Fitbit

Good question, I would like to hear more about this fitbit.

I love love love my fitbit, best $100 I have spent, I am lost without it. Having it on and being able to see my progress throughout the day is a good motivator and it makes me challenge myself to do more. I say go for it!

I have been using my fitbit daily for 3 months and I like it a lot. It does a pretty good job with steps taken, stairs, and distance. It will not give anything about speed or heart rate. I wear mine daily and don't take it off unless I am charging it. It does not take the place of a HRM and I use one in addiiton for my actual workouts because the fitbit does not do a good job with weightlifting, running and swimming. If you just plan to walk, it would be good. It will give you amount of calories burned, but it is usually much lower than what my HRM says for workouts. I do use it to determine how much I burn in a day because it works well with the MFP interface. I am glad I have mine as an additional tool.

Get the Fitbit. It's amazing. I love mine and am never without it. I like that it also tracks how well I sleep, since I don't get much of that! It is an awesome device though. Small and discreet, tracks steps, calories burned, mileage walked, stairs climbed, has a stop watch function, and also has encouraging memos. So worth the money. Also it automatically sync's with MFP, so its super easy to use!

I did a lot of research and finally bought it. I've had it about a week and I love it. While reading reviews, I found that people complained of it not tracking your steps properly. 1. It tracks mine perfectly. I can watch the numbers move as I walk. 2. Everyone's stride is different. If you're tall or short, you can calibrate your steps, so Fitbit calculates correctly.

It also does so much more than a pedometer. I love it.

Hi,

I bought mine about 4 weeks ago and have used it every day so far. It measures steps, distance, floors(stairs), and it also has a kind of daily activity score. Lastly you can use it to measure your sleep efficiency.

I absolutely love it and it keeps me motivated. But of course it won't do the work for you ;-).

I recommend it though.

Oliver

I love mine! I found out yesterday though that going on the swings with the kids counts as flights of stairs! LOL

I love mine. For me, it seems to do a great job. Also, you cant beat their customer service. I recently lost mine, sent them an email asking if they could track it, and they replied that they couldnt, but they were sending me a replacement free of charge. Sure can't beat that

I love love love my Fitbit...it keeps track of everything steps, calories burn, stairs climb and distance and the website is awesome which is free when you buy the Fitbit. It really makes me more active to reach my daily goals and earn badget when you meet those goals. You can also link Myfitnesspal with your Fitbit account which is awesome too you just track your food and exercise on Myfitnesspal and the info will transfer to your Fitbit account and Fitbit will automatically transfer your steps and calories burn to Myfitnesspal. I think the Fitbit is so worthy the money. One time I left it home and I was soooo angry and soooo lost without it that now I have it with my cell phone so I will never ever leave it again. So...I say YES! YES! and YES! to the Fitbit.

I have noticed some people have worked out an estimate of their TDEE using fitbit with a HRM for workouts, but how does that work if fitbit only measures steps taken ? I am picking mine up tomorrow and had hoped it would give me a better ideal of my overall daily calorie burn.

I use mine to determine my TDEE and how many calories I can eat in a day. I use MFP, the Fitbit, and my HRM together. I have set my activity level as sedentary on both MFP and Fitbit. For any exercise that Fitbit is not good at determining calorie burn i.e. Zumba, weighlifting, etc I use my HRM and record the time and calorie burn on MFP which it then sends to Fitbit to override that time period. It allows me to see at any point in the day if I need to eat more, or move more. I absolutely LOVE it and would not be without it.

Edited to add...The Fitbit can not determine heart rate and level of effort which is why I use the HRM for those more strenuous exercises.

I started counting steps witha a pedometer because of work. Our company joined the GCC (Global Corporate Challenge) to get us to move more. I love it. However, the pedometers we got suck. They fall easily and I dont think they are accurate at all. I also want a pedometer to track speed and distance. I keep seeing the fitbit online and seems good but want opinions from those who have it. Especially being 100$ I want to be 100% sure before buying...

Thoughts and comments?

My hubby just got a pedometer from his work and it's not accurate at all. It counts about 30% more steps than he actually takes. I really like my Fitbit. It's definitely been a great investment for me.

I love my Fitbit for measuring steps, miles walked and floors climbed. As for measuring workout calories, save your money and buy a HRM unless the workouts are low impact, low intensity!! Even a cheap one like the one I have - Timex T5G941 Heart Rate Monitor, with a chest strap. They are far more accurate at measuring your calorie output than the Fitbit.

Don't get me wrong, the fitbit is a great tool! I use it when I cannot use my HRM .. for instance when I'm hiking on a lunch break ... I tend to challenge myself to climb X number of floors or steps to get in a better workout. In my opinion they can be a novelty, that is used as a self motivator if you are focused on a goal. I do wear it everywhere and love it for what it does.

It's great for getting a really good look at your normal activity level each day. It is super helpful if you walk or run for exercise. If I do something that isn't picked up well for a pedometer (like 30 Day Shred) I input it into MFP and it wipes out the "walking" for that time period and inputs the assumed calorie burn for my height & weight. So it's great as a fancy pedometer but it's not great for kickboxing, weight lifting, cycling, etc.

at first I loved mine.

then after using it a bit, I HATE IT.

1. for guys, there simply isnt a good place to clip it. its awkward unless youre a woman where many clip it inside their bras.
2. You can lose it quickly and easily - there inst a tether hole (and dont get me started on the home brewed tie a string on it work around... )
3. the website food database is HORRIBLE
4. the website burn and calorie estimations are way off compared to MFP
5. I dislike how it integrates with MFP.

Mine has become a gloified pedomoter at this point to just count steps.
I looked at the Nike FuelBand.

then I spent time talking with a few pros - and decided the right thing for me was a HRM from Polar - the FT7.

1. no place to put it? are you kidding me? the belt holder is great, I haven't had mine pop out yet... you can clip it to your undershirt under your dress shirt... unless, ewww, your one of those people whose mommy didn't raise him to wear either a wifebeater or t-shirt under your dress shirt... again, ewww.... I've used mine for over a month.. .never had a second thought about clipping it to my belt or undershirt.

2. never lost it in 45 days of using it... where are you losing it too? or are you naturally reckless with your watch, wallet, bluetooth earpiece, cell phone, or other like items?

3. the database is the same as MFP, that's the biggest benefit, you still log food and exercise in MFP and never have to use their DB except to enter SLEEP or DRIVING... where's the problem? or didn't you read ALL the instructions...

4. Website burn and calories are computed differently than for MFP... if you understand the differences, you will quickly find they are VERY close, and I have lost 10# since getting my fitbit, and changed nothing from what I was doing with MFP... except the fitbit 'challenges' me to get my 10,000 steps and be more conscious of taking stair cases when I can.

5. what do you dislike about this? specifically, because if you are logging according to the instructions, it's nearly transparent, and the best part is that the fitbit is constantly updating MFP based on REAL TIME activity each day, the more data it has, the better it knows what to adjust... how is that a bad thing?

Sounds to me like you never really were set up right, and using it the way it was intended... losing things.. that's a whole different story...

I started counting steps witha a pedometer because of work. Our company joined the GCC (Global Corporate Challenge) to get us to move more. I love it. However, the pedometers we got suck. They fall easily and I dont think they are accurate at all. I also want a pedometer to track speed and distance. I keep seeing the fitbit online and seems good but want opinions from those who have it. Especially being 100$ I want to be 100% sure before buying...

Thoughts and comments?

Your going to get tracking for your total steps, stairways climbed, calories burned, and a basic activity level for the day...

but it doesn't do speed/distance tracking... you need something like Pedometer GPS on the iphone, or even Nike+GPS on the phone, or a 6G Ipod Nano which can do that with the Nike+ fitness app on it... there are other smartphone pedometers, but these are the ones work the best and I've found are the most accurate...

The fitbit can be useful, but if that's all you want is one that give you pacing... you'll need to spend your money on something else.