Fitbit. There must be some disadvantages surely

I personally love mine! The downfall is that you have to remember to put it on and make sure you charge it every once in awhile (I have it set up to actually send me a text message if I haven't put it on the charging base for a few days) and it isn't waterproof.
The great things about it is that its pretty darn accurate (make sure to accurately put in your stride length); the separate activities thing is pretty cool if you go for a run or something (just remember to use the feature); the syncing with MFP rocks since the more you move the more you get calorie credits for! The sleeping feature is pretty cool and yes I believe it actually is monitoring movement but I was shocked to see how bad some of my nights really are compared to others.
I've owned regular pedometers before and this one just seems to keep me more motivated for some reason. It is supposed to store 7 days worth of information on it but it only shows you the currents day info ( you have to put it on the base for all of the information to then be uploaded to your profile).
I do pretty intense workouts so I use my HRM for those and log it on MFP and then that in return gets put on my fibit profile. I only use the fitbit for every thing else. (I'll be going for a run here shortly and I'll use the fitbit since it then will give me distance traveled and even my pace).
Is it worth the $ they charge - I think so!! My 1st one just quit syncing for some reason and they sent me a new one - no questions asked!! So they get points for awesome customer service!!
They have a 30 return policy I believe so maybe you should take advantage of that.

LOVE my fitbit!! The only time I don't wear it is when I'm in the shower! :blushing:

I would def recommend it to anyone!

I haven't had mine as long as others have, but I absolutely love it. The motivation factor alone for me makes it worth the $$.

I love my Fitbit as well. You do not have to put it on the base to upload any of your reads. As long as you are within 15 feet of the base it will update itself. If you want to see your last 7 days of activity you just look at fitbit.com 'your dashboard' and you can scroll through as long as you have been wearing it.

The are too many Pros to list but most importantly it gives you a great idea of your TDEE and if you eat at a 15% deficit of that you will lose weight no problem.

The cons, it's not waterproof ( I do not find this to be a big deal). You have to remember to put it on which is not an issue for me, it's just habit for me. It does not accurately count calories for upper body work. For example, when I use my elliptical, it is usually about 50-70 calories lower than what my heart rate monitor shows as it does not factor in the work out for your arms or go off of heart rate.

It is like a glorified pedometer but i vehemently disagree with the above poster that a HRM is all you need to replace this. This tracks your activiy ALL DAY LONG and uploads to MFP automatically so you earn calorie credits all day long.

I got mine on eBay for about $75 including shipping. It was well worth the money!!!!!!

I personally love mine! The downfall is that you have to remember to put it on and make sure you charge it every once in awhile (I have it set up to actually send me a text message if I haven't put it on the charging base for a few days) and it isn't waterproof.
The great things about it is that its pretty darn accurate (make sure to accurately put in your stride length); the separate activities thing is pretty cool if you go for a run or something (just remember to use the feature); the syncing with MFP rocks since the more you move the more you get calorie credits for! The sleeping feature is pretty cool and yes I believe it actually is monitoring movement but I was shocked to see how bad some of my nights really are compared to others.
I've owned regular pedometers before and this one just seems to keep me more motivated for some reason. It is supposed to store 7 days worth of information on it but it only shows you the currents day info ( you have to put it on the base for all of the information to then be uploaded to your profile).
I do pretty intense workouts so I use my HRM for those and log it on MFP and then that in return gets put on my fibit profile. I only use the fitbit for every thing else. (I'll be going for a run here shortly and I'll use the fitbit since it then will give me distance traveled and even my pace).
Is it worth the $ they charge - I think so!! My 1st one just quit syncing for some reason and they sent me a new one - no questions asked!! So they get points for awesome customer service!!
They have a 30 return policy I believe so maybe you should take advantage of that.

with the newest gen fitbit, the fitbit ultra, you don't HAVE to put it on the base to sync! You just have to be within 15 feet of the base (plugged in to the computer).

I actually only take mine off to shower! I wear a sports bra to bed, so just leave it clipped to that 24/7 with the exception of my shower or when I put it on the base to charge for an hour while I am sitting at the computer.

Right after I bought it, I went away for 3 days. When I got back, it synced ALL the info for 3 days!

I love my fitbit! I wear it everyday and there arent many disadvantages. It helps monitor my TDEE and shows how active I am throughout the day.

I can only think of one downfall, is that its not waterproof and easily scratched (just my opinion) It also guesses calories over a bit. I walked with my HRM with my fitbit at the same time. I burned 133 calories with my HRM and 165 calories with the fitbit.

I love my fitbit! I wear it everyday and there arent many disadvantages. It helps monitor my TDEE and shows how active I am throughout the day.

I can only think of one downfall, is that its not waterproof and easily scratched (just my opinion) It also guesses calories over a bit. I walked with my HRM with my fitbit at the same time. I burned 133 calories with my HRM and 165 calories with the fitbit.

Does your HRM take your BMR into account? the difference between FB and HRM could be your BMR for that time period....Just about every morning I have 400-500 calories burned before I even get out of bed!

Personally, I think fitbit is just a glorified pedometer.. and it's silly to spend that much money on something that just tracks steps.

I also wonder how accurate it is for exercise because it doesn't take heart rate into consideration.. only your movement.

If anything, I would ditch he pedometer idea entirely and just get a good HRM that you can wear for exercise.

I kind of agree with you. I received the old version as a gift. If money were tight, if I were planning on doing vigorous exercise several times a week and I couldn't buy both a Fitbit and an HRM, I'd get the latter.

But the Fitbit can be a fun motivator; the linking to the site and to this are plusses. I have not worn it only a couple of cays since December, when I forgot to take it off the charger.

I don't use either tool to calculate exercise calories: They're too unreliable.

I agree with much of what is written above but the only issue I have is that you have to plug the base unit into a computer to synchonise. I am just back from a holiday in Mexico which was a mixture of lazing by the pool and also a couple of pretty intense days at adventure parks but because I couldn't sync with my iphone or ipad I simply left the Fitbit in the hotel bedroom for the whole holiday. I, like the other user above, find it does not accurately monitor the vario at the gym but I use a heart rate monitor for that and I also find that I have to use the HRM for cycling as it is not good at recording this activity - to be fair, Fitbit acknowledge this and it is, after all, a hi-tech pedometer. My only other gripe is that what users in the US pay in dollars, we in the UK have to pay in Pounds but again, that is common across the whole spectrum and not confined to Fitbit. As far as recording is concerned, I believe it will record minute-by-minute for the previous seven days but only a total for the previous days since last being synced. I haven't found any other issues, except having forgotten to wear it on a couple of occasions.

you don't HAVE to sync daily. I would have TOTALLY worn it at the adventure park! As long as you are not planning on getting drenched in water....

Not long after I got my fitbit, I went away for 3 days. I wore my fitbit the entire 72 hours with exception of showering. When I got home and walked in the door, my fitbit synced all 3 days appropriately. Had I taken my craptop with me, I could have synched it nightly. Even without being able to sync it daily, it still gave me an idea of how active I was...

I love my fitbit! I wear it everyday and there arent many disadvantages. It helps monitor my TDEE and shows how active I am throughout the day.

I can only think of one downfall, is that its not waterproof and easily scratched (just my opinion) It also guesses calories over a bit. I walked with my HRM with my fitbit at the same time. I burned 133 calories with my HRM and 165 calories with the fitbit.

Does your HRM take your BMR into account? the difference between FB and HRM could be your BMR for that time period....Just about every morning I have 400-500 calories burned before I even get out of bed!

I have a polar FT4, it knows my weight and height and age. Not sure about BMR though.

I did the math...my BMR is 1540, and there are 1440 minutes in the day... So of the 843 calories my fitbit is showing I have burned today, 517 of it is BMR and not activity ( it is only 838am and I have walked less than a mile). Therefor, the 32 cal difference in the OPs example is most probably BMR for the walk ( that I am assuming was about 30 minutes)

I think whether the fitbit is good for you is really based on what you want. For instance, my activity levels vary greatly from day to day (easily over 10,000 on days at one job, and at my other job I sit), so it helps me adjust my intake to my activity which can be done without syncing. If it says I've already burned 2500 calories and its 3pm, I should probably eat more. If I find myself wanting to eat at 3pm, and I've only burned 1000 calories, then I think about the other reasons I might want to eat.
It is a glorified pedometer. It's not going to be exact or as accurate as a HRM, but it definitely showed a difference in slow days at work and crazy days (in both number of steps and intensity).
I don't wear it to work out, I have a HRM for that, but general daily use I find it helps me a lot. As far as syncing with MFP, it's somewhat frustrating because it gives a fitbit adjustment assuming you will continue at the same activity level for the rest of the day, so I have ended up going over my goal a few days because of that. Now that I see that pattern, I can allow for that in my head. It's a tool, it has its limitations just like any tool, but I like it.