Fitbits.. is it worth the hype?

I bought an expensive Fitbit (200$+) and I was super dissapointed in the product.

It was wildly inaccurate and over estimated steps so easily. I even returned it for another model hoping it was defective but they all seem to be that way. I took the bus for 10 minutes and the fit bit counted it like I was running.

I just returned my charge I had it during WW for about 3 months and the steps weren't super accurate, but the challenges can keep you motivated to get your steps in daily so if you need moving motivation it's great

I have a Zip and since it's getting super old and the clip is deteriorating I'm getting a One soon. I've found it very accurate and prefer to look at the calorie burn on Fitbit rather than MFP. Even with them linked MFP gives me an extra 200 or so to eat. That's an issue with their connections though, or maybe something in my settings, not Fitbit itself.

I'm glad you asked this as I've been thinking about buying one. I'm logging my steps on my phone but I don't always have my phone with me so I'm being shortchanged in steps. My polar hrm doesn't have a pedometer built in! I suppose it's prob better to underestimate on my phone rather than over estimate!

I love my Fitbit, it has definitely motivated me to walk more and be more aware of how much I move.
I also eat back most of my additional calories, and it hasn't stopped me from losing weight.

I have a Fitbit surge. Not completely thrilled with it, but it gives me a good idea of how active I am during the day. Today, for instance, I used it to record a walk. The gps gave me the distance and the heart monitor gave me how hard I was working. It also recorded how long I was walking. I used MapMyFitness to calculate the calories. MapMyFitness is linked to MFP, so it transfer the info over.

I have fitbit flex but would like a charge HR. I have it synced with MFP and it works great. I did readjust my step stride from what it estimated it to be as my steps are shorter than it said. It means when calculating distance I have to do more steps than someone with a longer stride.

I got the One and it was relatively inaccurate (seemed to underestimate my calories by quite a bit) and gave numbers that made no sense whatsoever (like some days I'd burn more calories with less steps and less active minutes... WTH?). I stopped using it after a few months (it was Summer and I just didn't have anywhere to clip the thing on). Haven't really missed it...

I think it's useful to give you an estimate of how active you are, but ideally, I'd borrow one for a day to figure that out... lol.

But in the end... track your food properly, see how much you lose (or don't lose) for a few months, then adjust... that will be more accurate in the end.

I like my Fibit because it keeps me motivated. I don't think they're overhyped, they're not much different than other activity trackers. It's a tool and what you do with it matters.

I have a Fitbit Charge HR and love it. I find it well worth the money. The longer you wear it the more accurate it becomes. You need to measure your stride and input that in the tracker's settings to get an accurate step count. Additionally, it keeps me motivated to keep moving. I used to be fairly sedentary averaging 5,000 to 7,000 steps per day. I'm now up to 20,000 steps per day. I used to have sleep issues so I track my sleep with it and have found it to be fairly accurate. No tracker is going to be 100% accurate, they are all guesstimates at best, but I've found that even with a margin for error it's great at keeping me focused, self-aware, and counting calories in/out.

The only downside to many of the trackers is keeping them charged and several times the data transfer gets screwed up because of issues mainly with MFP since MFP has become so glitchy. This happens especially around the first of the year with so many new trackers getting synced to MFP; MFP can't handle the load and when MFP updates. Thankfully, that's usually a temporary problem.

watcher1600 wrote: »

I have the fitbit chargehr and it is inaccurate on a windy day it said i climed 57 steps when i only walked 20 min on a flat surface, it overestimates calories burned and overestimates steps by 5000.

Checkout the fitbit forumsthere are posts about the inaccuracies of this tracker.

see I found the opposite.

I shovelled snow for 45mins...fitbit gave me 6 active minutes.... jawbone covered it the entire time

I just got my fit bit about 2 weeks ago (Fitbit Flex) and I absolutely love it. As others have said it is a HUGE motivator. The challenges keep me wanting to "win" so it helps me stay active. My hubby has one also so we can battle throughout the day and it keeps being active fun! I haven't had any issues with my steps being inaccurate but the calorie estimate is way off so I just don't look at that part of it. I also don't eat back any of my calories so even if it syncs incorrectly with mfp it doesn't affect me.

I have the Charge HR - upgraded from the Flex a few months ago. Accurate? Not always - but, that is ok. My aim is to try and match or better my movement on any given day since I have a desk job. I do not eat back the calories it gives me - sometimes maybe a small percentage. Such as Sunday it gave me an extra 1200 calories from working my tail off, weeding, raking winter stuff up, hand mowing, walking dogs - did not eat those back. Tracks my exercise and active minutes without having to tell it to. - not to the very second and sometimes it says I was playing badminton -- hahaha. You can go in and start and stop exercise times also.
I use it for my silent alarm through the week. It is my watch now and it also tells me who is calling on my phone so I don't have to dig that out or run into the other room. Also, I had used a Polar HR for a long time, now just my Charge. So, overall I have had a positive experience with my FitBit.

I have a garim one and though it is not super accurate it helps motivate me to be more active Isn't that the point of it.