"Real athletes (lifters) don't use fitness trackers"

I lift with a tracker and it's true, it doesn't provide much additional benefit in terms of what you could get with your money vs a nice new Olympic barbell or a new squat rack or something (depending on the tracker $$)

For instance I purchased a fancy new Fenix 3HR, really nice GPS performance tracker that will probably make me breakfast if I asked. $500 CDN. It was my birthday so I got the gadget.

I'm currently really wanting a residential level power cage so I can safely heavier weights at home. I could get a cheap power cage and bench for that $500 and it would progress my lifting infinitely more than a tracker. Some days I wish I got the power cage, but the gadget sure is shiny.

Now when I go for a run, the tracker's the way to go.

If I were you and my goal was lifting, strength, power etc. Go for the lifting equipment. If I were you and my goal was "toning" (that vague word) and looking nice and fit, go for the tracker.

You'll need a new tracker in 2 years, you're lifting equipment will be good for a lifetime.

My two cents, depends on your goals.

I wear a fitbit to keep an eye on where my calorie burn is for the day. It's not perfect but I know what my TDEE is outside it from years of logging. It's a pretty close match. So if I am having a particularly hungry, I can look and see what it says I've burned. Some days I am a lot more active without realizing it or trying to me. I lift heavy things and do some cardio things - I don't really use it to calculate specific burns, but gauge where I am with background activity, if that makes any sense. Outside of all this, it's worth a 100 bucks just to track my sleep and HR.

Heart Rate Monitors are designed for long steady state cardio - running, biking, swimming. The algorithms are all based upon these models, so the more you stray from this, the less accurate your estimation.

I use a fitbit Flex 2 to track my daily steps, but switch over to a Polar H7 for my run/bike/swim. I don't use a tracker for lifting.

No I wouldn't think a tracker of any kind would help with your lifting. If you feel like you need to be more generally active during the day to achieve your goals, a tracker can help. (Getting a Fitbit helped me go from 4000 steps per day to 8000+ in a little over a year, yes I was a lazy *kitten*) If you are happy with how active you are, or are simply more focused on your lifting, then I think a tracker would probably be a waste.

EmbeeKay wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

I'm still stuck on the fact that the only 'real athletes' are people who lift.... mind.... blown....

Oh, that's not what he meant. He was saying, real, like, professional lifters don't focus on their step counts. Your mind does not need to be blown here.

He has a very good point. Most athletes would not track/trend this data as their workouts would ensure success in their respective sport. On the other hand professionals rely on data. Professionals tend to track and trend everything to tweak out the maximum potential and get/maintain the competitive edge.

CSARdiver wrote: »

Heart Rate Monitors are designed for long steady state cardio - running, biking, swimming. The algorithms are all based upon these models, so the more you stray from this, the less accurate your estimation.

I use a fitbit Flex 2 to track my daily steps, but switch over to a Polar H7 for my run/bike/swim. I don't use a tracker for lifting.

Heart rate monitors are just sensors, they don't have algorithms. They're like thermometers.

EmbeeKay wrote: »

I posted this in here (not in the fitness forum) because I wanted to get advice from lifters and bodybuilders. I'm about to turn 30 and I'm really excited to see what my body can do as soon as I'm done with my last pregnancy in July. I plan to focus on heavy lifting and see how strong I can get.

But I want to get lean, too. I also love to eat. So I brought up getting a fitness tracker to my husband. He shrugged and said, "Those are for counting steps. Not for lifters. I don't think serious lifters use those things."

Of all the research I've done, the ones that track your heart rate sound pretty useless anyway for figuring out how much you burn during a weightlifting session. And since I do minimal cardio (a couple miles a day maybe of walking the dog), and the rest is just walking around the house chasing the kids, I guess what I'm asking is, is a fitness tracker for a lifter a worthwhile purchase or not? Because right now I could either buy a FitBit or add equipment to my home gym and I'm wondering what's a better purchase at this point.

I am not sure if what you mean by real athletes, like, professionals with a call away to their dietitians, massage therapists, strength coaches etc etc? Well turns out I don't have any of those on my fast dials.

So I need to pucker up and try to estimate my TDEE, workouts, rest days, while navigating through my "real" work. The trackers, HR monitors helped me so much so far, so I don't really care what the "real athletes" do to be honest, I do what works for me. If you have a chance, I would give them a try though, its one of those things, works for some, doesn't for others.

I'd ask them what their marathon time is

A fitness tracker/fitbit, etc is going to be pretty useless for anything besides step based activity...it's really just a fancy pedometer. A fitness tracker may encourage you to move more...it may not, but as far as tracking anything meaningful for lifting, it won't.

I was really torn about this too. After reading a ton of reviews and watching a bunch of review YouTube videos, the only Fitbit that seemed to come close to being helpful for weightlifting was the Charge 2. (He used it in comparison to a chest heart rate monitor). Since I didn't want to waste money why undecided to do was download the Fitbit app on my phone and link it to Apple health. This way I could just use the pedometer on my phone for a while to see if I actually cared about any of the information. It was eye opening!

1) I don't move NEARLY as much as I thought I did. I always put lightly active but I'm basically sedentary, especially on weekends where I do work from home (separate from my day job). I did NOT like seeing that.

2) Since sometimes I put my phone down and walk around without it my numbers are less accurate. I realized just how much I want more accurate data. I suddenly really wanted a wearable to dial in those numbers.

3) I don't track my water intake on MFP, I just can't be bothered. But I love to track it on FitBit. I'm seeing that some days my water is stupid low.

4) Seeing how few steps I was taking really made me realize that I was ready to do more cardio. Get back to running. So I've started power walking with the Zombies, Run! app, and am working my way back to running 3km a night.

So maybe try using the Fitbit app on your phone for a while because it may help you discover what info is important to you before you take the plunge.

Oh at the start of this I was also torn between the Alta, Alta HR, and Charge 2. I ended up ordering the Charge 2 a few nights ago.