FitBit

tabulator32 · April 2012

The more I look at the fitbit, the more I want it.

So, tell me...

1. How does it do for recording calories burned in a typical office (sedentary) environment like where I work 40 hours per week?

2. Where is the best place to wear it so that it accurately records everything it needs?

3. Does it automatically sync with your MFP data and website when it syncs with your computer? Will I see a reflection of my calories burned when I sit down and hit "refresh" on the website?

4. Does it indicate when it has synced so I know whether my MFP data reflects the latest fitbit data?

Thanks for your help.

sundaykl · April 2012

Good questions! I just got mine today and am still trying to figure it out.

sthrnchick · April 2012

The more I look at the fitbit, the more I want it. ( Trust me... you want one!)

So, tell me...

1. How does it do for recording calories burned in a typical office (sedentary) environment like where I work 40 hours per week? ( It records every step i take, at work... and based on my stats, that interact with MFP, calculates the calories burned....)

2. Where is the best place to wear it so that it accurately records everything it needs? ( I wear mine on the strap of my bra, but if you dont want to wear one everyday ( HAHAHA), you can wear it on your waistband... very small)

3. Does it automatically sync with your MFP data and website when it syncs with your computer? Will I see a reflection of my calories burned when I sit down and hit "refresh" on the website? ( IT IS AUTOMATIC BABY!!!)

4. Does it indicate when it has synced so I know whether my MFP data reflects the latest fitbit data? It doesnt give a notificaition that I know of.. but anytime you come within 15 feet of the receiver, it syncs... YOU WANT ONE!

Thanks for your help.

sassyN1989 · April 2012

I love mine.
1. it will log how much you want and count your sedentary burned calories from what I can tell
2. I wear it on my bra but I would imagine you don't wear one but the pants pocket or belt is my second fav.
3. yes I have a fitbit calorie burn in my exercise
4. this I am not so sure about. I know the fitbit tells when it syncs with itself but as far as with facebook I don't know.

tenunderfour · April 2012

The more I look at the fitbit, the more I want it.

So, tell me...

1. How does it do for recording calories burned in a typical office (sedentary) environment like where I work 40 hours per week?

2. Where is the best place to wear it so that it accurately records everything it needs?

3. Does it automatically sync with your MFP data and website when it syncs with your computer? Will I see a reflection of my calories burned when I sit down and hit "refresh" on the website?

4. Does it indicate when it has synced so I know whether my MFP data reflects the latest fitbit data?

Thanks for your help.

1. It's great! Tracks calories at rest and when walking, climbing stairs, etc.

2. I wear mine clipped to my bra. That probably won't work for you.

3. Yes, it automatically syncs.

4. No, I don't necessarily know if it has sync'd.... I input my food and exercise on MFP. I look to see that Fitbit numbers match MFP numbers in terms of food and exercise.

Lastly, get one!! You will LOVE it!

Railr0aderTony · April 2012

The more I look at the fitbit, the more I want it.

So, tell me...

1. How does it do for recording calories burned in a typical office (sedentary) environment like where I work 40 hours per week?

2. Where is the best place to wear it so that it accurately records everything it needs?

3. Does it automatically sync with your MFP data and website when it syncs with your computer? Will I see a reflection of my calories burned when I sit down and hit "refresh" on the website?

4. Does it indicate when it has synced so I know whether my MFP data reflects the latest fitbit data?

Thanks for your help.

1.I too work in an office and yes it tracks that well, I find myself getting up more and moving around.
2. you can wear it on your belt, clip it on your pocket, or I usually have a polo syle shirt on and I clip it between the buttons.
3. Yes it is like that commerical, set it and forget it, the only problems come from if you want to log your activity seperately on MFP or FitBit.
4. on the fitbit site it will show when you have synced last. I was under the false impression that it would use my wifi but it has this little charger/antenna that when you are in range it automaticly syncs.

hope this helps, wife and I have had them for a little over a month and love them. tracking your sleep time can really help you get the most out of it. Good luck.

batalina · April 2012

i think it does pretty well -- i'm not that sedentary, i'm a student so i sit in classrooms for long periods of time, then run across campus to get to my next class, and i'm on my feet all day at work, but i think it's pretty accurate. if i've got a day off and i lay in bed all day, i don't burn too many calories. if i'm running around like a crazy person, i burn all sorts of calories. seems to be correct. you might realize how little you're actually burning through daily life, and make it a point to become more active -- that's what it's done for me; i want my charts and numbers to look good!

the best place to wear it is roughly in the middle of your body. a lot of women wear it clipped to the center of their bra (that's what i do), and a lot of men wear it clipped to the top of their pants. you can also wear it in a pocket. the motion-tracker in it works on different axes, so it's ok if it gets sideways or whatever.

to synch it to mfp, you have to link your accounts from the fitbit website. after that, it synchs pretty easily -- i just keep my dock plugged in, and every time you're within 15 feet of it, it'll synch every 15 minutes (i learned it can synch through walls and floors! if i'm downstairs, under where my computer is upstairs, it synchs!). when i'm making a point to check it, i'll hit refresh on the fitbit site until it shows the most recent data (sometimes it takes a couple times, but usually it's pretty quick). after that, it can take a couple of minutes for that data to percolate over to mfp, but when it does, it's fun to see how many more calories you get to eat

i don't know if it shows you on mfp that it has synched. the fitbit site tells you the time it last synched, but on mfp i usually just go by how many more (or sometimes less, that's a bummer) calories it says i can eat. usually i assume that if the fitbit's synched, and 5 minutes have passed, the mfp data should be correct.

hope that helps!

Fitness4Paul · April 2012

The more I look at the fitbit, the more I want it.

So, tell me...

1. How does it do for recording calories burned in a typical office (sedentary) environment like where I work 40 hours per week?

2. Where is the best place to wear it so that it accurately records everything it needs?

3. Does it automatically sync with your MFP data and website when it syncs with your computer? Will I see a reflection of my calories burned when I sit down and hit "refresh" on the website?

4. Does it indicate when it has synced so I know whether my MFP data reflects the latest fitbit data?

Thanks for your help.

1) it does a great job recording your daily activity. I wear mine every day. It will adjust your calories for the amount more than sedentary if you've been more active than sedentary

2) I wear it in my waist line

3) and 4) I think - yes, it wirelessly syncs to the fitbit site when you're with 15 ft of the USB base station. I don't know the intervals for syncing with mfp but it will show up if there is any adjustment to be made. You food and exercise entries wil move from mfp to fitbit as well. You can see how recent it syncd by what the food entries look like at the fitbit site

I really enjoy my fitbit. Most who have them love them. Feel free to MSG me if you have any questions

tabulator32 · April 2012

Ok. All of you convinced me.

I just got my confirmation e-mail indicating my order has gone through.

'can't wait to get it!

Woot!

Railr0aderTony · April 2012

Ok. All of you convinced me.

I just got my confirmation e-mail indicating my order has gone through.

'can't wait to get it!

Woot!

go to the fitbit group and read the FAQs , it helped me a bunch

tabulator32 · April 2012

Ok. All of you convinced me.

I just got my confirmation e-mail indicating my order has gone through.

'can't wait to get it!

Woot!

go to the fitbit group and read the FAQs , it helped me a bunch

Thanks!

rpantusa · April 2012

I love my fitbit, it does sync with my computer any time i am around my computer, it usually takes a couple minutes longer to update to my fitness pal, but it is automatic. It counts your calories you burn all day and you can hit your start button any time you exercise and the stop button when you are done, to track how many calories you burn during a specific activity like sports or running, etc.. and it also tracks your sleep pattern the same way, which is so cool. You can clip it onto your shirt. they are so awesome and def worth it! Hope this helped!

tabulator32 · April 2012

Thanks for all the help!

I am curious as to whether the fitbit can determine if you are walking or jogging/running and calculate burned calories appropriately.

For instance, if it is determined merely by number of steps taken and nothing else, then 1000 steps walking will register the same as 1000 steps jogging because it just measures the number of steps. In reality, jogging a thousand steps will obviously burn more than walking a thousand steps.

How does it know? Or does it?

batalina · April 2012

Thanks for all the help!

I am curious as to whether the fitbit can determine if you are walking or jogging/running and calculate burned calories appropriately.

For instance, if it is determined merely by number of steps taken and nothing else, then 1000 steps walking will register the same as 1000 steps jogging because it just measures the number of steps. In reality, jogging a thousand steps will obviously burn more than walking a thousand steps.

How does it know? Or does it?

it knows! let me show you something:

a fitbit day to show someone by ash-k, on Flickr

you see that one pink spike in the 12pm hour? that's when i jogged to a class i was about to be late for! that was the most active i was that day! also, you can see that after that pink spike, there's no real activity until 2pm-ish... that's when i was sitting in a chair in a classroom.
so, i don't know HOW it knows how active you were, but it knows!

(oh, and that yellow spike around 4am is when i woke up to go use the bathroom -- another thing i love about the fitbit -- my sleep pattern are crazy, and it has helped me make some sense of it all)

Tx_Julie_Mango · April 2012

I'm still trying to figure out my Fitbit, but I love it!

It automatically syncs to MFP and it tells you to log all food and exercise on MFP instead of the FitBit's site which is really cool for a free service.

It does actually give a pretty good reading when you are actually climbing stairs or climb the escalator instead of riding but it will easily confuse jumping as stair climbing lol

One of the most interesting things to me has been the sleep monitor aspect. On days when I wake up really tired and look at my sleep pattern, I can tell why, its very eye opening.

It's fun and not as big and clunky as some of the other pedometers out there, which is one of the main reasons I love it.
However. I was really tired over the weekend and I accidentally put it through a wash and dry cycle and surprising it still worked!

Flower Power!

tabulator32 · April 2012

Thanks for the insight and the graphic, batalina and judy!

The more I see and hear of the fitbit, the more I want it to get here!

I'm interested in the sleep monitoring aspect of it as well. THAT should be interesting. I'll probably have to start going to bed earlier.

:bigsmile:

tabulator32 · April 2012

ha. I checked the progress on my order (ordered on Saturday) and I paid for expedited shipping. A whole business day has gone by and clicking on the link to check on my order status reveals it is still processing. It is Monday evening.

I know. I'm being impatient.

tabulator32 · May 2012

Ok. You have to press the button to tell it when you start or stop exercising. But you have to press the button to wake up the display and scroll through the displays. So...how does it know the difference?

I am not getting this through my thick skull and this thing comes with no instructions.

:grumble:

Ready2Rock206 · May 2012

I never press the button except for sleep tracking - it's a long press until the stopwatch starts - and then a long press again until it stops. For exercise other than walking (weights, balance ball, whatever) I just note the start and stop time and log it in MFP under cardio. It will adjust your automatically carried over fitbit calories accordingly... (usually takes 5-10 min to readjust them)

hillm12345 · May 2012

Ok. You have to press the button to tell it when you start or stop exercising. But you have to press the button to wake up the display and scroll through the displays. So...how does it know the difference?

I am not getting this through my thick skull and this thing comes with no instructions.

:grumble:

to stop and start a workout or sleep, you hold the button for 2 seconds. It will either flash start or stop. Also, when you are recording either an activity or sleep, the time, cals burned, steps, stairs, and flower will flash. You push only once without holding to scroll through the different displays.

KahuNZ · May 2012

Ok. You have to press the button to tell it when you start or stop exercising. But you have to press the button to wake up the display and scroll through the displays. So...how does it know the difference?

I am not getting this through my thick skull and this thing comes with no instructions.

:grumble:

Plenty of instructions and users online so don't worry. You don't have to use the stop/start the button. I only do this for sleeping/waking up. If I want to record a particular exercise on MFP I just note the time started and the length of time ie started 12.00 and ran for 60mins. The fitbit knows you have done this but its only if you want to record it in MFP and your news feeds.

bellefille · May 2012

Ok. You have to press the button to tell it when you start or stop exercising. But you have to press the button to wake up the display and scroll through the displays. So...how does it know the difference?

I am not getting this through my thick skull and this thing comes with no instructions.

:grumble:

I am hoping this url copies over, but you can read the product manual on the fitbit site:

http://www.fitbit.com/manual#section=start

It is not very detailed but it may help.

Also check out the Community section on the Fitbit site and the Fitbit Group here on MFP. Lots of useful information and helpful folks in both places.

tabulator32 · May 2012

Plenty of instructions and users online so don't worry.

True, but new users shouldn't have to flood the forums with all their questions to get the most basic information about the product. and as for the online instructions, the first I had heard of them was the post above this one by bellefille.

Dear Fitbit Co: Please take hillm12345's post...

"to stop and start a workout or sleep, you hold the button for 2 seconds. It will either flash start or stop. Also, when you are recording either an activity or sleep, the time, cals burned, steps, stairs, and flower will flash. You push only once without holding to scroll through the different displays."

...and print it on a piece of paper to be inserted into every fitbit box sent out to customers. Or print it on the box itself if you want.

Or at least include the URL provided by bellefille somewhere in your packaging. Why you would not do this instinctively is beyond me.

(The box actually says to go to fitbit.com/start but that only helps you set up fitbit with your computer. It offers no instructions to the user about daily use at all.)

Thanks to all of you who responded.

FitBit

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