Fitbit, Apple Watch Or...

JaiNicole7
JaiNicole7 Posts: 88 Member
edited March 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
Fitbit and Apple Watch users please chime in. What makes you like it? I had a Fitbit Charge HR last year and it stopped working after a few months. I do not feel like my tracking apps on my phone: iHealth and MapMyWalk are very accurate for cals burned. I will walk 2-3 miles per day @ 3.3 mph and it will say less than 100 cals burned. While I definitely do NOT want to overestimate, I wonder if that is right. I know nothing is over 85% accurate or so (sure do miss the Bodybugg). But for someone who has neither, but is both challenged and motivated by numbers, what would you recommend?

Replies

  • KaleiAlanaSmith
    KaleiAlanaSmith Posts: 133 Member
    I’ve had the Charge HR for 2 years now and LOVE IT. I know you said yours stopped working... but did you like it when you had it? I plan on getting the Charge HR 2 in a couple weeks to upgrade. I find the calorie tracking is highly accurate. I’m in a deficit and eat my calories back that I burn and I’m still making some progress. Over the course of 2 years it’s been amazing. Compared to the Apple Watch I’m not sure.... it’s a nice gadget. I asked my friends who own the watch what they feel about it. One said the calorie tracker isn’t very accurate and the steps are off sometimes. The battery life is also alooooottt less than the Fitbit. I guess it’s because of the connection with cell and internet! But to each his own. :)
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    I had the fitbit flex, then the Charge HR. My Charge stopped working after 13 months during one of the over the air updates. They replaced it. That one stopped working after 11 months.
    I switched to an Apple Watch.

    fitbit pros: the app has a great UI
    cons: people commented on the HR lights

    apple watch pros: much more robust fitness features, fast charging.
    cons: if you like "challenges" you need to find a new cross device platform. My friends and I ended up using UA Record for Challenges since several of us got apple watches, and several stayed with fitbit.

  • angelb1983
    angelb1983 Posts: 160 Member
    I agree with Kalei. My husband has lost around 40 pounds in 4-5 months because he ate back what fitbit said he could. He rarely goes over but sometimes does eat 3,000+ calories because of his activity level. It has been really accurate. I think its all about finding something you can stick to and trusting the process.
  • Unknown
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  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    I love my Watch. But a big part of that is that it's waterproof, and has swim tracking. Plus, I'm an Apple girl.
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    I loved my Fitbits, but I wanted something more than what the Blaze offered and I didn't love the look of the Ionic.

    The Fitbit Versa may be on-par (ish) with the Apple Watch once it's released, and I totally would have gotten it!

    I found the calorie burn information to be accurate, if not a little bit of an underestimate. My Apple Watch is comparable.

    For me, the calorie burn information doesn't transfer over to MFP accurately, and I haven't figured out why. I set a custom calorie goal, so it's not a big deal for me. I never had that issue with Fitbit. Occasional syncing delays, but those were rare and nearly always sorted themselves out within a day.

    ~Lyssa
  • jbrown2339
    jbrown2339 Posts: 52 Member
    edited March 2018
    I've had a fitbit and now have the watch:

    Fitbit pros:. Does fitness well, and the competitions can be fun! Doesn't go for the Swiss army knife approach so options are focused on fitness, which they nail. Good integration with mfp.

    Fitbit cons:. Limited functionality. Like i would love to put in intervals for running vs use my phone, since I'm often pulling out the phone from a zipper pocket to see how long I have in current interval. No integration with apple health. Kinda plain, some are just ugly.

    Watch pros:. Broader capabilities beyond fitness. Control songs, volume, tracks from wrist (many Bluetooth headphones do as well). Able to check watch vs pull out phone to check on workout status. Respond to texts from watch. Lots of bands to custoize looks.

    Watch cons:. Shorter life means I no longer track sleeping stats, but that was never useful to me. Less focused stats than fitbit in core workout app. Lack of competitions, but I use my phone as mobile tracker now in Fitbit app so I can still compete. Mfp stats for me are a mess, I get negative adjustments for steps for some reason, so have to do that math in head. More expensive.


    Both are good in different ways. I had Fitbits for years and loved them, but got bored and do enjoy the wach, but the integration with mfp is wonky for me.
  • healthy2700mfp
    healthy2700mfp Posts: 13 Member
    I hated the Fitbit charge it overestimated my steps and calorie burn and it only lasted 6 months. I love my Apple Watch it is accurate in my exercise time distance and steps, plus it has more features
  • lois1231
    lois1231 Posts: 330 Member
    I love my fit bit charge 2. It has already helped me improve my life.
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    I had the fitbit One for a few years. The tracking of steps was great and manually adding in other non-step exercise calories seemed to be reasonably accurate over the long haul (I kept CICO data going). It clipped on my bra and I liked not having a wrist band. I stopped using it because I stopped caring about "steps."

    I've had apple watch 2 for almost a year. The "rings" are more motivating to me than counting steps ended up being. AW counts steps but I don't usually bother to look :) I initially used the various exercise options included with the watch but eventually went with another app, FITiv, which synchs up with the watch and apple health and MFP because of the intervals functionality, and the ability to set custom workouts and track heart rate/effort throughout them. It gives me both a numerical summary and a graph of effort and I find that way of presenting the data to be useful. I set the calories-out function on the FITiv app to record 75% of what the app estimates my "burn" to be. I am not convinced about that accuracy so as I keep data, I am noting total calories/day as well as "net" calories/day especially as I have upped my game in the exercise department.

    Price-wise, the AW is the more expensive option, but I kept the actual cost down by recycling 2 decade-old, un-needed laptops and a barely functioning ipad2 and applied the apple credit to the watch .... even with buying a couple of additional watch bands my cash outlay was $89 - can't beat that!

  • JaiNicole7
    JaiNicole7 Posts: 88 Member
    Thank you all so much for the feedback. I think all things considered I'll be getting the Fitbit Versa when it comes out next month. I'm excited!
  • takemetosingapore19
    takemetosingapore19 Posts: 86 Member
    Apple Watch
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    I had a Fitbit for about a year. It logged all kinds of whacky activity, sometimes giving me up to 1300 steps when I drove a couple miles of bumpy roads.

    I wore an Apple Watch every day for two years. It's a fantastic, well-made smartwatch and an okay/so-so activity tracker (mostly crippled by the lame software, which offers limited data, no cloud access from other devices and terrible archiving as far as referring to past workouts). It also requires charging pretty much every night.

    I now have a Garmin 935, which I've been wearing for six months. It has far better battery life than the Apple Watch, is a much better activity tracker and has far better software which offers much deeper, more detailed performance stats/metrics - which you can access from the watch itself, the smartphone app, or via the Garmin Connect website from your computer/tablet, etc. It tracks/displays your PRs much better than the AW and the social features (if you're into that) are more robust than the AW.

    The Apple Watch is a great smartwatch with acceptable activity tracking features. The Garmin is a great workout watch/activity tracker with acceptable smartwatch features. IMO, Fitbit is a tier below both of them as far as quality goes.

    And I'll admit that it was difficult for me to come to grips with all the above, because I'm a big Apple fan, own a lot of their products and think very highly of them. I just don't think they've (yet) put sufficient effort into being a major player in the fitness/activity tracker market.
  • KatsFitNow
    KatsFitNow Posts: 37 Member
    I’ve had Fitbits and I wasn’t sure if Apple Watch could do what fitbits could. But it does more! Especially because I swim with it... I feel like it fulfills heart rate/determining calorie expenditure accurately. I also love the motivation that comes from closing your “rings” on the Apple Watch.
  • the8BitGirl
    the8BitGirl Posts: 38 Member
    I used to be a Garmin girl until I got a Watch a couple of months ago. My watch tracks my strength training, and does it really accurately in my experience. Also as others have mentioned it is waterproof, which is a huge deal for me. I can also control my 3rd party fitness apps (like Jefit) as well as my music. Love it!
  • jwilk241
    jwilk241 Posts: 43 Member
    I love my Apple Watch. I've never owned a Fitbit but my husband did and it stopped working shortly after we bought it. I like the watch because it's not JUST a fitness tracker. It's a fitness tracker, watch, can connect to apps, make phone calls, and texts. I only have the Series 1 but I'm trying to upgrade to the Series 3 sometime this year.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    I'm a polar girl. I have a Polar A370 with 24/7 HRM among many other features. It's very accurate for me.
  • EMC85083
    EMC85083 Posts: 16 Member
    Apple watch! It is not as generous with calories burned during workouts but I would rather have it underestimate than overestimate. I found the fitbit to be very inaccurate... it said I was burning way more calories than I actually was. I also like that the Apple watch differentiates between active calories and BMR.
  • SaraTN
    SaraTN Posts: 536 Member
    Definitely the Apple Watch and FiTiv. I saw a news segment where they tested the popular trackers at a University where people were also hooked up to the machines used for athletes and measuring calorie burn. Apple was the most accurate - less than 10% variation where the other trackers were closer to 30% off. I have been using AW with the health app but just downloaded the FiTiv app because I like seeing all the data in one place.
  • andreaen
    andreaen Posts: 365 Member
    I have the AW and used to have a polar M400, the AW is great for most things, but really sucks for measuring heart rate during weight training/crossfit as it con't pick up my heart rate from the wrist when I bend it a lot. For walking, running, biking and normal day-to-day stuff it is great though :)
  • ladybug4233
    ladybug4233 Posts: 217 Member
    JaiNicole7 wrote: »
    Fitbit and Apple Watch users please chime in. What makes you like it? I had a Fitbit Charge HR last year and it stopped working after a few months. I do not feel like my tracking apps on my phone: iHealth and MapMyWalk are very accurate for cals burned. I will walk 2-3 miles per day @ 3.3 mph and it will say less than 100 cals burned. While I definitely do NOT want to overestimate, I wonder if that is right. I know nothing is over 85% accurate or so (sure do miss the Bodybugg). But for someone who has neither, but is both challenged and motivated by numbers, what would you recommend?

    Just an FYI, I had a fitbit that broke and after a year I emailed the company sent a picture and they sent me a new one just like that. They stand behind their product and were very nice to work with.
  • ladybug4233
    ladybug4233 Posts: 217 Member
    firecat1987 wrote: »
    I'm a polar girl. I have a Polar A370 with 24/7 HRM among many other features. It's very accurate for me.


    I love my polar watch and HR monitor. I recently ordered a pedometer just to calculate my unintentional steps.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Apple Watch all the way for me.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    andreaen wrote: »
    I have the AW and used to have a polar M400, the AW is great for most things, but really sucks for measuring heart rate during weight training/crossfit as it con't pick up my heart rate from the wrist when I bend it a lot. For walking, running, biking and normal day-to-day stuff it is great though :)

    Try the third party arm band for HIIT and stuff, or the polar chest strap. I am going to check out the newer sports loop as my wrists are bony and not round and I don't feel like I get great contact with the sport band.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited March 2018
    I feel lucky that all of my fitbits work. Seriously, even the Zip still works. I replaced them because I wanted something newer. I upgraded to the One, then to charge HR, then gradually started downgrading by turning off heart rate monitoring (it gives me inflated calories), then I bought the Alta (no HR) because it looked sleeker, then I got rid of the band and bought a clip holder because I wanted to wear a watch and I felt my Alta picked up hand movements. Moral of the story: what do you want out of your tracker? I paid for functionalities I thought sounded cool without considering what I really need, but that's my brain on gadgets so let it be a cautionary tale.

    Personally, I wouldn't do Apple watch because it's too bulky and I'm too clumsy (not to mention that I don't own any Apple products or phones to make use of the watch). I also hate charging things. I charge my Alta once a week, going to semi-daily charging would be bothersome.
  • SaraB_82
    SaraB_82 Posts: 45 Member
    ladybug4233 wrote: »
    JaiNicole7 wrote: »
    Fitbit and Apple Watch users please chime in. What makes you like it? I had a Fitbit Charge HR last year and it stopped working after a few months. I do not feel like my tracking apps on my phone: iHealth and MapMyWalk are very accurate for cals burned. I will walk 2-3 miles per day @ 3.3 mph and it will say less than 100 cals burned. While I definitely do NOT want to overestimate, I wonder if that is right. I know nothing is over 85% accurate or so (sure do miss the Bodybugg). But for someone who has neither, but is both challenged and motivated by numbers, what would you recommend?

    Just an FYI, I had a fitbit that broke and after a year I emailed the company sent a picture and they sent me a new one just like that. They stand behind their product and were very nice to work with.

    My Charge HR broke last week and they upgrade me to Charge 2 for free. Really good customer service.
  • ITUSGirl51
    ITUSGirl51 Posts: 191 Member
    I love my Apple Watch. The total calorie burn seems correct. It’s also water resistant. I also like it for texting, phone call and meeting notifications. If I put my phone down,the notifications will buzz on my wrist.

    The only annoying thing is that it doesn’t sync the calories you can eat with MFP completely. If you set it in exercise mode, it will sync your calorie burn very well. If you sync your steps, it will sync the calorie burn very well. If you take a lot of steps AND log exercise it won’t give you the step calories in MFP. For example, I walked the mall for about 45 min and it gave me 160 step calories in MFP. Later that day I took a 5 mile brisk walk while my AW was in exercise mode. It deleted alll the mall walk calories from MFP and just gave me the brisk walk calories. This happened a lot and I ended up under eating and losing weight faster than I wanted and hungry all the time. So I had to manually add more daily calories to MFP to make up the difference.

    I think the total calories I burn is correct on the AW. It just doesn’t sync really well with MFP.

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