Fitbit users: Convince me...

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  • punkrockgoth
    punkrockgoth Posts: 534 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Be_Lively wrote: »
    Would yall say the fitbit is more accurate than my phone?

    No. Numerous reviewers have found that free phone apps tend to be more accurate than the wearable trackers. As for whether you should get one, I suppose that depends on your goals. Those who use their wearables love them a lot and swear by them.

    For me, my end goal is to be able to transition off of obsessive logging and tracking and counting. My current goal is to enjoy being active for the sake of being active. I feel that a wearable takes me further to that and others goals I have. I realize I'm not the norm though.

    Edited to add some sources:
    http://www.livescience.com/49756-smartphone-apps-wearables-step-counts.html
    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/11/fitness-bands-less-accurate-than-smartphones-counting-steps
    http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/fitbit-vs-iphone6

    Including this one that says the opposite:
    http://www.wired.com/2015/03/fitness-tracking-test/
  • mdrichardsons
    mdrichardsons Posts: 83 Member
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    I love mine I do believe it makes me move more when it's charging I'm like why am I even moving it's not going to count ha ha. It really shows me how much little things matter. I thought people who parked far away from the grocery store were a little crazy but now I totally see how it all adds up and now I'm a crazy too ;) I have also found the calorie count more helpful because there are days when mfp says I can eat more and Fitbit says I shouldn't.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    edited March 2016
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    punkrockgoth wrote: »
    Be_Lively wrote: »
    Would yall say the fitbit is more accurate than my phone?

    No. Numerous reviewers have found that free phone apps tend to be more accurate than the wearable trackers. As for whether you should get one, I suppose that depends on your goals. Those who use their wearables love them a lot and swear by them.

    For me, my end goal is to be able to transition off of obsessive logging and tracking and counting. My current goal is to enjoy being active for the sake of being active. I feel that a wearable takes me further to that and others goals I have. I realize I'm not the norm though.

    Edited to add some sources:
    http://www.livescience.com/49756-smartphone-apps-wearables-step-counts.html
    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/11/fitness-bands-less-accurate-than-smartphones-counting-steps
    http://www.practicallyefficient.com/home/fitbit-vs-iphone6

    Including this one that says the opposite:
    http://www.wired.com/2015/03/fitness-tracking-test/

    In my opinion, the only accurate article is the last one. The first two that state fitness bands are less accurate follow the same horrible study. A study skewed by use of old models and unheard of wearables. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I watch my Charge HR and get a step for every step I take whereas my phone counts each "movement" as a step. There are also other benefits to wearables over using a smartphone.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,637 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Everything can be inaccurate under the right conditions. Everything can be accurate enough with enough effort under the right conditions.

    There is less effort required to make a Fitbit more accurate than a phone, if nothing else because I charge my phone several times a day, and my Fitbit either zero or one time a day ;-)

    Of course the phone came in quite handy when I left my Fitbit on the charger at home yesterday :-1:

    Contrary to all the articles quoted above.... no the garmin is NOT more accurate for calories, and neither is your phone. HRM does not correlate well to calories burned for anything other than steady state cardio activities. My Fitbit screws up when I walk really fast and under-counts. And I've seen caloric estimates from phone apps that had they been true I would currently be at my original weight and gaining.

    BUT, in general, the Fitbit is pretty darn good.

    If you are happy enough with your phone, you don't "NEED" one.
    If you are yearning to unplug, you don't want one.

    On the other hand I LIKE data, I am not planning to unplug, and I was NOT happy enough with my phone :smiley:
  • aerrianna
    aerrianna Posts: 20 Member
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    I bought a fitbit charge on Wednesday and returned it today. Myfitnesspal and S Health worked just as well and much cheaper. I liked how it tracked my sleep but it wasn't enough to want to keep it. I found with S Health the steps would be ahead of the fitbit but the next time I checked the fitbit was ahead. I also didn't like how it didn't calculate the calories lost just from my steps but overall throughout the day.

    Now if it notified me of text messages like it notified me when I met my steps goal, I would have been more inclined to keep it.
  • sault_girl
    sault_girl Posts: 219 Member
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    Do you need one? No, of course not. But I love mine! I have the Fitbit Charge HR and I love having it to keep tabs on how much I've moved around, and an approximate count of how many calories I've burned for the day. The only bummer for me is that I don 't have a cell phone so I don't get to use those features or join "challenges" with other users. But yeah, i love it. I've taken 22,087 steps so far today :)
  • Mavrick_RN
    Mavrick_RN Posts: 439 Member
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    sharonandwyatt wrote: »
    I love my Fitbit HR. I like how it syncs to MFP with ease and I can see extra calories add up I just in case I need them or go over my daily calorie limit. I log all my food on MFP and watch my plate empty out on the Fitbit app.

    How do you get it to do that? I log my food on MFP but it doesn't cross over to fitbit.
  • Pawsforme
    Pawsforme Posts: 645 Member
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    I love my Fitbit Charge HR. I've had it since the first week of August, so over seven months. The numbers it gives me seem to be very accurate. If anything it slightly under-estimates my TDEE. I've been in maintenance since the beginning of the year and have very slowly continued to lose weight while eating right around my TDEE per the Fitbit.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Mavrick_RN wrote: »
    sharonandwyatt wrote: »
    I love my Fitbit HR. I like how it syncs to MFP with ease and I can see extra calories add up I just in case I need them or go over my daily calorie limit. I log all my food on MFP and watch my plate empty out on the Fitbit app.

    How do you get it to do that? I log my food on MFP but it doesn't cross over to fitbit.

    If your accounts are synced, MFP should be sending over summaries for each section of your food diary and Fitbit will send over calories burned so MFP can make adjustments to your calorie goal if needed.

    Example of what MFP sends to Fitbit (my diary is divided into time segments, so all the summaries show under anytime for me):
    524w5lc5eu0p.png
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
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    I like my Garmin, and I find it's two most important features for me are the sleep tracking, and the 'time to move' feature, since I work from home at a stationary desk job (well, okay today, it's a sofa job, but it's Saturday.)

    I like the metrics and really understanding what my total daily expenditure is, and how it fluctuates. Do you need a tracker? No one 'needs' it, we all got along fine without them. Is it a cool addition to your fitness arsenal? You bet.

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