Fitbit charge HR or alta? :)

I have the charge hr. I use it to keep track of my steps, my slepe, and occasionally check my heart rate to see my resting pace. I love it. I won't be going back down to the alta like some have. My next buy will be the Fitbit blaze for the touchscreen and the interchangeable bands but, all the same features of the Charge HR. Plus you can dismiss calls on it and control your music. Good Luck find what works for you personally!

My girlfriend returned her Charge HR because it wasn't accurate during exercise. The HR was fine while she was sitting at work or on the couch, but not when she'd hike uphill at a brisk pace. But exercise is when you want an HRM, not rest.

I've had the zip for over a year, and am getting the Alta on Wednesday, I cant wait!!!!

My main form of exercise is walking, so a HR monitor isn't really essential for me. I chose the Alta because it has the reminder to move function, it'll track my sleep automatically, recognises exercise compared to normal daily steps and it looks pretty, plus I've heard it underestimates slightly. I have a suspicion that my zip overestimates.

@Christine_72 I feel like the Flex and Alta are very similar in step count accuracy. I have routes that I walk around my neighborhood, I know what blocks/streets are 1,000 steps and so far my Alta reflects the same step count for those areas as my Flex did. I had the zip several years ago so I can't compare it to the other two but if it's the only device in your price range it's absolutely worth it and is a great motivational tool (I got mine used on Craigslist for $20)

leelou84 wrote: »

@Christine_72 I feel like the Flex and Alta are very similar in step count accuracy. I have routes that I walk around my neighborhood, I know what blocks/streets are 1,000 steps and so far my Alta reflects the same step count for those areas as my Flex did. I had the zip several years ago so I can't compare it to the other two but if it's the only device in your price range it's absolutely worth it and is a great motivational tool (I got mine used on Craigslist for $20)

Thanks for your reply. The reason I asked is that there are hundreds of posts on the fitbit Alta forum complaining that it doesn't pick up all the steps or hardly counts steps at all.. It's starting to make me a bit nervous.

ynah12795 wrote: »

@hnahae hello! seems like the HR is pretty durable and worth the money do you have any issues regarding the band? Like its quality after workouts where your fitbit gets sweaty?

I don't feel that it gets any more or less sweaty than any other area. Obviously sweat will collect at the band with any fitness band but it doesn't seem to cause more sweat.
I bought mine used from a friend and considering it's over a year old and she wore it every day I would say it has held up to wear and tear great. I can't really tell the difference between mine and the new one my boyfriend has.

ynah12795 wrote: »

@hnahae hello! seems like the HR is pretty durable and worth the money do you have any issues regarding the band? Like its quality after workouts where your fitbit gets sweaty?

@ynah12795 With the fitbit HR regarding sweat. It does recommend you clean it after heavy sweaty points with a soap-less cleaner like cetaphil. For some reason I screenshot'd this when I was setting it up months ago. So if you do go with the HR probably pick up some if you don't have some.

Charge HR is great as a no-fuss, functional tracker. Having the HR functionality is critical if you want a truly accurate (or at least close-to-accurate) count of caloric expenditure for exercise. Counting steps is great as a leading indicator of activity, but can/will be wildly inaccurate for caloric expenditure estimates from person to person.

Pairing with Charge HR is a breeze via Bluetooth to your phone. Also can auto-sync with MFP if you allow it.

I have the Charge HR and just purchased the Alta for my mom for mother's day. I bought my Charge HR before the Alta was out, otherwise I may have gotten it instead. I like the HR data, but I don't find it that useful. I sometimes run intervals based on HR (i.e. run fast until you hit 160, then rest til you hit 120, repeat) and I had to buy a chest strap to do that effectively. Was too hard to do trying to look at my wrist.

I like the look of the Alta a lot better than the Charge HR. Doing it again, I may have bought the Alta and a separate chest strap based HRM to use on runs specifically. Data is cool, but I'm not sure what benefit I get from knowing my HR sitting here at my desk, KWIM?

ynah12795 wrote: »

How about syncing the charge HR with the fitbit app? Is it hassle-free? It's also compatible with mfp, right? @SexyGamerGal

@ynah12795 it is simple once you set it up it automatically syncs throughout the day or you can force it to sync when you want. You can only sync it to once device at a time. It comes with a USB to be able to sync it your computer too. Although i do not us the usb. Once it is synced you can set silent alarms and call notifications to your fitbit but you have sync after you set them. Honestly really easy.

I have mine set up with mfp. It updates mfp and mfp updates it. So you don't got to enter twice. It automatically caculates and add calories to ur daily calories so u don't have to add ur exercise if u don't want to. I know some people still prefer to enter though.

I'm on day 2 with my Alta and so far so good. It does give me less steps than my zip (I'm wearing them both at the same time ). But I'm happy with that, as I'm pretty certain the zip overestimated, going by weight loss..
Plus I'd rather have a tracker that underestimates rather than over.