Cubii under-desk elliptical

Can't answer your question but definitely following because I'm curious about this as well. When you get it, please follow up to let us know your experience as I have been considering getting one myself! Hopefully someone here will have more info on this...

It will help mobility compared to regular sitting.

The syncing of the device to Fitbit should replace any step-based calorie burn Fitbit came up with.

Fitbit will keep the step count and perhaps the distance depending on what the Cubii sends, but the calorie count should be shown in a new Workout Record which will replace whatever Fitbit came up with for that chunk of time.
It may send distance too, which would replace Fitbit's estimate also - but that is just a goal stat.

My concern would be using Fitbit's exercise diary for review of things - I could see it being scattered with tons of little workouts depending on how the Cubii sends up a workout, if it's each time you stop for 5 seconds that would be bad, if it waits 5 min to decide you really stopped using it, then hopefully it back tracks to the past time and allows any Fitbit steps/distance/calories to then count from then on.

Since Fitbit is a replace-only system, not add-on, if a chunk of time with stats is replaced with a workout and it's stats - you could lose some valid info - if only 5 min, probably no big deal. Unless it's 20 x daily losing 5 min of you getting up and walking.

I'm very curious though what the device sends to Fitbit - if you could please update us I'd like to know.

Oh, about Cubii's calorie estimate - elliptical in general has no good formula's and studies have been all over the place because of the differences in resistance and how you do the motions.
Perhaps since Cubii is sitting style, they ran some tests for decent formula to use.
If they use the watts resistance from a decent motor you are pushing against - they can nail it just like a power meter on a bike. It'll only be net calorie burn in that case, not including the BMR - so a workout created with that would be missing calories on Fitbit.

Resistance does not equal weight bearing, two different things.
I cycle a lot, all the time I'm in the saddle it's a non weight bearing exercise - it's only when I'm briefly standing cycling that it becomes a weight bearing exercise.

My point wasn't long duration, low intensity exercise doesn't add up I simply said it can't be seen as the equivalent of steps.

Amerek412 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

A non-weight bearing rotation of an under desk cycle at (presumably low intensity) is nothing like a weight-bearing step walking.
Be very cautious/conservative of calorie burn estimates.

I definitely plan to take the calorie burns with a grain of salt. That being said I would think it could be given more credit than to call it totally non-weight bearing since it does provide resistance settings which cause you to actively push the pedals, rather than passively going through the eliptical motion with your legs. I could see myself using it for 4+ hours a day, so I'd think that slight extra effort adds up. We'll see...

heybales wrote: »

The syncing of the device to Fitbit should replace any step-based calorie burn Fitbit came up with.

Fitbit will keep the step count and perhaps the distance depending on what the Cubii sends, but the calorie count should be shown in a new Workout Record which will replace whatever Fitbit came up with for that chunk of time.
It may send distance too, which would replace Fitbit's estimate also - but that is just a goal stat.

My concern would be using Fitbit's exercise diary for review of things - I could see it being scattered with tons of little workouts depending on how the Cubii sends up a workout, if it's each time you stop for 5 seconds that would be bad, if it waits 5 min to decide you really stopped using it, then hopefully it back tracks to the past time and allows any Fitbit steps/distance/calories to then count from then on.

Since Fitbit is a replace-only system, not add-on, if a chunk of time with stats is replaced with a workout and it's stats - you could lose some valid info - if only 5 min, probably no big deal. Unless it's 20 x daily losing 5 min of you getting up and walking.

I'm very curious though what the device sends to Fitbit - if you could please update us I'd like to know.

Oh, about Cubii's calorie estimate - elliptical in general has no good formula's and studies have been all over the place because of the differences in resistance and how you do the motions.
Perhaps since Cubii is sitting style, they ran some tests for decent formula to use.
If they use the watts resistance from a decent motor you are pushing against - they can nail it just like a power meter on a bike. It'll only be net calorie burn in that case, not including the BMR - so a workout created with that would be missing calories on Fitbit.

From what I've read it takes a while to "report" to Fitbit, though I was hoping it would count as just steps/distance rather than a dedicated logged exercise. Honestly hadn't considered this so definitely something I'll lookout for.

I'll be sure to update this post with my thoughts on it once it get it though!

to the bolded point above:
I am interested in your experience with how much you do end up using it each day. I try to imagine maintaining a steady pace/resistance and am not sure I could do so without a lot of mental effort.

One of my concerns is how it could divide my attention on the job and cause my productivity to drop because i'm not giving sufficient focus to the reason I'm sitting at the desk in the first place.

Keep us posted!

Amerek412 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

A non-weight bearing rotation of an under desk cycle at (presumably low intensity) is nothing like a weight-bearing step walking.
Be very cautious/conservative of calorie burn estimates.

I definitely plan to take the calorie burns with a grain of salt. That being said I would think it could be given more credit than to call it totally non-weight bearing since it does provide resistance settings which cause you to actively push the pedals, rather than passively going through the eliptical motion with your legs. I could see myself using it for 4+ hours a day, so I'd think that slight extra effort adds up. We'll see...

heybales wrote: »

The syncing of the device to Fitbit should replace any step-based calorie burn Fitbit came up with.

Fitbit will keep the step count and perhaps the distance depending on what the Cubii sends, but the calorie count should be shown in a new Workout Record which will replace whatever Fitbit came up with for that chunk of time.
It may send distance too, which would replace Fitbit's estimate also - but that is just a goal stat.

My concern would be using Fitbit's exercise diary for review of things - I could see it being scattered with tons of little workouts depending on how the Cubii sends up a workout, if it's each time you stop for 5 seconds that would be bad, if it waits 5 min to decide you really stopped using it, then hopefully it back tracks to the past time and allows any Fitbit steps/distance/calories to then count from then on.

Since Fitbit is a replace-only system, not add-on, if a chunk of time with stats is replaced with a workout and it's stats - you could lose some valid info - if only 5 min, probably no big deal. Unless it's 20 x daily losing 5 min of you getting up and walking.

I'm very curious though what the device sends to Fitbit - if you could please update us I'd like to know.

Oh, about Cubii's calorie estimate - elliptical in general has no good formula's and studies have been all over the place because of the differences in resistance and how you do the motions.
Perhaps since Cubii is sitting style, they ran some tests for decent formula to use.
If they use the watts resistance from a decent motor you are pushing against - they can nail it just like a power meter on a bike. It'll only be net calorie burn in that case, not including the BMR - so a workout created with that would be missing calories on Fitbit.

From what I've read it takes a while to "report" to Fitbit, though I was hoping it would count as just steps/distance rather than a dedicated logged exercise. Honestly hadn't considered this so definitely something I'll lookout for.

I'll be sure to update this post with my thoughts on it once it get it though!

There is either an Activity Record, which Fitbit makes itself usually.
It's the stats from Fitbit for a chunk of time, so it's steps, distance calculated, and calories calculated. This is what is already in the daily totals. You can create an Activity Record for any chunk of time to see the stats for it - it's what a sleep record is really. It's basically just a snapshot of what is already there.

There is a Workout Record, which you can manually create on Fitbit using your own figures or database, or imported from other syncs.
This replaces the Fitbit stats for a chunk of time, for whatever is brought over. Usually not steps since that would prevent doing any challenges or contests correctly, sometimes distance if the 3rd party source is setup as trusted, but at least time stamp, duration, and calories. This will then be in the daily stats.

If it takes awhile, it's probably doing what I'd think would be best - don't send anything until it's sure you appear to be done, that way there isn't a bunch of small workouts.
I doubt it would see steps correctly, many on ellipticals with full movement miss steps already, and as mentioned already the steps seen have no bearing on distance or calories anyway which use formula for walking/running.

I'm mainly curious how it'll handle a large chunk of time, say that 4 hrs, with a bunch of paused action likely to happen. Best for chance of accuracy would be do what Fitbit does when no steps seen, assign a BMR level burn to that time. Then add on calories for the other time - then send one big workout up to replace the incorrect Fitbit seen stats.

amy19355 wrote: »

fitbit users: my experience with Fitbit counting steps or other exercise is unreliable.

on suggestion from a friend, I spent a few minutes swinging my arms back and forth, and watched Fitbit count that as steps, but , I was seated the entire time.

And look at the distance you received for those "steps", and the calories calculated from that.

You can create an Activity Record for that exact span of a min say to see what those stats are.

You'll likely find as does anyone - it's so super minor - it's merely making up for the fact you only receive sleeping BMR level burn the whole time you are awake but no steps show up. Even when standing no steps - only sleeping level burn - and you are burning more.

You can also walk with your arms crossed against your chest and discover how Fitbit actually counts steps - by impact seen.

What you did can even be minimized by some of the settings available to indeed take into account bogus steps being seen on wrist mounted trackers.

I have a different brand, but a similar product. I wouldn't count it as intentional exercise, rather as a way to increase your NEAT. If you're using it while doing work, you're not likely to raise your heart rate enough anyway.

That looks very cool. But I can’t help wonder what about the rest of the body? You’ll end up with some pretty toned legs, but have you got other workouts in place for working on all parts of the body?