Should I get a fitness tracker?
EmbeeKay
Posts: 249 Member
I'm seriously considering investing in a fitness tracker, because
1. Honestly, I love to eat and want to "earn" more food. I find myself feeling frustrated because (for example) I'll be outside playing tag with my kids for 20 minutes, or doing heavy yard work for an hour, but I have no idea what I burned, so I don't log it as exercise, then later when I'm extra hungry I think "well, I WAS more active today," and eat more. The perfectionist in me hates that.
2. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my baby, so I don't want my TDEE to dip too low. Will a fitnes tracker give me a good estimate of calorie expenditure?
I think a fitness tracker will inspire me to be more active, which of course is excellent for my brain and body, and as a bonus I can enjoy more food. However, I already have my MFP settings at "lightly active," so aren't I already kind of accounting for those periods of "playing tag" and "heavy yard work"?
1. Honestly, I love to eat and want to "earn" more food. I find myself feeling frustrated because (for example) I'll be outside playing tag with my kids for 20 minutes, or doing heavy yard work for an hour, but I have no idea what I burned, so I don't log it as exercise, then later when I'm extra hungry I think "well, I WAS more active today," and eat more. The perfectionist in me hates that.
2. I'm exclusively breastfeeding my baby, so I don't want my TDEE to dip too low. Will a fitnes tracker give me a good estimate of calorie expenditure?
I think a fitness tracker will inspire me to be more active, which of course is excellent for my brain and body, and as a bonus I can enjoy more food. However, I already have my MFP settings at "lightly active," so aren't I already kind of accounting for those periods of "playing tag" and "heavy yard work"?
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Replies
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I replaced my FitBit One (had it for 4 years -- plus one free replacement when it stopped working) with the FitBit Alta. (After I lowered my height by 1" to give myself a slightly lower BMR after months of careful tracking to pinpoint error rate) I've found it to be very accurate (+/- 70 calories per day on average over the long-term) telling me what my TDEE is. There's a checkbox in your settings if you're breastfeeding, so it takes that into account, too, if applicable.
I think the Alta was about $140. It has been well worth it. It's ability to motivate me is... meh... but it's ability to tell me how many calories to eat is AWESOME and I recommend FitBits to all my friends who have any interest in tracking their weight/calories/activity/etc.
For me, I also find the sleep data useful for mood tracking. If I'm moody one day, or extra hungry, sometimes it's because of a recent sleep pattern, so I know to take some melatonin and try to get a couple good night's sleep.2 -
I love my FitBit One. I don't care so much about the fancier options on the other FitBit versions - it motivates me to keep moving or to move more when previously I would have chosen to just remain sedentary.
I think it's a good idea!
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I freaking love my Fitbit HR. I had the black one but it broke. The manufacturer gave me a full refund and I got a pink one. It's awesome.1
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Love my Fitpit Charge HR. I also have a Zip, which I use occasionally. My chief complaint is that Fitbit doesn't make a waterproof device, which means taking it off for swimming, water aerobics or any other water-based activity. Misfit and Garmin make trackers of comparable quality that are waterproof. When it's time to replace the Charge HR, I'll be checking out Garmin.0
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I don't use fitness trackers or calculate calories from exercise or activity. I set and adjust my calorie level by how I'm progressing towards my weight loss/maintain/gain goal. For example, if I'm more active, then my weight will begin to decrease and I'll need to up my calories. Since I'm looking at the result I'm actually interested in (weight change), it's a good way of letting me know if I'm on the right track.
I will say that calorie trackers can be a good thing to help you stay at a certain activity level throughout the day, but I wouldn't use them to earn more calories. I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.0 -
songbird13291 wrote: »Love my Fitpit Charge HR. I also have a Zip, which I use occasionally. My chief complaint is that Fitbit doesn't make a waterproof device, which means taking it off for swimming, water aerobics or any other water-based activity. Misfit and Garmin make trackers of comparable quality that are waterproof. When it's time to replace the Charge HR, I'll be checking out Garmin.
I found a waterproof Fitbit Charge on Amazon. It's about $100 more than the regular charge but since I'm a lap swimmer, I love it.0 -
@thereshegoesagain
When you swim with your fitbit does each stroke count as a step? I am curious because I don't wear my Flex when doing non-step activities, like Zumba, tennis, or bike riding. I am thinking of joining a gym so that I can swim.0 -
I freaking love my Fitbit HR. I had the black one but it broke. The manufacturer gave me a full refund and I got a pink one. It's awesome.
I just bought a used one on ebay for $65. Hopefully it doesn't break. I wonder how accurate it is if you are doing alot of activity with your arms? I figure it will be worth it just to keep me a little more mindful of my health. I have a vivofit 2 right now and it's good i just kinda wanted the hr monitor. I have a couple chest strap ones but, having it all in one is more convenient0 -
I think all your reasons are excellent reasons to get a fitness tracker. I have the Fitbit One and I love it. So far I find the calorie burns to be accurate. I log all my food in mfp and all my exercise in Fitbit and eat back most of my exercise adjustment and so far I am losing as expected. I actually lose a little more than my goal so I probably should eat all of my adjustment. I got the One mostly because I didn't want to wear a tracker on my wrist. It was also only about $80 which I didn't think was too bad. It does track sleep too. My main exercise is walking so I didn't think that I needed a HR monitor. It definitely motivates me to move more.0
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I debated a long time too...I got one....don't regret it at all ever.
I have a Jawbone and I find it motivates me to move more....I mean I was active before but now it's probably 4x a much.
I have the activity alert set to 15mins...so it buzzes me if I don't move accordingly every 15mins...speaking of which I just got buzzed time to take a stroll to get some water...2 -
@EmbeeKay
When I first started with MFP I didn't use my Fitbit at first. As soon as I started using it and syncing it to MFP I was much more successful at losing weight.
I am a teacher and am on my feet a lot. At 2500 steps I have exceeded my lightly active status and start earning exercise calories back. Unless I actually go for a run/walk in the evening, I don't eat my every day steps back. I do usually go for a 5.5 mile walk every day, so I always have st least 400 calories to work with. I also use my Runkeeper app when doing this, and the calorie burned on that are always the same as my Fitbit Flex, so I know it's accurate.
Breastfeeding burns calories, but I have no idea how you could track that.
Good luck!
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Yes!! they may not be super accurate but once you get "addicted" to reaching that 10,000 steps you'll do it every day. even on my "rest" days i make sure i get all my steps in. It really has helped me get off of my booty! and I compete w myself to beat my best steps days1
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@thereshegoesagain
When you swim with you fitbit does each stroke count as a step? I am curious because I don't wear my Flex when doing non-step activities, like Zumba, tennis, or bike riding. I am thinking of joining a gym so that I can swim.
I haven't figured out yet how it works. I push a button on it when I start my swim and again when I finish and the calories burned show up. They are quite close to the number I had guesstimate I burned before I had the Fitbit. I believe it works off of my heart rate.
My main complaunt is that it is VERY difficult to read when outdoors.0 -
Yes! My Fitbit One synced to MFP has works well for me.... and I love "earning" calories to eat. Definitely a motivator to move more for me, and I consistently lose when eating the calories I earn. I have been using this same Fitbit for 2 years and still going strong, although I did buy a replacement clip on Amazon when the original broke after a year and a half of daily use.
I wear mine clipped on my bra between the cups. My DH also wears one, clipped into the little watch pocket of his jeans. I find the One (or Zip, any clip-on version really) much more flexible than the wrist based ones.0 -
I have the UP by Jawbone. A Sports Authority by me is going out of business so I got it for $30! It a tad bit older since they have three new ones after it but I love it and it motivates me a lot. I see no wrong with getting one.0
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I love my Fitbit charge hr, hate taking it off to charge, and I know I'm not taking advantage of the many more features it offers. I just look at the calories I've eaten (from mfp) and the calories burned for the day. I look at my weekly report to make sure I've burned at least 1700 calories more in that week for a .5 lb weight loss. It's useful to also learn how much I was actually burning from certain exercise and workouts I did. Because I was pouring sweat and gasping for air after my one of my les mills or Jillian Michaels or TRX workouts, I would've bet any amount of money that I was burning at least 500 calories. I think I maxxed at 210 tops, gulp!! Good info to know!0
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I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
I disagree. I spend my weekends in the mountains doing long hikes and bike rides. Sadly I spent my weekdays sitting at a computer. To be more consistent I would have to stop exercising so much on weekends; clearly that wouldn't help my weight or fitness goals.0 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
I disagree. I spend my weekends in the mountains doing long hikes and bike rides. Sadly I spent my weekdays sitting at a computer. To be more consistent I would have to stop exercising so much on weekends; clearly that wouldn't help my weight or fitness goals.
Or be more active on weekdays or compensate manually.0 -
I'm already pretty active on weekdays but I work 8 hours and commute for another. So I walk for my lunch hour, and spend an hour cycling in the evening. I have all day on weekends.
I don't think anybody out there has the exact same schedule I do, but I've noticed when I've taken a day of mid-week that there are a lot fewer people on the trail on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. From that, I conclude that other people also have more free time on some days than they do on others. Consistency day to day is an arbitrary goal that doesn't fit in with a lot of peoples' schedule and isn't really necessary to strive for in and of itself.2 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
I disagree. I spend my weekends in the mountains doing long hikes and bike rides. Sadly I spent my weekdays sitting at a computer. To be more consistent I would have to stop exercising so much on weekends; clearly that wouldn't help my weight or fitness goals.
Or be more active on weekdays or compensate manually.
Or just continue doing what s/he's doing that obviously works for him/her!3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
I disagree. I spend my weekends in the mountains doing long hikes and bike rides. Sadly I spent my weekdays sitting at a computer. To be more consistent I would have to stop exercising so much on weekends; clearly that wouldn't help my weight or fitness goals.
Or be more active on weekdays or compensate manually.
Or just continue doing what s/he's doing that obviously works for him/her!
QFT0 -
I like my Garmin VivoFit. For things like swimming, I wear it with the heart monitor, and set it up as an 'activity' and have good results.
It's really helped me have a clearer picture of how much activity I do during the day. Who knew I could burn through my 10,000 steps just cleaning house? And I don't even have that big of a house!0 -
You will hear rants about the inaccuracies of such devices, but I have found my Charge HR to be quite accurate with one caveat. It does give me false steps when driving, sometimes quite a lot. Solved that by using Drivebit, which posts my driving to Fitbit for me. Starting out morbidly obese, I don't think I could have made through the "2 lbs a week" stage without knowing how many exercise calories I could eat. Now that I have slowed my loss to 1 lb a week, I have still found it to be very accurate. I love mine and am even anxious any time I have to take it off to charge!0
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I don't use fitness trackers or calculate calories from exercise or activity. I set and adjust my calorie level by how I'm progressing towards my weight loss/maintain/gain goal. For example, if I'm more active, then my weight will begin to decrease and I'll need to up my calories. Since I'm looking at the result I'm actually interested in (weight change), it's a good way of letting me know if I'm on the right track.
I will say that calorie trackers can be a good thing to help you stay at a certain activity level throughout the day, but I wouldn't use them to earn more calories. I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
Unfortunately we are in the minority. To me it's a glorified pedometer. It always will be.
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I don't use fitness trackers or calculate calories from exercise or activity. I set and adjust my calorie level by how I'm progressing towards my weight loss/maintain/gain goal. For example, if I'm more active, then my weight will begin to decrease and I'll need to up my calories. Since I'm looking at the result I'm actually interested in (weight change), it's a good way of letting me know if I'm on the right track.
I will say that calorie trackers can be a good thing to help you stay at a certain activity level throughout the day, but I wouldn't use them to earn more calories. I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.
Unfortunately we are in the minority. To me it's a glorified pedometer. It always will be.
I don't see why you see this as an unfortunate thing.
A food scale, a fitness tracker, Trendweight and/or other weight tracking apps, whatever one's diet of choice or workout routine is; all of these are optional tools that assist people in reaching their goals. Pedometers have been around for a long time; I can imagine how much of a nightmare the manual click ones were to use. Like all technology, improvements have been made over time that benefit the user greatly. I do use a Charge HR, but before that existed 13 years ago, I was able to get myself from 190 pounds to 119 pounds just by eating less and moving more. Unfortunately I didn't know about CICO back then, so for a few years I'd bounce between 115 and 140, but never any higher. Now I'm 111 pounds and the knowledge of CICO and the use of my food scale and my Charge HR have been paramount in my success. In fact, without my food scale and Fitbit, I would be afraid to eat as many calories as I do and I would be underweight at this point, trying to find some sort of middle ground. There are many ways to fiddle around to find your maintenance, deficit, or surplus calories but a fitness tracker can be an efficient way to do so. It's not perfect, as there is nothing that can pinpoint CICO with 100% accuracy, but I think anything that gets people active, glorified pedometer or not, is a positive thing overall.1 -
I've enjoyed mine simply because I like meeting my 10,000 steps goal each day. I pretty much ignore the calories burned though. I have found it to be pretty inaccurate. Like you, I breastfeed and there's no way to track that. I also do a lot of activities that don't seem to be tracked as accurately. It usually tells me my calorie burn is 1600-1700 a day but I eat closer to 2000 a day and maintain. I feel like a pedometer may have been a better way to go for me!0
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ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »I like my Garmin VivoFit. For things like swimming, I wear it with the heart monitor, and set it up as an 'activity' and have good results.
It's really helped me have a clearer picture of how much activity I do during the day. Who knew I could burn through my 10,000 steps just cleaning house? And I don't even have that big of a house!
I have a vivofit as well and find that it is so inaccurate when I'm cleaning the house! Often I'll be working my butt off cleaning and I'll have the little red flashing light tell me I've been inactive for over an hour. It always pisses me off! Or carrying around loads of laundry and stuff like that, it was underestimates my steps! On days that I spend a lot of time cleaning, I end up with super low numbers.
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Wow, thank you, everyone, for your replies! I really appreciate the feedback!0
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I have an UP24 by Jawbone, I like it well enough but I have found it grossly underestimates my caloric needs for the day. MFP set me at 1660 to lose a pound a week and jawbone would tell me I should only eat 1200 for the day. I now use it only for motivation when I have been sitting too long and to gauge how active I have been and how I can become more active.0
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I think people do better when they have a specific calorie goal that they can aim for that is the same every day. Consistency wins.NorthCascades wrote: »I disagree. I spend my weekends in the mountains doing long hikes and bike rides. Sadly I spent my weekdays sitting at a computer. To be more consistent I would have to stop exercising so much on weekends; clearly that wouldn't help my weight or fitness goals.
Well said. With a full time desk job, I simply cannot be as active during the week as I'd like. Yesterday I gardened for three hours and was proportionally more hungry and ate accordingly than the day before when my job and other commitments sucked up all my time.
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