Cubii under-desk elliptical

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  • AmyC2288
    AmyC2288 Posts: 386 Member
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    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! :smiley:
  • SpicyWater
    SpicyWater Posts: 99 Member
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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 job :)
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,493 Member
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    Thanks for the awesome review!! I have always been tempted to buy one of these!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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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.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
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    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.
  • leonadixon
    leonadixon Posts: 479 Member
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    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 :smiley:
  • Amerek412
    Amerek412 Posts: 74 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    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.
  • Amerek412
    Amerek412 Posts: 74 Member
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    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.
  • Amerek412
    Amerek412 Posts: 74 Member
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    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 :smiley:

    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.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,454 Member
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    Amerek412 wrote: »
    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.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Amerek412 wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    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.
  • erinrcarlile
    erinrcarlile Posts: 1 Member
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    How would you record the workout on MFP? Would it be under walking, steps?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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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.

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