Cubii under-desk elliptical
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Wanted to give an update for those interested now that I've been using it for a little while.
Tl;Dr: Although I'm somewhat disappointed in the Bluetooth related functionality (which was the main reason I wanted this very expensive one over much cheaper options), it preforms very well in the actual use of it and I highly highly recommend it for those with desk jobs who want to increase their calorie burn throughout the day.
I'm overall very very pleased with the cubii. It's not completely silent, but it's basically like a fan and my co-workers say they can hear it but find it soothing and not bothersome. It did take me a few days to find the right positioning that was comfortable for me, but once I did I can use it with little to no thought or distraction from my work.
Now on to the good stuff. I definitely believe the calorie burn it estimates is reasonable. I average about 3-3.5 cumulative hours of use (usually 30 min to 1 hr stretches at a time) a day, at around 90 rpm, and maintain a heart rate around 90-105 bpm (according to my Fitbit at least) while using it, and burn an avg of 350-400 calories for the whole day. That's about the same HR as when I'm casually walking, and while it's not a strenuous task in itself, after using it for 30 min to an hour straight I can really feel it in my thighs and hamstrings. I've also been able to work up a slight sweat when maintaining around 105-115 rpm for an extended period of time. All this is to say that it's not as simple as passively moving your legs in an elliptical motion, and while it's definitely not a cardio exercise, I do believe the cummulative effort adds up. I also have the cubii itself set to resistance 2, but put in the app it's resistance 1 (since it doesn't automatically know and you have to manually set it), and figure the slight under reporting of calorie burn would give me a cushion for any innate over-estimations.
Now on to the bad. The biggest reason I wanted a cubii vs much cheaper options was that it syncs to Bluetooth and automatically reports to Fitbit, and I'm pretty dispointed because it definitely does not accurately report calorie burn. How it works is that every half hour, on the half hour, cubii reports your "steps" and calorie burn to Fitbit as a "walk" under exercise. For those wondering, it counts steps as just over half of your actual strides. For example, if you complete 20K strides, it will report that as 11K steps to Fitbit, and this it does well and accurately. Though, disappointingly these steps do not count in challenges for some odd reason.. It will also show the calories you burned in that half hour period, but it does not actually add that amount on top of your Fitbit TDEE, it just stays the same! I was confused at first because my TDEE is higher than what I would expect it to be if I hadn't been using the cubii (I use my Fitbit TDEE as a basis for how many cals I can eat that day, and therefore pay a lot of attention to it and know where it should be based on my activity at certain times throughout the day), but not nearly as high as I'd expect considering the calorie burn reported by cubii. I finally paid attention and made note of my calories at 9:29, just before cubii reported, and once it synced at 9:30 it only went up 1 calorie, which I assume to be the 1 calorie I burned just for living for that 1 min. I assume that the increase of TDEE that does show is because Fitbit can still detect my increased HR throughout the day.
On an average day where I don't go out of my way to get extra activity, I'd say I get about 6K steps and a TDEE of 1500-1600. Since using the cubii I average around 15K steps, with an additional 350-400 burn, yet my TDEE is around 1700-1800 rather than the expected 1800-2000. I know it sounds like a minimal difference to most but when your deficit is as tight as mine is, it's a lot. It's also an avoidable annoyance since I have the knowledge that my TDEE is incorrect, but it was a feature I was really looking forward to is all. I am also reluctant to trust either TDEE estimation given my small room for error, so my plan moving forward is to continue basing my calorie allowance off my fitbit TDEE, and in a few weeks if I'm losing too quickly I'll adjust.
I know this was an insanely extensive review haha but I am just pretty excited about it and was never able to find this kind of detailed info on cubii myself, so I figured others who may be researching it in the future would appreciate it.9 -
Thank you for the detailed review! It is a ton of money to spend for those of us considering purchasing so having this info is wonderful!2
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My local consignment shop has a low-tech version of this for $6 - after reading your review I might go pick it up for my desk job0
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Thanks for the awesome review!! I have always been tempted to buy one of these!0
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Without an increase in TDEE after the Cubii reports to Fitbit, I'm wondering if it's sending a workout, and it just so happens to match calorie burn for what Fitbit had already (which would be wild), if it's sending an Activity Record to merely show what Fitbit came up with during that time, or if it's not sending calories but only steps.
And yes, step increases from basically synced or manually added workouts can't count towards challenges.
Because when you manually enter a walk or run, Fitbit uses the distance given with your stride length and calculates steps.
So people figure out early on set a small stride length, enter a big distance workout, and get tons of steps in challenges.
So that method was nixed.
So when you click in Fitbit on the Workout or Activity record to edit it - can you change the name?
Because Workout Records, which replace what Fitbit already has - doesn't have editable name or notes available.
But an Activity Record, which is merely showing what Fitbit already has for that chunk of time, you can put in your own name and notes section, but no calories, only time change.
Just curious. From your description - they are relying on Fitbit's calorie burn estimate based on HR then.
Great review, and sounds like a walking desk almost for that calorie burn and effort, so indeed good increased TDEE.0 -
Could I ask how tall you are? I'm a 6'2" guy and my knees almost hit the desk when sitting. Can't imagine someone over 5'8" or so could really make this work.
Thanks.0 -
I'm so glad you posted this update! I have the Cubii as well, but opted out of the more expensive Fitbit syncing one. I'm glad I did! I was worried about the accuracy and wondered if it would be worth the extra money. I have rarely used mine and the post has motivated me to get to using it again.
I am a 5'3" female and in absolutely NO danger of hitting my knees under the desk0 -
Without an increase in TDEE after the Cubii reports to Fitbit, I'm wondering if it's sending a workout, and it just so happens to match calorie burn for what Fitbit had already (which would be wild), if it's sending an Activity Record to merely show what Fitbit came up with during that time, or if it's not sending calories but only steps.
And yes, step increases from basically synced or manually added workouts can't count towards challenges.
Because when you manually enter a walk or run, Fitbit uses the distance given with your stride length and calculates steps.
So people figure out early on set a small stride length, enter a big distance workout, and get tons of steps in challenges.
So that method was nixed.
So when you click in Fitbit on the Workout or Activity record to edit it - can you change the name?
Because Workout Records, which replace what Fitbit already has - doesn't have editable name or notes available.
But an Activity Record, which is merely showing what Fitbit already has for that chunk of time, you can put in your own name and notes section, but no calories, only time change.
Just curious. From your description - they are relying on Fitbit's calorie burn estimate based on HR then.
Great review, and sounds like a walking desk almost for that calorie burn and effort, so indeed good increased TDEE.
I also considered that the calories burned could match and Fitbit was just that good lol but alas, I also tried making note of my cals at a zero hour, then once cubii synced at the half hour the difference was 54 calories, though cubii was reporting 60 (which should have been on top of my BMR so it should have gone up by like 100)
That stinks about the challenges but I guess that does make sense. At least it makes my average and weekly steps go up which is also motivating compentition with friends.
I'm not able to edit the workout that I can see, so I guess it's replacing what Fitbit already has, yet like I said the amount difference for the half hour doesn't even match what cubii reports I burned for the half hour. Might be it's own unique thing? Since it's not a manually added workout nor an automatically detected one.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Could I ask how tall you are? I'm a 6'2" guy and my knees almost hit the desk when sitting. Can't imagine someone over 5'8" or so could really make this work.
Thanks.
I'm 5'2 and nowhere near about to hit my desk. I honestly think you wouldn't have a problem because you can always position it further from you so you don't have to have your knees bent at a 90 degree angle, and you'd still get good use of it. There is also hardly any up and down motion to your legs as the eliptical favors horizonal movement, so I'd say as long as you could fit you legs under your desk while your feet are on the pedals (probably about 5-6 inches from the floor) you'd be fine.0 -
leonadixon wrote: »I'm so glad you posted this update! I have the Cubii as well, but opted out of the more expensive Fitbit syncing one. I'm glad I did! I was worried about the accuracy and wondered if it would be worth the extra money. I have rarely used mine and the post has motivated me to get to using it again.
I am a 5'3" female and in absolutely NO danger of hitting my knees under the desk
Yesss do it!! Honestly I've only had it a few weeks but there are plenty of times where I just really don't feel like doing it, but then I realize it's right there, I'm sitting here anyway, I might at well. I tell myself to at least do it for 5 min, and by then I'm in the groove and do it mindlessly.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Could I ask how tall you are? I'm a 6'2" guy and my knees almost hit the desk when sitting. Can't imagine someone over 5'8" or so could really make this work.
Thanks.
I'm 5'2 and nowhere near about to hit my desk. I honestly think you wouldn't have a problem because you can always position it further from you so you don't have to have your knees bent at a 90 degree angle, and you'd still get good use of it. There is also hardly any up and down motion to your legs as the eliptical favors horizonal movement, so I'd say as long as you could fit you legs under your desk while your feet are on the pedals (probably about 5-6 inches from the floor) you'd be fine.
Thanks. That's kind of what I was thinking. Sitting normally there is about 2 inches between my legs and the bottom of the desk.0 -
Without an increase in TDEE after the Cubii reports to Fitbit, I'm wondering if it's sending a workout, and it just so happens to match calorie burn for what Fitbit had already (which would be wild), if it's sending an Activity Record to merely show what Fitbit came up with during that time, or if it's not sending calories but only steps.
And yes, step increases from basically synced or manually added workouts can't count towards challenges.
Because when you manually enter a walk or run, Fitbit uses the distance given with your stride length and calculates steps.
So people figure out early on set a small stride length, enter a big distance workout, and get tons of steps in challenges.
So that method was nixed.
So when you click in Fitbit on the Workout or Activity record to edit it - can you change the name?
Because Workout Records, which replace what Fitbit already has - doesn't have editable name or notes available.
But an Activity Record, which is merely showing what Fitbit already has for that chunk of time, you can put in your own name and notes section, but no calories, only time change.
Just curious. From your description - they are relying on Fitbit's calorie burn estimate based on HR then.
Great review, and sounds like a walking desk almost for that calorie burn and effort, so indeed good increased TDEE.
I also considered that the calories burned could match and Fitbit was just that good lol but alas, I also tried making note of my cals at a zero hour, then once cubii synced at the half hour the difference was 54 calories, though cubii was reporting 60 (which should have been on top of my BMR so it should have gone up by like 100)
That stinks about the challenges but I guess that does make sense. At least it makes my average and weekly steps go up which is also motivating compentition with friends.
I'm not able to edit the workout that I can see, so I guess it's replacing what Fitbit already has, yet like I said the amount difference for the half hour doesn't even match what cubii reports I burned for the half hour. Might be it's own unique thing? Since it's not a manually added workout nor an automatically detected one.
So if you can't edit but only delete - that is a Workout Record.
So Fitbit already had an increased calorie burn likely for that entire 30 min based on steps or HR based calorie burn.
Then the workout came over and replaced the steps and calories - and it was only 54 more than Fitbit had already come up with.
So the workout is being reported as more than Fitbit came up with.
If you want to see what that is - you can create an Activity Record just prior to the sync coming across, say for the 25 min if you don't want to time to the line that close.
That will give a snapshot for the Fitbit stats for that chunk of time - even after the sync happens and the data is replaced in the daily stats by the workout - the activity record will keep those Fitbit stats and you can compare that to the workout.
I always found that interesting prior to syncing in a Garmin workout with much better data for like a bike ride - to see what steps and pitiful calorie burn Fitbit came up with first.
I'd leave both for comparison later.1 -
How would you record the workout on MFP? Would it be under walking, steps?1
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erinrcarlile wrote: »How would you record the workout on MFP? Would it be under walking, steps?
in this scenario - Fitbit is already getting the workout - so nothing would be manually logged on MFP as a workout.
It would be reflected in an increased daily calorie burn that MFP would do math with - so it knows about it.
Just not the Exercise diary - which if using Fitbit, who cares, it's not that nice anyway.0
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