 150 Member
    WBB55 wrote: »
    Versacam wrote: »
    Okay, thanks for the advice everyone.. I guess as I hardly ever just go for a stroll then I may be better using the HRM for the actual exercise I do.

    Ah, but the thing is it tracks ALL of your little activities. At least the One does for me. I may not do any formal exercise in a day, but one day might be 1750 calories burned and another might be 2150 calories burned. No exercise to track. Just I popped in for groceries, cleaned the house, stood around doing dishes, etc. With the FitBit I have, it keeps track of ALL THAT and helps me see the patterns of activity. Until you track it, I'm not too sure you realize how much all those little things add up. For me they typically add up to more than any formal exercise does in my daily burns.

    YMMV.

    This is why I love mine, it's been so illuminating to see how much I can really afford to eat in a day, just off daily activity. If I take my dog for a walk and get a walk in on my lunch break at work, both things I try to do daily anyway, I can easily burn 2500+ cal/day without going to the gym. Or I can go and just lift weights without needing to bother w/the cardio machines (which I hate).

    It's also a great tool for testing the accuracy of your food logging. If your fitbit tells you what your REAL weekly deficit was, and you haven't lost the right amount of weight over 3-4 weeks, within a margin of error? Time to look into tightening up your logging.
  • DonziGirl
    DonziGirl Posts: 9 Member
    Also consider the vehicle you drive and the roads you drive on. I have the One that clips on but ended up not wearing it. I live in the country where we have a lot of bumpy roads. Making the matter worse is if I ride in my husband's 1 ton truck. My FitBit said I was SUPER active but in reality I didn't even meet my step goal.
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    edited August 2015
    airbent wrote: »
    WBB55 wrote: »
    Versacam wrote: »
    Okay, thanks for the advice everyone.. I guess as I hardly ever just go for a stroll then I may be better using the HRM for the actual exercise I do.

    Ah, but the thing is it tracks ALL of your little activities. At least the One does for me. I may not do any formal exercise in a day, but one day might be 1750 calories burned and another might be 2150 calories burned. No exercise to track. Just I popped in for groceries, cleaned the house, stood around doing dishes, etc. With the FitBit I have, it keeps track of ALL THAT and helps me see the patterns of activity. Until you track it, I'm not too sure you realize how much all those little things add up. For me they typically add up to more than any formal exercise does in my daily burns.

    YMMV.

    This is why I love mine, it's been so illuminating to see how much I can really afford to eat in a day, just off daily activity. If I take my dog for a walk and get a walk in on my lunch break at work, both things I try to do daily anyway, I can easily burn 2500+ cal/day without going to the gym. Or I can go and just lift weights without needing to bother w/the cardio machines (which I hate).

    It's also a great tool for testing the accuracy of your food logging. If your fitbit tells you what your REAL weekly deficit was, and you haven't lost the right amount of weight over 3-4 weeks, within a margin of error? Time to look into tightening up your logging.
    I know, right? So my sedentary TDEE is around 1750 (like 1650 if all I do literally is lay in bed). If I go for a 5k run, that's like 300 calories at the most above what I would have burned in the half hour anyway breathing. But stop in at the bookstore, buy some groceries, walk to the corner mailbox, weed the garden, etc... again, those can easily add up to 300 extra calories EASILY. I think as a society in the U.S. we exercise more than a few decades ago, but our "daily activities" are less than before (on average). We have riding lawn mowers, etc. I truly think for myself it's the "daily activity" stuff that's the real difference between me being obese and just a bit soft in the belly.

    Point being, by tracking my little daily nonsense, I know when I need to eat a few less bites of dinner or can afford a dessert without going over budget. I also get that extra motivation to climb a few extra stairs and walk a bit further in the parking lot to get the little check marks and smiley faces for the day.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    DonziGirl wrote: »
    Also consider the vehicle you drive and the roads you drive on. I have the One that clips on but ended up not wearing it. I live in the country where we have a lot of bumpy roads. Making the matter worse is if I ride in my husband's 1 ton truck. My FitBit said I was SUPER active but in reality I didn't even meet my step goal.

    You can log driving as an activity in Fitbit to correct your TDEE. Or there's an app that's supposed to make it even easier.

    It takes some trial & error to find what works for you. I learned a whole lot in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    DonziGirl wrote: »
    Also consider the vehicle you drive and the roads you drive on. I have the One that clips on but ended up not wearing it. I live in the country where we have a lot of bumpy roads. Making the matter worse is if I ride in my husband's 1 ton truck. My FitBit said I was SUPER active but in reality I didn't even meet my step goal.

    There is a way to make an adjustment to fix that. I can't remember if it's something on the dashboard or another app, but I will double check once I get to my pc.
  • airbent
    airbent Posts: 150 Member
    editorgrrl wrote: »
    DonziGirl wrote: »
    Also consider the vehicle you drive and the roads you drive on. I have the One that clips on but ended up not wearing it. I live in the country where we have a lot of bumpy roads. Making the matter worse is if I ride in my husband's 1 ton truck. My FitBit said I was SUPER active but in reality I didn't even meet my step goal.

    You can log driving as an activity in Fitbit to correct your TDEE. Or there's an app that's supposed to make it even easier.

    It takes some trial & error to find what works for you. I learned a whole lot in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

    It's called DriveBit, you just hit 'start' and 'stop' and it links with fitbit to log the drive and remove any steps counted.
  • Jillish23
    Jillish23 Posts: 226 Member
    I downloaded the FitBit app to my mobile and it effectively becomes the step monitor and gives you your calorie burn for the day. You can also add in any exercise and map walks. I have problems with the app syncing to MFP so sometimes have to just make notes in the exercise section of my MFP diary to explain any days where it appears I've gone way over. :)
  • airbent
    airbent Posts: 150 Member
    WBB55 wrote: »
    airbent wrote: »
    WBB55 wrote: »
    Versacam wrote: »
    Okay, thanks for the advice everyone.. I guess as I hardly ever just go for a stroll then I may be better using the HRM for the actual exercise I do.

    Ah, but the thing is it tracks ALL of your little activities. At least the One does for me. I may not do any formal exercise in a day, but one day might be 1750 calories burned and another might be 2150 calories burned. No exercise to track. Just I popped in for groceries, cleaned the house, stood around doing dishes, etc. With the FitBit I have, it keeps track of ALL THAT and helps me see the patterns of activity. Until you track it, I'm not too sure you realize how much all those little things add up. For me they typically add up to more than any formal exercise does in my daily burns.

    YMMV.

    This is why I love mine, it's been so illuminating to see how much I can really afford to eat in a day, just off daily activity. If I take my dog for a walk and get a walk in on my lunch break at work, both things I try to do daily anyway, I can easily burn 2500+ cal/day without going to the gym. Or I can go and just lift weights without needing to bother w/the cardio machines (which I hate).

    It's also a great tool for testing the accuracy of your food logging. If your fitbit tells you what your REAL weekly deficit was, and you haven't lost the right amount of weight over 3-4 weeks, within a margin of error? Time to look into tightening up your logging.
    I know, right? So my sedentary TDEE is around 1750 (like 1650 if all I do literally is lay in bed). If I go for a 5k run, that's like 300 calories at the most above what I would have burned in the half hour anyway breathing. But stop in at the bookstore, buy some groceries, walk to the corner mailbox, weed the garden, etc... again, those can easily add up to 300 extra calories EASILY. I think as a society in the U.S. we exercise more than a few decades ago, but our "daily activities" are less than before (on average). We have riding lawn mowers, etc. I truly think for myself it's the "daily activity" stuff that's the real difference between me being obese and just a bit soft in the belly.

    Point being, by tracking my little daily nonsense, I know when I need to eat a few less bites of dinner or can afford a dessert without going over budget. I also get that extra motivation to climb a few extra stairs and walk a bit further in the parking lot to get the little check marks and smiley faces for the day.

    man i LOVE turning all those meters green for the day. It's even got me drinking more than 8 cups of water which I typically struggle with.