wearing Fitbit on ankle?

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  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Marianna93637 wrote: »
    But I do walk my dogs every day, I have 2 German shepherds and I'm holding both leashes in my right hand. They walk very nicely, but I have to hold the leash with a strong grip (2 dogs equal to 170 lbs) so that arm doesn't swing. I guess maybe during that time I could put it on my left wrist? When I jog with just the one dog my arm can swing, so it's ok.

    Most of my exercise calories come from taking Zumba, about 3-4 times / week, (and of course walking, and I'm gonna really start jogging regularly), and I assume with Zumba and the heart rate monitor, it should be pretty accurate.

    Holding leashes is not a problem. Your wrist is not "insulated" from the acceleration of your steps like it is when holding onto a shopping cart. If you really want to, you can switch it to your other wrist, but your arm does NOT need to swing in order for steps to be counted.

    Go ahead and trust your Fitbit when it comes to Zumba classes. I've always used mine and it doesn't seem to over-estimate my calorie burn. MFP's estimate for Zumba was always way, way too high, but even my old Fitbit One seemed to do a pretty good job. Now, Fitbit's automatic exercise detection algorithm even detects it as "Aerobic Workout".
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    STOP OVERTHINKING IT!!!

    You're arms don't have to swing in a clear and definite walking/running motion for the fitbit to register. Just put the damn thing on and check the data at the end of the day.
  • Marianna93637
    Marianna93637 Posts: 230 Member
    I'm not really hung up on how much I burn over one single workout, it's more like curiosity and having fun with it. But I have been logging food and exercise and taking Zumba classes for a year and a month now, and up until now I had to estimate my Zumba calories. So now I actually have something that might give me a more accurate number than just me guessing based on how I feel... there was a lady in my Zumba class 2 weeks ago (she's the one who gave the last push to get a Fitbit), she had the Fitbit Flex and it told her she burned 6oo some calories during our class (same instructor as yesterday). It was fairly new to her and without the HR so it probably overestimated, but I'm just dying to see how much I burn, of course knowing that none o f this is 100 % accurate.

    I fee like I'm the 10 year old kid who got a microscope and now she can see all kinds of thing in a different way (yes, that was me lol)
  • trisha1298
    trisha1298 Posts: 51 Member
    There's another device called the Moov Now that is designed to be worn on your ankle for running and walking. The strap is pretty secure. I tried it out, but I ended up returning it. It's more of a coach than an activity tracker. It represents your daily activity in active minutes, and sometimes my walking didn't count toward that. I had always used steps to measure my activity, so I ended up returning it. One thing I really liked about it was being able to hide it under my pant leg at meetings and conferences. I don't want all of my colleagues to see that I'm wearing an activity tracker, which is why I'm still using my fitbit one (clip on, worn under clothes) rather than upgrading to a wrist worn HR device. Personal preference.
  • Marianna93637
    Marianna93637 Posts: 230 Member
    I'm not really loving how bulky it looks. I have no problem telling my students what it is, but I wish I could hide it (right now in the winter it's no problem with sweaters and long sleeve shirts but in the summer it's in the 100s here.
    I told my daughter that I was going to make a lot of beaded bracelets and wear them around it to hide it, she said "mom, that's silly! Everyone wears these type of trackers now, who cares?" lol
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