To Fitbit or Not to Fitbit?

I find them very helpful. I have the Charge 2 so I can use it to track pace while running and monitoring my heart rate. My sister uses hers mostly to track her sleep. It's a tool, the more you use it the more useful it will be, but it isn't necessary by any means.

I have the original....practically an antique...but it tracks my steps and works with MFP, so it always adds in some extra calories, which I like.

Works fine for me, Flex2 user here.

I love my fitbit. I have a blaze and I wear that thing everyday all day.

It's been a good tool for getting a handle on my daily activity level, and the changes to it seasonally - for the purpose of not creating too much deficit and help maintaining.

Cardio workouts were already done with a Garmin system and tweaked for accuracy of calorie burn, lifting was and still is manually logged for accuracy.

I use another program for tracking workouts, so Fitbit app/site is limited even in that regard.

I have early step-based model too (hence the need to correct calorie burn), and have thought about it would be nice to have before waking restingHR in mornings. Through the day I can just take it. I know HR for a hard walk so anything during the day is less than that and not as meaningful.
Sleep patterns and quality is pretty much known without outside aid (gee, woke up tired), so don't see that as useful.

So if I lost it, I could probably duplicate functions with a pedometer, but more manual work required to use the info probably with other tools, so the syncing is nice.

I love my Fitbit Charge HR. I find it keeps me active during the day and helps me track my sleep at night. But like others have said, it is a tool. It's not going to make you do anything. It all starts with your own willingness and motivation to make a change.

Maybe a few comparison videos on Youtube are in order to get the gist of what each model is able to do and how they compare with other brands. There are many activity trackers on the market these days.

To determine which one you want, you need have an idea about what you want it to do for you. Alarms/reminders on MFP and other health apps on your cell phone might do the track but maybe not.

I've found that it doesn't matter whether a Fitbit is accurate so much as that it is consistent with itself.

Once you've benchmarked what it takes to do 25k steps or 50 floors (or whatever your goal) in a day/week/month, you've established some analytical data that you can use to bootstrap yourself to the next level.

I had a Charge HR and loved it. Then I misplaced the charger and didn't wear one for about a week. During that time my activity dropped considerably especially my walking. I have arthritis and I need to walk a lot throughout the day to help alleviate the aches. I didn't realize how much it helped remind me to get up and move until I didn't have it one. I've since gotten the Alta HR which is a little smaller, cuter and gives some interesting insight into sleep which is so often neglected as an important element of a healthy lifestyle.

I do a lot of step based activity so it's ideal for me. But I understand they're not as helpful for non-step based activities.

Good tool to work with your weight loss and Fitness journey