Thinking of getting a fitbit

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angelsja
angelsja Posts: 860 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Pros & cons of getting a fit bit please for me it's alot of money to invest so I don't want to get one if it's not worth it
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  • teranga79
    teranga79 Posts: 202 Member
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    I only got mine yesterday but so far I love it! :)
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,545 Member
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    What do you want to use it for and what do you hope from it? Without knowing nobody can tell you if it's worth it. Just wanting to have a gadget because other people have it.. well.. go for it or don't.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i found it a waste of money.
  • davidjohndougal
    davidjohndougal Posts: 1 Member
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    There was an interesting article in the Guardian the other day: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2018/jan/31/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-fitbit
  • passenger79
    passenger79 Posts: 257 Member
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    Love mine , definitely made me move more.
  • jennabun101
    jennabun101 Posts: 54 Member
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    Love mine! Reminds me to keep moving.
  • angelsja
    angelsja Posts: 860 Member
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    I would like to be able to know how many calories I'm burning from day to day track my heartbeat and calories while working out
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,545 Member
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    Ok, calorie estimates are spot on for many people, but way off for many others. If I trusted my fitbit I'd eat about 2500kcal too much per week. Also keep in mind that there's no correlation between heartrate and calorie burn, especially not for anything other than steady state cardio, and certainly not for people who don't know their maximum heartrate. Yet fitbit (and all other trackers) calculate calorie burn based on that. Thus be careful there and don't just trust the numbers.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 595 Member
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    My charge 2 does all those things. I was sceptical but after a month and a half I wouldn’t be parted from it.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited February 2018
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    I loved mine and it definately helped me reach my goal and be aware of how much/little I was moving. My Fitbit One started playing up last year so I decided I would go it alone after having been a Fitbit'er for 4 years and I haven't looked back. It turns out I don't need a gadget to get me up and moving any more :smile:

    It was pretty good at calculating my TDEE.

    So it depends on how you are, if you need a push to move and think a device might help with that then go for it.
  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
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    Depends on what your needs and expectations of it are.
  • JackieT17
    JackieT17 Posts: 2 Member
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    I have a Fitbit Charge 2. My teenage daughter has an exercise programme she needs to follow every morning and needs timing in 30 second blocks. By using the interval workout timer, rather than watching her from the side and using my phone as a timer, I can time her and also do exercises myself in either 30 second or 1 minute blocks. So while I like all the other things like the step counter etc. etc. etc. the timer has definitely made my life easier and got me moving more (plus she doesn't feel like she is the only one doing anything :))
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    I love mine!
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    Cons - The build quality is terrible and they fall apart. I've been through 3 Fitbit Charge HR's in 12 months.

    Great shame as the idea of an activity tracker is brilliant for adherence, in my opinion
  • kittiwakeh
    kittiwakeh Posts: 8 Member
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    I have a second hand fitbit one so it wasn't very expensive. It really helped when I was starting out improving my fitness and healthy eating as it showed me how little I was moving. Trying to reach the targets I set myself for step count and for stairs climbed really helped motivate me. Now a few years in its nice to have but isn't so useful as I have learnt from how my body feels to know how active or inactive I have been and my preferred exercise workouts don't necessarily generate many steps.

    My suggestion would be to get a cheap second hand model and see if it's something that is useful. If it is you can then upgrade to one that has the features you want.

    My fitbit one also has a sleep function but apart from the initial novelty I don't use it so paying money to get specific features I am in the long term not bothered about is a waste of money.
  • ZRunner5Lulaica
    ZRunner5Lulaica Posts: 168 Member
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    I've been using Fitbit for a few years with different models. My favorite has been the charge, but the band was splitting and it made it's escape when I was taking down company Christmas trees. I now have an Alta, and am not as impressed.

    I'm actually planning to convert over to Garmin this year, since I think it'll fit my needs better.
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
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    trigden1991 wrote: »
    Cons - The build quality is terrible and they fall apart. I've been through 3 Fitbit Charge HR's in 12 months.

    Great shame as the idea of an activity tracker is brilliant for adherence, in my opinion

    Yea that charge hr is terrible quality! I just glues my band back together,it looked awful
  • taysukidesu
    taysukidesu Posts: 11 Member
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    I used a Fitbit Flex for about a year before it died. It was okay; I liked it enough to wear it constantly, at least, but the app was really buggy on my phone and laptop which kept me from really paying much attention to it. (The app seems to have improved a lot in the last two years from what I've seen online, though.)

    After getting an Apple Watch recently, I would really recommend saving for a higher end Fitbit model to get more features like movement prompts, flights climbed, exercise minutes, etc. My activity level has risen a lot now that I can easily reference it on my wrist without having to take out my phone and load a bunch of pages in an app.
    The basic Fitbit models are not worth the money when a cheap pedometer would do the same thing.
  • simcon1
    simcon1 Posts: 209 Member
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    I have a Blaze and love it!
  • Angierae75
    Angierae75 Posts: 417 Member
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    I credit my fitbit with my 43 pound weight loss. Having something to motivate me to move throughout the day and to show me that I am not "sedentary" and that I can eat more than I thought I could and still lose weight enabled me to eat at a level that I was comfortable and still lose weight. I kept trying to lose weight on 1200 calories and my fitbit showed me that I should be eating closer to 1500-1700. Made a world of difference.

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