Thoughts On Fitbit Ultra Tracker?

I love my fitbit. It syncs with mfp and I don't have to log any exercise. I think it underestimates on the cardio tho. If I had it all to do over again I wouldn't have spent the additional 50 dollars for the premium service on it. I would also recommend buying it from Best buy instead of directly through the maker. You can get it insured that way. Also, it is very small. It uses the same technology as the nintendo wii so maybe good and maybe not. The small size is easy to be lost also, but it's flip side is it isn't all bulky and noticeable by others. :bigsmile:

bump I say YES. YES and YES. I love mine! I love this site too.

To those who have one - do you have any issue with it recording time spent in the car as steps walked? I read reviews on this product and a few people have commented on this and it has put me off getting one. Any comments are gratefully received!

I've had a Fit Bit for almost a year. This has not been an issue. For the insanely OCD, you could put the Fit Bit in sleep/timer mode for the duration of the car ride and then manually enter in for this same time period the "activity" of riding in a car. Fit Bit will then provide for a very modest calorie burn for that activity and not rely on the built-in pedometer. Same procedure for swimming, etc. Whenever the Fit Bit is likely to get it wrong (as when it's on your beach towel when you're swimming, or when your treadmill is set to a steep incline and the Fit Bit has no way of knowing that you're doing more than just steps), you can put it into timer mode and enter the activity you engaged in during the same time. I used to do this for my treadmill but ended up concluding that the Fit Bit was close enough with just the regular tracking built-in.

To those who have one - do you have any issue with it recording time spent in the car as steps walked? I read reviews on this product and a few people have commented on this and it has put me off getting one. Any comments are gratefully received!

Only if you are driving over a washboard. Seriously, if you are being jostled a lot by the road AND climbing hills it will give you erroneous results. Note that FITBIT asnd MFP don't agree on calorie intake but at the end of the day they are usually within 50 calories of each other. Largest discrepancy has been about 200 calories though I could not figure out why.

You can edit out the extra steps/calories by using the FITBIT activiies tab to zero zero out the extra steps. FITBIT always assumes some basic calories expenditure because if you are checking the website, it means that you are still living and breathing.

I just checked this mornings bus ride into work. It added 8 steps during the time I was sitting and riding to work out of the 12,000 steps I've already accumulated for today.

To those who have one - do you have any issue with it recording time spent in the car as steps walked? I read reviews on this product and a few people have commented on this and it has put me off getting one. Any comments are gratefully received!

I've had a Fit Bit for almost a year. This has not been an issue. For the insanely OCD, you could put the Fit Bit in sleep/timer mode for the duration of the car ride and then manually enter in for this same time period the "activity" of riding in a car. Fit Bit will then provide for a very modest calorie burn for that activity and not rely on the built-in pedometer. Same procedure for swimming, etc. Whenever the Fit Bit is likely to get it wrong (as when it's on your beach towel when you're swimming, or when your treadmill is set to a steep incline and the Fit Bit has no way of knowing that you're doing more than just steps), you can put it into timer mode and enter the activity you engaged in during the same time. I used to do this for my treadmill but ended up concluding that the Fit Bit was close enough with just the regular tracking built-in.

This. Mine does not record riding in a car or bus etc as steps. But, if it did, I would do this.

I love my Fitbit and have used it for a few months now. I never take it off, except to shower. I would feel nakie without it. I have a new HRM arriving today, via UPS and will use them both.

I just joined MFP as well and a friend said the Fitbit is awesome, she loves it, so I ordered one yesterday. Watch the video, very informative, motivating and HOPEFULLY worth the $. Good luck, we'll be seeing on MFP.

I've had my FitBit for about 3 weeks and am going to return it. I do some many activities that don't count accruately, like cycling and riding horses, that it's more of a pain than anything to correct on the website. Also, it gives me about 30 floors and 5,000 steps on my daily driving commute to work and back. Yes, you can go on the dashboard and cancel these out, but if I want to just look at the FitBit itself and see where I'm at, it's always wrong. Also, it's not a HR tracker so I think that a Polar watch or equivalent is more useful.

I ve only been on MFP a week or two and i love this site.
I Just saw the fitbit ultra tracker.
Has anyone got it? Is it worth the money?

I never take a step without mine. It's worth double the price!

Seconds this!! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To those who have one - do you have any issue with it recording time spent in the car as steps walked? I read reviews on this product and a few people have commented on this and it has put me off getting one. Any comments are gratefully received!

YES, it will record time in the car as steps and floors UNLESS you log being in the car as an activity. Riding in and driving a car are activities on the Fitbit website. If you do not log it this way, you will have extra steps and calories burned that you didn't actually 'do'.
The Fitbit is a very simple device and you do need to give it the proper information for it to calculate accurately.

I've had mine for months and I've NEVER had it do those things while in a car and I don't log any car trip activity......

I ve only been on MFP a week or two and i love this site.
I Just saw the fitbit ultra tracker.
Has anyone got it? Is it worth the money?

I am in week one, and to answer your question so far it is worth far more than the price for motivating me. Since I tend to obsess on my MFP calorie status (android, ipad and computer) to insure that I am on target, the linking between the Fitbit and MFP is what drives me. Any time that I look at MFP, I am reminded of my current activity from Fitbit. Case in point....on Saturday I was frustrated with the low calorie burn that I had achieved that day. I ended up getting out of my chair around 7pm and walking 5 miles just to get my numbers up. Without seeing my Fitbit activity, I would have stayed in the Lazy Boy.

Net...if it keeps me motivated and challenges me to do a little more each day...it's doing it's job. My only fear is that I could become obsessive compulsive about this thing, but the end result should make it worthwhile. As of right now, I know that I will be ticked off if I don't get another 3,000 steps in by the end of the day. (My goal is 15,000 steps per day except on Sundays...then my goal drops to 500 or less)

I guess it's a question of what "motivates" you. Beating my daily goals motivates me and fills a void that was missing in my previous weight loss attempts.

I haven't had any problems with mine recording steps during a 1.5 hour commute in stop & go traffic. It might add a step here and there, but nothing that doesn't get drowned out by the total volume of daily steps. I guess it might depend on how bumpy your ride is and how smooth your suspension is.

It's been hinted at in many of the replies I think, but the Fitbit and a HRM are two very different beasts...

Fitbit's really good for tracking general activity level, and for giving you a subtle push to keep yourself more active day-to-day. You pretty much wear it 24x7 unless swimming or bathing (although, if you're not worried about tracking how much you toss & turn at night, you can just put it in sleep mode -- start the timer -- and set it on the nightstand while you catch your Zs).

The HRM will give you an estimate of calories burned during physical activity. You don't wear it unless you're exercising, but it will track activities that Fitbit will not (e.g. resistance training, cycling or anything that doesn't involve taking steps).

I use both a Fitbit and a Polar H7 HRM, which I connect to my iPhone using the Digifit app (other apps like Endomondo, MapMyFitness, and RunKeeper would also work).

On MFP, I set my activity level to "Sedentary" and I link MFP to my Fitbit account. Digifit sends exercise data from my HRM to Fitbit, and then Fitbit sends a calorie adjustment to MFP based on my combined Fitbit + Digifit (HRM) activity levels.

My personal experience with riding in the car…..
Over Memorial Day weekend, I wore my fitbit the whole time:
Friday – 10 hours in the car with one stop for gas / bathroom
Saturday – On my feet for 5+ hours, setting up and decorating for a graduation party
Sunday – 10 hours in the car with two stops – gas/bathroom and lunch

When I got home and my fitbit uploaded the data from the weekend to the computer, I was shocked and irritated when I had more steps, floors and calories burned on the two days that I was in the car than I did for the Saturday when I was on my feet.
This was the reason I thought the fitbit was flawed and bought a bodybugg….which I later returned.
I wrote my complaint about the fitbit on the community boards on the fitbit site and received a reply from fitbit…. I needed to record driving and riding in the car as an activity and the information would adjust. SO… for me it was a ‘user’ error. I didn’t know it was necessary to record that. When I entered my the activity on the fitbit site, it adjusted the calories, steps and floors accordingly.

I noticed it again when I was in the car for an hour and did not go up or down any stairs…. I came home and the fitbit showed I did 8 floors. I put in an activity for riding in the car and the floors went down to 1.

I don’t bother recording an activity for my daily commute or most times I’m in the car. The only reason I did it for the 1 hour trip was to see if it would change the floors and it did.

I also do not wear the fitbit when I go on a bike ride. I did one time and it recorded my bike ride as steps…. Even after I entered it on the site as a bike ride…. The steps didn’t change.

I love mine so much.

In a word, POLAR! The fitbit is a bit of a toy tracking probably more tham you need to know -- like sleep patterns. If that is important to you and want to seriously track your sleep, your calories and things other than your heart rate while doing exercise, go for the Body Bugg.

Also, if the Fitbit (i believe) doesn't come with an HRM chest strap then it is going to be dishonest with you about calorie burns. The only way to accurately know is when your heart beats against the monitor on the strap (in humorous lay terms).

Loooooove my fitbit!