Fitness Tracker HELP

I just got a Garmin Vivofit HR and so far I am loving it. Have only had it a week so cant yet say how reliable it is but I got mine on Amazon, I got the rebuilt one and added a 3 year extended warranty and it was still well under $100.

Have had the Fitbit Flex and Charge HR before and they were fine but I got tired of them dying on me every 6 months.

Comparisons between the Garmin and the Charge HR

Calories/Steps-Garmin seems to credit me fewer steps and calories than the Fitbit. my average step count with fitbit for a workday was 15k and with Garmin it is more like 12k. The fitbit was crediting me with stairs/elevation I wasn't climbing also, Garmin so far has not credited any climbs that were not actual climbs. I figured because I do a lot of bending and lifting in my day.
Garmin tells me what my net is for the day and breaks down CICO and BMR so it is easier to understand the relationships of those things.

Heart Rate-The heart rate monitor for the Garmin seems about the same as the Charge. I get similar values for the things I do. I like the graphic the Garmin gives me more than the Fitbit one. It also tells you what your average rate for the past 4 hours and the day were as well as high and low. It also has a graph that shows your heart rate against your step count which is interesting.

Sleep Tracking-Both seemed to be accurate. Garmin doesn't blind me every time I move with a brightly lit display which helps with minimizing sleep interruptions. I did hear that this was also improved in the HR2. A friend of mine has it.

Community-Fitbit has a bigger base and you are likely to have more friends who use it to do challenges with. Garmin seems to be less widely used but they also have groups you can join as well as a challenge group for pretty much anyone. I have found a group of people in my area to share the experience with. None of my friends uses the Garmin so I don't get to do challenges with friends. But I don't really mind.

Display-I really like the amount of information I get on the Garmin unit. It allows me to customize things like orientation of the clock face, how it displays time and date, adjust the backlight brightness and alerts from my phone. My old Charge HR did not have these features and I don't know what the HR2 has.

Wearability-Both were comfortable. Garmin seems to have a somewhat better put together band and is slightly more bulky bit not enough to bother me( and I am extremely sensitive and picky about how things feel). The unit is held in place with hardware rather than just glued as the Fitbit was. I have seen aftermarket kits that allow for bands to be replaced. The old Charge HR was not able to change the bad and the unit appeared to be permanently fixed with a glued seam that has been known to fail The new Charge2 my friend has can have interchangeable bands so this was fixed in the new version.

Insights. This is a Garmin thing. It will tell you how you compare to the average user. For instance it tells me this week that I took more steps than 67% of other users in my age group.

App-Both apps worked well for me. I use an Android powered phone. I like the Garmin a little more as appearance and design goes but both were fine for my use.

PC interface=I always had issues with tiles loading on the Fitbit Connect site. Never an issue yet on Garmin Connect.

Other- I really enjoyed the Fitbit adventures that had come out just as my Charge HR died. The hikes in Yellowstone with 360 snapshots of the places along the way were a fun way to see where my daily steps could take me. Garmin does not have anything like this as far as I know.


Hope this is helpful.