Should I buy a fitbit?

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MrsB724
MrsB724 Posts: 247
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello All-

Newish to MFP and am looking at purchasing a fitbit. I am looking for helpful feedback.....Is it accurate, does it record elliptical workouts and is it worth the $100 bucks?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Replies

  • mdelcott
    mdelcott Posts: 529 Member
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    Body Media has a sale right now 99$ and that includes a free Year subscription
  • Mamafred
    Mamafred Posts: 196 Member
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    I have a Polar ft7 and love it. I don't know a thing about the fitbit but I'm looking forward to reading the replies you get.
  • Mamafred
    Mamafred Posts: 196 Member
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    Also you can check out the reviews on Amazon.
  • cboscari
    cboscari Posts: 16 Member
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    I own a fitbit, and I like it. Both it and the bodymedia are devices that ESTIMATE your TDEE. For many people who have used both, they arrive at about the same figure for a person. The bodymedia requires a subscription after purchase, which is why I was never interested in it.

    The question about should you buy one is hard to answer. Most days, my routine is pretty much, well routine. I consistently burn the same number of calories, give or take a small margin because I do pretty much the same activities the same way each day.. Since that is close to my estimated TDEE from this site, you could argue that it wouldn't be worth it. You could just manually add dedicated exercise, and you would be fine.

    Where the fitbit/bodymedia devices come in handy is if your activity level varies a lot each day (that is, you get small bursts of unplanned exercise in throughout the day, (like walking) that vary a lot or if your routine is disrupted and you aren't sure how active you really were. A trip to Disneyland last year with my daughter and my fitbit in tow are an example in my case. At the end of the day, I knew exactly how active I was, and no guessing. I ate back some of those calories during the day, and knew I was still running a deficit even with the break from my usual routine.

    Anyway, hope this helps.
    Chris

    EDIT: added some
  • iamstaceywood
    iamstaceywood Posts: 383 Member
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    I think its fun like a game. I love data and i love to see if i can push the numbers up higher and higher. So, for me, fun. I actually have two of them and one is for sale. I'm not sure if i'm allowed to say that. I know they came out with the new ultra but, i have no need for all that jazz. I like mine. its great for knowing how many calories you have burned give or take. :)
  • MrsB724
    MrsB724 Posts: 247
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    I own a fitbit, and I like it. Both it and the bodymedia are devices that ESTIMATE your TDEE. For many people who have used both, they arrive at about the same figure for a person. The bodymedia requires a subscription after purchase, which is why I was never interested in it.

    The question about should you buy one is hard to answer. Most days, my routine is pretty much, well routine. I consistently burn the same number of calories, give or take a small margin because I do pretty much the same activities the same way each day.. Since that is close to my estimated TDEE from this site, you could argue that it wouldn't be worth it. You could just manually add dedicated exercise, and you would be fine.

    Where the fitbit/bodymedia devices come in handy is if your activity level varies a lot each day (that is, you get small bursts of unplanned exercise in throughout the day, (like walking) that vary a lot or if your routine is disrupted and you aren't sure how active you really were. A trip to Disneyland last year with my daughter and my fitbit in tow are an example in my case. At the end of the day, I knew exactly how active I was, and no guessing. I ate back some of those calories during the day, and knew I was still running a deficit even with the break from my usual routine.

    Anyway, hope this helps.
    Chris

    EDIT: added some

    Thank you so much Chris! Very honest and helpful.
  • Heyyleigh
    Heyyleigh Posts: 268 Member
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    I love mine and would be lost without it. It is a true motivator, you will not be sorry! There are a bunch of past forums on here if you want to search and read them.
  • MrsB724
    MrsB724 Posts: 247
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    I love mine and would be lost without it. It is a true motivator, you will not be sorry! There are a bunch of past forums on here if you want to search and read them.

    Thanks!
  • justgin1
    justgin1 Posts: 31 Member
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    I have one and I found it counted steps and/or flights of stairs while driving. You have to log into activiities , go into Transportation and enter the duration of your driving to have the steps removed. That kind of sucked the fun out of it for me. It needs a feature similar to the "SLEEP" feature that you can just click a button to put it in pause motion while you are doing things that may register as steps or stairs.
  • snoopynut1972
    snoopynut1972 Posts: 49 Member
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    I LOVE my FitBit. It definitely helps motivate me to be more active. Two gals at work got theirs after seeing how it works. Now we have a small walking group at work (we are up to 6 of us). We get out of the office a couple times a day and walk around the courtyard to get our steps in. It's been a lot of fun.

    I find myself checking my fitbit in the evenings and seeing that I'm just a few hundred steps from the next level or a flight or two of stairs, so I get up and get moving. My husband laughs at me because I get up and walk around the house during commercials! :) As Stacey said - it's a game.
  • wingednotes
    wingednotes Posts: 279
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    Just got mine 3 days ago. I am VERY happy!
    In the past I have used a polar hrm, strapped to me - this is much better without a strap. Its close to the recordings I got with the HRM so I think its pretty accurate.
    The sleep feature is fun. I like knowing how much I am waking up and the total amount of real sleep I am getting.
    The best feature for me so far is that it is seamless with MFP. So I don't log exercise anymore - the fitbit knows I was exercising and sends the data over to MFP - which in turn adjusts the calories for eating.
  • justgin1
    justgin1 Posts: 31 Member
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    Just got mine 3 days ago. I am VERY happy!
    In the past I have used a polar hrm, strapped to me - this is much better without a strap. Its close to the recordings I got with the HRM so I think its pretty accurate.
    The sleep feature is fun. I like knowing how much I am waking up and the total amount of real sleep I am getting.
    The best feature for me so far is that it is seamless with MFP. So I don't log exercise anymore - the fitbit knows I was exercising and sends the data over to MFP - which in turn adjusts the calories for eating.

    I'm new here and I had no idea I could link my Fitbit to MFP, thank you!
  • Shrinking_Moody
    Shrinking_Moody Posts: 270 Member
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    Just got mine 3 days ago. I am VERY happy!
    In the past I have used a polar hrm, strapped to me - this is much better without a strap. Its close to the recordings I got with the HRM so I think its pretty accurate.
    The sleep feature is fun. I like knowing how much I am waking up and the total amount of real sleep I am getting.
    The best feature for me so far is that it is seamless with MFP. So I don't log exercise anymore - the fitbit knows I was exercising and sends the data over to MFP - which in turn adjusts the calories for eating.

    I was going to look into an hrm. Glad to know the fitbit is already pretty accurate :happy:
  • cboscari
    cboscari Posts: 16 Member
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    Yup I forgot about that. I just leave my profile at "sedentary" and the Fitbit adds ALL my activity as exercise, automatically. Very convenient.
  • Alicia_Monique
    Alicia_Monique Posts: 338 Member
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    I didn't think a fitbit tracked your exercise calories??? I was going to get a fitbit && a polar hrm??
  • tinytoyjess
    tinytoyjess Posts: 139 Member
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    I looked into the FitBit briefly but am leaning toward a Polar HRM because I do an indoor cycling class a few times a week and want to record that, as well as various aerobic activities that I don't think the fitibit would accurately calculate. If I were interested in recording steps than I'd definitely go for the fitbit. But, I don't track walking and stair climbing as "exercise" so I don't see the point in owning one. That's just me, though.
  • TheChangingMan
    TheChangingMan Posts: 73 Member
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    I didn't think a fitbit tracked your exercise calories??? I was going to get a fitbit && a polar hrm??

    It tracks your exercise if you walk / run etc.

    However it's not so useful for things such as cycling, elliptical and the like.

    I have a fitbit and a Polar Ft7. I have MFP set to sedentary and let fitbit do its stuff with all walking exercise. If I'm cycling, I still enter that as an exercise on MFP and it overrides the fitbit entry.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    Hello All-

    Newish to MFP and am looking at purchasing a fitbit. I am looking for helpful feedback.....Is it accurate, does it record elliptical workouts and is it worth the $100 bucks?

    Any thoughts appreciated.

    I don't use an elliptical but the Fitbit people say it does ok with recording it but only no/low resistance.

    The things it doesn't detect are resistance (weights) and things like cycling. If you mostly do steps-based exercise like walking, running, dancing, aerobics, you don't need to log activity.

    Mine was well worth $100.

    I've never had a problem with it recording activity while driving but I don't drive a lot and where I live the roads are flat and smooth.
  • TFred423
    TFred423 Posts: 5 Member
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    Thanks for all of the feedback-- I used to have a bodymedia body bugg but it was so obtrusive, and you had to pay a yearly membership fee. I think I'm going to get one :)

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