To Fitbit Or Not To Fitbit - That is the Question....

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mtbusse73
mtbusse73 Posts: 93 Member
in Getting Started
Not to beat a dead horse - but should I get an activity tracker or not? Here's my normal gym routine: Some light stretching, hop on the stationary bike and ride for 20-30 minutes, then lift weights. Unless I strap that watch to my shoe I doubt it's gonna tell me much on that bike. Is it going to be another "gadget" I've got to keep charged and will wind up on ebay in a few months? Or will I be talking about it for years to come? Thanks for the thought and comments...
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  • jbplumber
    jbplumber Posts: 4 Member
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    It wakes you up on how few steps you do take in a day. I also now find myself taking the long way to the batroom, and get upset when i have to charge my fitbt un recorded steps LOL!
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    Been there done that...no longer use but once upon a time I loved it and felt it kept me motivated...
    but my becoming more active became the norm so I no longer needed a tracker to get me up and moving.
    Sounds like you have good routine already and probably don't need a gadget to keep you at it.
    I know I'm happier that I'm no longer focused on steps related exercise and can maintain my weight effortlessly by biking 5 days a week /40 mins along with strength training x 3.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    YES! HUGE eye opener. I realized that on my lazy days I don't even burn 1800 calories... so now I make sure to get 10,000 steps no matter what.
  • NikkiJRM
    NikkiJRM Posts: 328 Member
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    I had the same question last year, and read some opinion pieces on why they weren't necessary and skipped out. I just got a FitBit Charge 2 last week, and for me it's a real eye opener to see how active I am, or and how active I'm not. Health and activity isn't only dependent on your gym routine, but also how active you are throughout the day. On Saturday I spent literally an entire day food prepping and cooking. My HR was elevated the entire day. I also really like the sleep insights.

    If you're really on the fence and want to try before buying, check out http://www.lumoid.com You can rent different trackers and see if it's for you, or which one you like best.
  • prettygirlstorm1
    prettygirlstorm1 Posts: 722 Member
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    i absolutely love my Fitbit Surge. It keeps me motivated. It also tracks calories burned from activity. So OP when you are on the stationary bike it will track calories burned. I sleep in mine so it tracks my sleeping patterns and is also my alarm clock. It syncs with MFP which is also great!!!
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,072 Member
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    Sharon_C wrote: »
    My personal opinion: If you're new to weight loss and exercise I think it opens your eyes to how inactive people really are. It gets you up and moving.

    If you're already into exercise, the calories it says you burn is way off so you can't rely on it to base your daily caloric needs.

    I stopped losing weight by going by my Fitbit numbers, which tells me that I wasn't burning the amount of calories it says I was. I put it away 3 years ago and never got it back out. Once I stopped using it I started losing weight again.

    This differs from device to device and person to person, one month of reviewing loss against expected loss will tell you how accurate it is. I eat back all of the calories I get back from my watch and lose as expected, as do many others.

    I also had the opposite experience in terms of activity levels, I was far more active than I thought I was.

  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    I have never felt the urge to get one. I use my phone in my pocket for fitness that uses gps (walking, running, cycling) and manually enter "stationary" activities like dance. I have a chest strap heart rate monitor that I used to use all the time before I learned my patterns, avg heart rate for various activities, peak, etc.

    I think fitbit is most helpful for people who don't realize how inactive they are (newer to fitness?) or people who have desk jobs and need reminders to stand up. My caffeine addiction/water drinking habits keep me moving throughout the day, so I haven't bothered.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    I love my FitBit, but it's completely possible to lose weight without it. It's really just a matter of personal preference.
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
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    I like my FitBit, but I lost a majority of my weight without it. Initially, it made me realize that I wasn't moving much outside of my standard workout time, and I learned to walk more. I no longer need to know to move more throughout the day, but I still enjoy overshooting my 10k step goal and calculating my TDEE with help from my FitBit. Be sure to read both critical and positive reviews from Amazon, and make a decision from there. If you can wait, Black Friday is approaching in a little over a month, and if no sales happen before then, you can bet that there will be a sale on that day.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    mtbusse73 wrote: »
    Not to beat a dead horse - but should I get an activity tracker or not? Here's my normal gym routine: Some light stretching, hop on the stationary bike and ride for 20-30 minutes, then lift weights. Unless I strap that watch to my shoe I doubt it's gonna tell me much on that bike. Is it going to be another "gadget" I've got to keep charged and will wind up on ebay in a few months? Or will I be talking about it for years to come? Thanks for the thought and comments...

    Don't do that. If you put a walking tracker on your ankle when you ride a bike it'll tell you you walked a mile or whatever. That's like eating steak and entering popcorn.

    Garmin makes fantastic devices that can tell you meaningful things about your time on a bike (if it's set up for that) but not by wearing it on you ankle.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    If you're looking for an accurate calorie burn count I would advise against it. If you're looking for a cool device to wear that gives you semi-meaningful feedback about the amount you move in a day then they are great. The problem my wife and I found with them is that they are woefully inaccurate to base your daily calories on. For the longest time she could not figure out why she wasn't losing any weight, then we tossed the silly thing in the drawer and she started manually entering her exercise and she started losing weight. It was giving her twice the amount of calories it should have been because it was always counting steps, even when she wasn't walking. She could simply be standing in place doing the dishes and just from moving back and forth it would count hundreds of steps. Anyway, I look at this as a toy more than anything.

    Having said that, I do use a HR strap when I do exercise to help me measure intensity and HR zones. Even with that though, I figure calorie burns given to me with the HR strap are probably inaccurate at least by 30-40% at times. If you keep inaccuracy in mind all of these devices are good tools to use.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Unless you are trying to count calories from miscellaneous walking throughout the day, I'd say its a waste. It's not going to track any of what you list. It might be worth it if it motivates you to move (ie walk/run) more or if you have no idea how active you normally are, but otherwise the stationary bike will have a better clue about your speed/mileage/resistance than a Fitbit on your wrist. And if you decide to go for a run or a long walk, that is trackable (for free) via many phone apps.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    It depends on if that information is particularly meaningful to you...I personally never saw the point.
  • H_Ock12
    H_Ock12 Posts: 1,152 Member
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    I like my fitness watch because it keeps track of my miles and paces during trail running. Day to day, it's a reminder to get myself up from my desk and walk around.
  • mtbusse73
    mtbusse73 Posts: 93 Member
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    RunRutheeRun wrote: »
    Been there done that...no longer use but once upon a time I loved it and felt it kept me motivated...
    but my becoming more active became the norm so I no longer needed a tracker to get me up and moving.
    Sounds like you have good routine already and probably don't need a gadget to keep you at it.
    I know I'm happier that I'm no longer focused on steps related exercise and can maintain my weight effortlessly by biking 5 days a week /40 mins along with strength training x 3.

    Thanks Ruthee. I think you are probably right. I'd probably forget to charge it anyways!
  • maryannprt
    maryannprt Posts: 152 Member
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    What were you hoping a tracker would do for you? If it's just about keeping track of what you're doing in the gym, I wouldn't bother. You can enter all of that stuff manually, anyway. If you're interested in seeing how active you are during the other 23 hours of the day, it might be worthwhile for you.
  • himenaya
    himenaya Posts: 42 Member
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    I LOVE my FitBit. It's all about preference. Truth is I become a little obsessed on checking my fitbit and MFP more than I do my Facebook. lol
  • Aerona85
    Aerona85 Posts: 159 Member
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    I am more or less married to mine because my health insurance premiums are discounted based on my status in a “healthy habits” program and step counts in a day is one way to pretty easily get points (more than 5000, more than 10000, more than 15000).

    Beyond that, mine does seem to be pretty accurate as to calorie burn. Like others have said, that seems to be a personal thing. Works for some, not for others.

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