fit bit or something similar?

Here are a few pictures of my dashboard for my Charge HR to give you an idea of what Fitbit can do. In my opinion, the challenges alone are absolutely worth it.

I appreciate that many people enjoy the social aspects of these tools, as well as the reminders to move, the counting and there is nothing wrong in those things, that's for sure. In the end for me, there's some element of how are you (as in you) thinking about, keeping track of and most importantly evaluating your plan so you can refine it for yourself. In my perspective (for me) I have taken to realizing that there are many fudge factors in all the things to go into any plan; metabolic calculators are not precise, calories in food can vary, mapping HR to calories burned is not precise, impacts of macronutrients on the bodies function is chalk full of challenges, the list is endless. Because of this perspective, I've determined that having a few conservative elements (meaning uncounted) in my plan will assist with keeping things balanced. So, I don't count all the steps I take walking to work, I don't track my walk to the grocery store 2-3 times a week, I don't track my walk to the gym 5 days a week, I only account for my actual workouts. That said if I intentionally 'take a walk' for the purpose of it being a part of my plan, then I track that (by time). All the other ancillary stuff (taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc...) I just offer up as a buffer to all the other things that are maybe miscalculating in the OTHER direction. Again, as I started out, I think these things are great tools, the answer to the question of will one of them be of benefit to you will most likely situate itself around your perspectives and what will help those perspectives assist in making good choices.

Ashley2733 wrote: »

So, Ive been looking over peoples diaries and what not on my friends list and I see people using fitbits or something similar, and it has the calories they burned from their fitbit synced with MFP. My question is, is it worth getting one? What exactly is the point in it? I guess Im confused and just want some input on it before I would take the money to go buy one. Does it calculate your overall calories burned for the day ? or work outs? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

-Ashley

Hi Ashley,

The point of activity trackers is to motivate you to be more active. My FitBit One and previous non-smart pedometer did work for that.

FB will give you an overall calories burned, but not with any great degree of accuracy.

I recently lost my FB and went back to my non-smart pedometer, but I miss getting info about stairs (elevation), so just downloaded the MapMyHike app to my phone.