Fitbit or Polar? Pls help

Bumping. Interested also

Thanks for posting this as I am trying to decide as well - I liked the sleep feature also but in reading the reviews found it was somewhat unreliable. I'll be interested in what others say - please post what you decide.

I just ordered the fitbit because my dogs wake me alot at night. If you want I can let you know if you don't get many responses. It should be arriving tomorrow. The fitbit website wasn't letting me order, so I ordered from BEST BUY

Do more research into the different brands. From there, its about preference and your price range. I use a SportLine Duo 1060. Works awesome

Depends on what you are looking for. :-) Got the Fitbit for my wife for Christmas. Very slick package, worked as advertised. Very easy to use. Now she does more intense workouts, so she has shifted to a Polar HRM. Ultimately, we gave her Fitbit to my sister-in-law, she is more of a walker, so for her the Fitbit was perfect.

I have a Polar, I'm going to let them work all the kinks out of the FitBit and how it interacts with MFP before I look into one ...

Which polar HRM do you recommend?

I looked in to fitbit and I read that it is a pedometer so it will track based on steps counted. So for example, if you work out on an elliptical it might not track that right because your body might not always move like a step. I'm not sure about the sleep feature but I read again that it is unreliable and if you roll over a lot (like myself) then it shows you as being awake rather than rolling over.

I've used a polar for several months and it's amazing. But I recently bought a New Balance N4 because it was a bit cheaper and the watch was more stylish and I love it!

So I would say Polar (or NB) over fitbit

(PS: I used to Polar FT4, works AMAZING, but so does my NB)

OP: have you considered looking into the Bodybugg, that tracks cals all day and night as well, but I beleive is more accurate then a fitbit, based on the way it estimates burns.

I have had both. Here's my experiences:

Fitbit-I bought one a year ago, wore it for six months, then the plastic cracked and came off. customer service replaced it and after another 4-6 months it broke in the exact same spot. I wore it in between my bra cups just like the directions said, so I don't believe the fitbit broke from misuse. As far the the usefulness of the fitbit, I did love tracking my steps. It was a great motivator to try to get over 10,000 each day and really brought to my attention just how much sitting I was doing at work. I used the sleep tracking function but I really don't know how accurate it was because I move ALOT in my sleep. (so it would think I was waking up) Also, If you lay still, it thinks you're sleeping, but in my case all I was doing was laying there wishing I was asleep! Sometimes I do miss my fitbit, but really it's because of my compulsive need to count steps!

After the last fitbit broke I bought a Polar FT4. I've been using that for a few months now and I love it. I wear it during my cardio workouts to get my heartrate and calorie count. I've found that my heartrate is much higher than I thought, and was able to track my own personal target heart rate/zone. The chest strap is comfortable and doesn ot fall off. Mostly, I find it helpful to monitor how efficient my workouts are and see if I'm working hard enough.

So, I guess it depends on what you want your gadget to do. Hell, if I had another $100 lying around, I'd probably go with both! :-)

They are two completely different things.

The polar HRM is meant for use only during exercise. Its calorie calculations are not accurate for all day wear, but only during times of cardio exercise.

The fitbit is a modified pedometer which includes an accelerometer and in the Ultra an altimeter. That allows it to not only measure steps, how vigorously you are moving and how many stairs, hills you have climbed. That gives it a somewhat more accurate picture of your daily calorie burn. It is meant for all day wear.

Ideally, both would be the best. The fitbit for daily activity, and the HRM for times of exercise since on the fitbit site you can enter those times of exercise as well.

As to the question of which to purchase, just realize they are both estimates of calories burned. They can be fairly accurate, but can also be over or under estimating calorie burn by a fairly large factor (I have heard up to 30%).

Just so you know. I have a HRM which I have had for almost 2 years, and I am considering getting a fitbit now as well.

The Polar will only give you fairly accurate caloric burns during aerobic activity (cardio), whereas I beleive the fitbit will give you daily caloric burns based on various factors
.

Yes ^^^

It really depends on what you're primarily after, cuz they're built for different purposes. I use my FT4 for cardio tracking WHEN I'm doing true steady state cardio only. The fitbit would be useful for getting a more accurate count of your typical daily expenditure, but not as accurate as the HRM during intense cardio.

After all my reading, and all the reviews I've seen. I'm going to be getting both! Fitbit first, then the Polar.