Fitbit Advantage yes or no?
KimParrott
Posts: 9 Member
Why buy?
1
Replies
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Because I am a huge stats junkie and it motivates me to move more. I also have unusually high NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis = calorie burn from being active in day-to-day life) and it's the best way to track that.11
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I like mine because having a step goal and competitions with friends motivates me to be active when I would rather just sit. Though the con is that Fitbit isn't always good at tracing non-step exercise.2
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Because I just walked back and forth in my garage for 30 minutes to reach my 10,000 step goal to earn extra snack calories for a granola bar or two haha
In all seriousness I have had my Fitbit charge HR for almost a year and I've lost 25lbs without calorie counting I just started calorie counting last week and I lost 3lbs oh and For someone who likes to see there stats it really showed me how little I was walking before even when I thought I was active. Oh and I never take it off except to do the dishes and shower it's my favorite accessory11 -
Love my Alta. Button fell off my original fitbit. Avoid ones with buttons.1
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I have the simple model the zip only tracks steps/miles and calories burned. For me its good enough and I like it when other friends compete to see who walked the most on a particular day. It really keeps me moving, for example it was rainy yesterday I did not reach my goal and was quite low on my steps so I took each dog for a walk around the block (instead of doing them together) made me walk a bit more. If I hadn't checked my steps I wo Ould have stayed on the couch.1
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My fitbit motivates me to move more, plus seeing my calories go up in my diary throughout the day spurs me on too.
I was averaging around 2000-3000 a day steps before i got my fitbit, yesterday i finished the day at 22,500.15 -
Why buy? No idea. I am hoping some well wishing person doesn't get me one for Christmas.
I realise a lot of people enjoy them, but I don't. My daily activity is more than just walking and the thought that I would pace the house just to reach an arbitrary number, rather than do the more whole body movements that I do, scares me.
I do have an old fashioned pedometer that I will clip on me (5-6 times a year) to get pace estimations when I start training for a race.
If you think it will help you with your goal see if you can borrow one. That is what I did, and how I decided that they weren't for me at this point in time.
They also tend to drastically underestimate my NEAT.
Cheers, h.1 -
I have a Xiao Mi fit band. I use it's Calories over MFP since MFP seems very high. Xiao Mi calculates about half of MFP / Mapmywalk so I go with that.0
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middlehaitch wrote: »Why buy? No idea. I am hoping some well wishing person doesn't get me one for Christmas.
I realise a lot of people enjoy them, but I don't. My daily activity is more than just walking and the thought that I would pace the house just to reach an arbitrary number, rather than do the more whole body movements that I do, scares me.
I do have an old fashioned pedometer that I will clip on me (5-6 times a year) to get pace estimations when I start training for a race.
If you think it will help you with your goal see if you can borrow one. That is what I did, and how I decided that they weren't for me at this point in time.
They also tend to drastically underestimate my NEAT.
Cheers, h.
if that part was in reference to me that's kinda low you have no idea what my background or story is. I have had 3 open heart surgeries and I am only 27 years old. Walking is the only exercise I can do and I can only do it in 10-15 minute increments. I would love to be able to do strength training or be able to run a marathon let alone a 5k, I try everyday to be the best I can be and if that's pacing my garage (because its cooler) to burn some extra calories i'm going to do just that18 -
@kksmom1789 no it wasn't aimed at you. Please don't think it was a personal attack. (I am not that kind of poster)
It was a general observation.
Both friends in real life, and people on this forum pace to get their steps in.
There is nothing wrong with it, it is just not my cup of tea.
I thought it worth letting the OP know that a digital movement monitoring device isn't for everyone- and why I had decided it wasn't for me.
Cheers, h.3 -
I have a fitbit flex and I love it. I don't wear it on my wrist though, I always wear it on my ankle or clip it to my shoe to get a real step count and not just how much I gesture. I am in a constant fitbit contest with a bunch of my friends and that will always encourage me to move more.
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Thanks all.0
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I realized when I was at the gym this morning that I didn't have mine. I feel like my gym time was wasted...lmao. I went back home to get it. I love the stats, the reminders, and crushing my goals. The weeks or times I lose weight, I would look at my stats, likewise, when I don't lose weight, I look at my stats and could tell I had a slow or sluggish week. This is one of the best investments for myself on this fit journey. I have the FitBit Charge 23
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I've never had one...have never seen any reason to have one.0
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It really motivates me to move, I love my fitbit. Especially if you can do step challenges, I do step challenges with people from work. Its great!0
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I enjoy my fit bit because I'm able to use it as a stop watch to log workouts and it monitors heart rate while I'm exercising so I'm more accurate about how intense my workouts are.0
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I'm very new to the fitbit alta but I like it. It helps remind me to move more and seeing my steps, active minutes, distance traveled, and calories burned throughout the day it such a good motivator. But I have it synced with MFP but never get any exercise calories added which is weird but I like the device itself, not too partial with the useless sync though.1
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I have to echo those that say they feel more motivated to move when wearing one
I started with a Fitbit One (which I still have, and wear in a band on my ankle). I recently got a Fitbit Charge 2, and I know there is absolutely no benefit to wearing 2 Fitbits, but I like wearing my One for the steps, and the Charge for the Heart Rate Monitor. I walk in place at work, and the Charge doesn't do a good job counting my steps =/
I recently got my fiance a Jawbone Up (he balked at spending $100 for a "fancy pedometer", and the Jawbone was on sale on Amazon for about $17 so I got it for him as a gift). It has a lot of similarities, tracks steps/movement, calories burned, etc. The main difference is that the Jawbone uses a battery and the Fitbits are rechargeable (the Jawbone Up also doesn't sync with MFP, although other Jawbone models do). At first he wore the Jawbone Up because I guilted asked him to do it. then after a few days he was opening the app on his own. After the first week he'd go grocery shopping and then call me and say "guess what! I got xx amount of steps!" lol!
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Aside from the motivating aspects, it's because of my Fitbit that I found out I could eat so much more than I thought.3
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I used to have a One but it was 3 years ago and I got bored with it. Now I have a Charge 2 and I love it. It was a huge eye opener about what a difference it makes if I sit on the couch for an hour or go for a 15 minutes walk... Never realized that trying harder to be on my feet all day makes such a huge difference (I'm talking 1000 calories a day there).
I love the sleep tracker also!4 -
Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.0 -
Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.0 -
Maxematics wrote: »Aside from the motivating aspects, it's because of my Fitbit that I found out I could eat so much more than I thought.
I think this is one of the only benefits that I can really think of...so many people don't realize how much energy they expend merely existing and going about their day to day and think they need to suffer and eat like little birds and do incessant amounts of exercise to lose weight.2 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
And how could we know what issues the Charge2 has that show up after a year since it hasn't been out that long yet?4 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
And how could we know what issues the Charge2 has that show up after a year since it hasn't been out that long yet?
Touche', good point
Maybe older version fitbits didn't start showing faults until later?? 0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
You can google them. I didn't realize until mine went crazy how much of a widespread issue this is. I don't think they're at the same level as the Charge (because the 2 is new, plus at least you can replace the band) but it seems a lot of them already have the same issues (won't charge, won't sync with your phone, flashes on and off etc)
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Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
You can google them. I didn't realize until mine went crazy how much of a widespread issue this is. I don't think they're at the same level as the Charge (because the 2 is new, plus at least you can replace the band) but it seems a lot of them already have the same issues (won't charge, won't sync with your phone, flashes on and off etc)
Every time I have a sync issue it's solved by unpairing and re-pairing the device.
Exactly what search term should I be using? Because a simple search using the word "issues" turned up a problem that was fixed with a patch.
The last time mine was acting weird, it turned out I didn't have the latest firmware update installed. Installing it fixed it right up.2 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
You can google them. I didn't realize until mine went crazy how much of a widespread issue this is. I don't think they're at the same level as the Charge (because the 2 is new, plus at least you can replace the band) but it seems a lot of them already have the same issues (won't charge, won't sync with your phone, flashes on and off etc)
Every time I have a sync issue it's solved by unpairing and re-pairing the device.
Exactly what search term should I be using? Because a simple search using the word "issues" turned up a problem that was fixed with a patch.
The last time mine was acting weird, it turned out I didn't have the latest firmware update installed. Installing it fixed it right up.
Lucky for you.
Most of them are on fitbits own help forums actually. Or on the BBB site (who do not endorse them due to the volume of complaints)
But I'm not going to start linking them here. I was talking about the charge/charge 2. Maybe things are better with other models but personally I wouldn't risk it.0 -
I have had no issues with my Charge 2. It lost "sync" with the watch once - which was fixed by following the instructions to re-sync on FitBit's website. I've had it for 4 months so far.1
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Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »Having had a charge for a while I would advise you to spend your money on a Garmin or an Apple Watch. Fitbit products have major design flaws (for example the charge band cracks and it eventually won't charge properly which is why they discontinued it). It looks like the 2 has other issues, which usually conveniently show up after a year (which is out of warranty so they don't have to replace it)
They actually agreed to replace mine, but only because I told them I knew the amount of BBB complaints they had against them and that they knowingly sold faulty products. Before I said that they just wanted to give me a 25% discount on a new one.
Anyway, I would advise you to choose wisely. Those things are only designed to last for their warranty. If you do buy one, buy it from Costco. They will refund it after any amount of time if it breaks.
@Heartisalonelyhunter what issues does the charge 2 have? I fiff and faff about upgrading to the charge 2 from my Alta, but i just cant justify buying a HR monitor as my only exercise is walking, so it would probably be a waste of money.
You can google them. I didn't realize until mine went crazy how much of a widespread issue this is. I don't think they're at the same level as the Charge (because the 2 is new, plus at least you can replace the band) but it seems a lot of them already have the same issues (won't charge, won't sync with your phone, flashes on and off etc)
Every time I have a sync issue it's solved by unpairing and re-pairing the device.
Exactly what search term should I be using? Because a simple search using the word "issues" turned up a problem that was fixed with a patch.
The last time mine was acting weird, it turned out I didn't have the latest firmware update installed. Installing it fixed it right up.
Lucky for you.
Most of them are on fitbits own help forums actually. Or on the BBB site (who do not endorse them due to the volume of complaints)
But I'm not going to start linking them here. I was talking about the charge/charge 2. Maybe things are better with other models but personally I wouldn't risk it.
I have had no issues with my Charge 2. When I had issues with my Charge HR, whether the band broke, it bricked, etc. they replaced it free of charge. I went through two Charge HRs in a year but because I'm very active I wasn't surprised. When it crapped out again in the fall, I was offered a refurbished one or 25% off a Charge 2 since I was past my warranty so I upgraded. In my experience, they have pretty good customer service.1
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