I JUST bought a fitbit, they have a new one out called the Fitbit flex 2 that you can wear as a wristband OR a necklace, which is a huge bonus because I am not always swinging my arms. Sometimes I'm pushing a cart, a stroller, or holding my daughters hand and that entire time my steps aren't counting. I love fitbit because they seem to integrate and play nice with MFP and many other sites/apps, whereas my Samsung Gear S2 ONLY works with their app which is S Health. I can't sync it to MFP at all and I was very disappointed. I also like the weekly report that's emailed to me and the fact that you have a dashboard you can log into, which Samsung doesn't have.

I have zero experience with the Apple watch but I also have no incentive to get one, it doesn't seem to offer anything super special. I would check any apps you want to sync it up with to make sure it's supported before you get it. It's battery life isn't very long at 2 days vs fitbits 5 days which means you'd have to charge it almost every night.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/feature/wearable-tech/fitbit-trackers-vs-apple-watch-3612954/

I've only had my fitbit flex a few months but so far so good with durability. I have to charge it about once a week. It goes into the shower or pool, it has two bands for better sizing...it was exciting when I moved to the smaller band! The 'donkle' is VERY small and easy to misplace and has a stupid name. It's what's used to sync to a pc. I typically sync to my phone and my connection must be perfect. Sometimes I can't sync for days using the phone. I also can't seem to figure out how to make it automatically sync to MFP to count my activity. I believe there are better ones out there, but I can't compare with apple.

I thought it might be helpful to see the tracking that I find so beneficial.
You can of course get some of this even if you choose Fitbit but I'll start with the activity app that is unique to Apple Watch.

Here is what the main dashboard looks like.


Alternatively, when you slide this different sections over, you get these details


And I love the health app which can get info from all kinds of sources. There's so much that can be tracked on it. They really need to add ketones!

I love how it shows you averages by your selected sort. Like year, month, week or day.
You can see your trends on any info that you're tracking and see where you might want to adjust.




I use a sleep app called Sleep Cycle for sleep tracking. The Watch doesn't have that feature. But, if I were to wear it overnight I would be able to gather heart rate info for that time.


Heart rate data is cool to me for some reason. Lol


And I stopped tracking in MFP at the end of March but it's nice to see your nutrition info graphed like this too. You could even use it to compare to the graph from daily weight tracking to look for obvious trends.
It counts total carbs. You can see I was pretty much carnivore before trying All Animal April. (Avg.10g carbs)


So I guess that's my review of all things Apple health and fitness

I absolutely love my Apple Watch and Health app -- I have all my health/sleep/meditation programs loading data into it and I can look at trends easily.

Also, now it is possible to share with friends regarding your three rings. It created a healthy competition between my husband and myself while still keeping in mind our own limitations.

I have had a Fitbit and a Jawbone...and hands down the Apple Watch is my favorite.

Great question - I've been looking at buying an activity tracker too.

I haven't worn a wrist watch for over 10 years and I don't particularly like wearing bracelets. Is the Apple watch pretty big?

I like the idea of something smaller, but I also want something to hold me accountable and preferably something that will track more than one activity like walking and biking.

coloradoartstudio wrote: »

Great question - I've been looking at buying an activity tracker too.

I haven't worn a wrist watch for over 10 years and I don't particularly like wearing bracelets. Is the Apple watch pretty big?

I like the idea of something smaller, but I also want something to hold me accountable and preferably something that will track more than one activity like walking and biking.

I could never wear bracelets either and I hated the idea of wearing a Watch because I'm a rebel and had issues having "time" strapped to me. Lol
I know... kinda crazy.
Anyway, I wanted a tracker pretty badly because I was so bad about exercise and I thought it would help keep me aware of my lack of activity more than anything. I first bought a cheap Jawbone and I made myself get used to it because I really wanted the data.
Months later it started having issues and I decided to go for the Watch and I'm glad I did.

I have a small wrist so it looks kinda big on me. I bought the small one. It's really not that bad though. Penny for scale

ProCoffeenator wrote: »

I think before I really got into my competitions with my friends I would have considered the Apple Watch. Now I don't know!
I don't know how well apple does for the tracking at all.
I did own a jawbone before but it was always catching on things and getting pulled. Which is why I switched to using my fit bit. I liked the dashboard much better with the jawbone. The sleep tracker in my opinion was way better too! I loved the quotes and facts that it spat out.
My Fitbit has its downfalls too! If you are holding things or pushing things like a shopping cart none of those steps register! That's totally frustrating! I've also noticed that it counts arm movements as steps too which is sort of a bummer but I guess that almost makes up for the unregistered steps!
If I could put the two of them together as one I'd probably love it! Lol!

This is why I got the flex 2 - you can wear it on your bra or as a necklace to count steps. I don't always swing my arms so unless I start wearing watches on my feet there's no other watch that will work for me, lol.

Here's what the Dashboard looks like for fitbit - it's pulled what I've logged in MFP for my lunch/dinner and already entered the calories for me in the fitbit Dashboard so I don't have to go back and forth filling in both apps. When I update my weight lost in MFP it will update that in the fitbit dashboard automatically as well.



At the end of every week you get a nice summary of how well you did:

I've had 3 Fitbits (and the Aria scale). I also have a Samsung watch that does tracking etc but it is too heavy to wear all day. I just recently got a Samsung Galaxy band, I think I like it best out of all the things - it has a curved glass (plastic?) display on the face, keeps a good charge but it falls off. I bought some fasteners just made for it on Amazon. It is light enough to wear all day without being irritated by it. I like the Fitbits for that but over time I found they kept holding less and less of a charge especially if you kept pushing the button to check the time that seemed to run them down even faster.

missippibelle wrote: »

Wow! Thanks y'all for all the great advice. I am an apple girl too, so that is why I am leaning toward the apple watch. I had no idea it had information that detailed. With the fit bit I will miss the social aspect of it because I have challenges with a lot of my family, and I will miss the vibrating alarm to wake me up. Overall, I think the apple watch is going to win. I also am interested in the guided breathing that it has and the reminders to get up and move more.

After having the fit bit for a year, and now, living without it, I know without a doubt seeing the numbers makes me move more. I miss it so much.

I also am interested in getting text messages while I am working (we have strict rules on phone usage), so the extra apps and functions will be nice I think.

Apple Watch - I like the Pillow app for tracking sleep and the vibrating alarm. Calm is a great free app for meditation and guided breathing.

I like the Apple watch. I had a fit bit zip for awhile but I never changed the battery out.
The one thing I miss about FitBit is the social aspect. That is the one thing Apple Watch is lacking.