Fitbits aren't worth it

ahagene86 wrote: »

I had one, dropped the extra cash to have the heart rate, and they aren't reliable. They don't track all your activity accurately. They don't track well automatically. Turns out some of the metrics are very accurate. For me it's like comparing it to some miracle diet pills, it could work, but most likely it's just hype and hope.

OK. Except that they work averagely well for the average person which on average means they work quite well for MOST people who get one.

Miracle diet pills only work for the advertisers... so at a guess that would add up to far fewer people.

I rely heavily on mine, so it's worth it. The heart rate model is not worth it to me because it introduces too many variables to be tweaked since my heart rate is not reliable, but the basic model is perfect for me. I tweaked the burn to at least 90% accuracy, if not more, and I reliably eat every single extra calorie it gives me to produce the exact weight trend I'm aiming for. It's a great fit for me because most of my activity is step based. To say it's not worth it for everyone just because you had a different experience with it is not really accurate either.

Since you decided to make a post about it, it would have been helpful to read more detailed reasons as to why you find it not to be worth it. All of the reasons you have given are rather vague. You know your reasons for not liking Fitbit and that's fine, but to have a more productive discussion here some more information would have been great.

I like my Fitbit. I've been using Fitbit since July 2015 and I've found it to be extremely reliable. I definitely understand that it varies for each individual, but I'm always skeptical of the claims that Fitbit is wildly inaccurate. From years of reading Fitbit threads here, on the Fitbit forums, and other forums, I've found Fitbit users mostly fall into the following categories:

1. Those who thoroughly understand how the technology works, analyze the data, and adjust accordingly. Users in this category have reported their Fitbit to be spot on or to slightly over/underestimate by ~200 calories on average. Most of the time these users use a food scale so they're attempting to be as accurate as humanly possible with regard to CI.
   
2. Those who do not understand the technology, have an underlying medical condition, and/or are not accurate with their own data. Examples are: People who say they aren't losing weight based on their Fitbit calories but they don't use a food scale, so they aren't accurate about their CI, people who think the calories burned on Fitbit is what they eat in addition to their MFP calorie allowance/other calorie calculator they used online, people who rant about Fitbit counting steps when they drive when they can easily take it off during that time, or people who are well aware they have medical conditions which may affect the accuracy of their data but still think Fitbit is the problem anyway.

I don't think Fitbit is perfect because no fitness tracker is. There will be a margin of error no matter what as there are too many variables to consider. However, for the majority of users, the device provides decent insight as to what their TDEE is, as long as they are doing everything they can on their end to ensure the accuracy of their data and adjusting as necessary.

Fitbits aren't worth it to you. They are to me. I love their app. I love how it transfers data to here. It has given me results and keeps me motivated. I understand it's not 100% accurate (which no trackers are) so I adjust the results and use what I have discovered to work with me. When this Fitbit dies, I will buy another one because they are 100% worth it to me.

I think a person's success with an activity tracker depends on two factors - managing expectations and learning how to choose and set up the device so it gives you the most accurate information possible.

Managing expectations - Wearing an activity tracker doesn't make a person lose weight. It makes the person a bit more aware of how much they're moving, which in turn lets the person know whether or not to adjust calories in order to lose, gain, or maintain weight. For individuals training for events like a race, it can help the person know if they're on target with distance vs. time, and whether or not they need to fuel more.

Choosing/setting up the device - All trackers are set up based on averages. If you're not the average, it might take time to figure out which settings to change so the numbers are closer to reality. I'm shorter than an average person. I know that heart rate trackers are pointless for me due to medical reasons. Wrist trackers don't make sense for me because I use my hands and arms all the time, and even when I calibrated as dominant hand while using on the non-dominant one, I still had substantially inflated calorie burns.

I stick with a simple Fitbit Zip these days. It tells me if I'm moving my lower half often enough, and for me that's all I need. It's a motivation tool to remember to move more, and if I know I'm not going to move a lot (sitting in a class all day) then I should eat a bit less.