Fitbit help...

bump for later. I am interested in buying one too and need feedback.

I'm quite interested in hearing stuff about the Fitbit too!

100 dollars is a lot of money. But if it's a better overall investment than other products then it could be worth getting it for myself (for myself for my birthday so I don't feel as bad about spending so much money at once :laugh:). I was considering just a HRM, but it's been a difficult task figuring out which one is the best. If Fitbit is the better first investment, then I will definitely go with it instead.

From what I've seen it looks like it does just about everything and it seems to be the most versatile in what sites you can integrate it with and what not. Excited to hear other people's thoughts!

bump. I'm curious about this also

I'm going to get one this weekend. But until then...you can go to "forums" and search on Fit Bit and you'll find 100's of posts about them! Good luck!

I went ahead and bought it. I like the fact that it tracks steps, flights of stairs, and will take a look at my sleep patterns. I also like that it syncs with mfp to add what could be extra calories to eat back at the end of the day. A lot of people (myself included) see it as a challenge to get more steps in throughout the day. I really like it. It's small, light, easy to use. The battery life is great so far too.

Good luck!

I have one! I really like it. I track food and other exercise (I do Indo-Row, Spinning, Pilates throughout the week) using MFP and let the FitBit track my steps and adjust my calories for the day based on my activity.

I don't use it as an activity tracker.

Great battery life, like the sleep monitor function. I think it's a great tool to make sure my calories are where they need to be for the day.

I bought the Fitbit about 4 months ago and have not taken it off. I love it. I have talked 5 of my friends/family members into getting this and I have heard nothing but good reviews. It's a great way to know how much activity you are getting on a daily basis. It tracks steps taken, miles walked, stairs climbed, calories burned, and sleep patterns. It has a stop watch and the information is easily downloaded to their free site. It also synchs with My Fitness Pal very easily. Mind you, it is not perfect, but it is dang close. Better than any pedometer I've had in the past. The only thing is that it is not water proof. I would give it a high recommendation. I bought mine from Amazon for $85.00, but would have paid the $100.00. Well worth the investment.

The FitBit is a pedometer on steroids. It's really awesome, but it's only good for calculating calorie burns from walking or running. Other activities like cycling or swimming won't register accurately. It does not adjust for increased muscle efficiency. It does track your sleep and helps you in finding ways to improve your sleep patterns.

I have aready answered this question on several other threads so they are out there....

I have both a Fitbit and a HRM. Fitbit is great for challenging you to keep active and does fine for activities which involve stepping like walking and running, but is not so good for activies such as cycling, hiking, weights circuit training and certain activies which use a lot of effort - for instance, I was working in the garden today for a few hours and the calorie burn between the Fitbit & the HRM was wildly different because the Fitbit just counted the steps but the HRM used my heart rate to claculate the burn.

Having said that, I would not give up either my Fitbit nor my HRM so I suppose at the end of the day it depends on what you want from your gizmos which one you chose or, like me, just get both and use them for whichever activity it fits best.

Oh, and I just LOVE the sleep function on the Fitbit - gives me great insight into why I feel so tired sometimes despite being in bed for hours.... apparently I do wake up a lot during the night, even though I am not always aware of it.

I'll give you my feedback as I have both a HRM and a fitbit.

Fitbit first-I started off with the fitbit classic last year, and loved it. Never went a day without it. It did keep me motivated as I always wanted to break the 10,000 steps mark. It tracks activity, intensity (the more active you are the more a little flower grows on the fitbit), your sleep, and tells you how many calories you are estimated to burn. I wore it clipped to my bra most of the time, and slept with it on a wrist band provided by fitbit during the night. You can also track a specific activity with a start/stop feature so you know how many steps you took on a particular walk or how many calories you burned during a workout. Again these are all estimates based on data about your height/weight you enter on the website. It holds a charge for approx 4-7 days.

That being said, six months after I got it, it broke. The plastic shell snapped so the circuitry was exposed. I emailed customer service and with a photo uploaded to them, they replaced it free of charge. Fitbit #2 lasted 6 months as well before the exact same thing happened.

Then I decided to get a heart rate monitor. I have a Polar FT4-very basic but does what I wanted it to do-tell me where my heart rate was and calories burned. I used that for six months and got the fitbit itch again.

I bought a fitbit ultra this time-the difference being it tracks flights of stairs and some other cute features like giving you messages now and then. I had it for one month and it stopped working. No clue why-I suspect I sweat too much because I wore it during a very sweaty class and that's when it died. Despite drying it out it didn't work well again. Fortunately I bought a protection plan through bestbuy this time so they replaced it for me. I wear the fitbit on the clip provided by fitbit now instead of clipping the fitbit itself to my clothing-hoping that will preserve the elasticity of the plastic so what happened to my first fitbits (the plastic shell snapping) doesn't happen again. I also love that now fitbit syncs with MFP. I still use my HRM for my workouts and use the fitbit to monitor my overall activity and keep me honest about how much I sit on my duff. I love both my gadgets.

I love my fitbit. It encourages me to walk more. It automatically syncs to MFP once you plug it in. It's a little confusing at first, but I mainly like using it to figure out my calorie burns and times more accurate. All you do is hold down the button and the timer starts. I check my calories burned before I push the button again to stop the timer but even if you don't log it FItBit adjusts the calories for you. I got mine on either Ebay or Amazon. They're a few dollars cheaper.

Personally, I have a BodyMedia Fit Link and I love it. I wouldn't buy a FitBit because I do more things like cycling than anything else. The BMFL also monitors sleep, as well as 24/7 calorie burns, without having to switch modes or anything. Considered the most accurate of calorimeters on the consumer market for most people.

I know people that love the FitBit but to be honest, if I was going to invest in an HRM AND a FitBit, I'd just combine the cost and get a BodyBugg or a BodyMedia unit. The arm band will do everything the other two do and more... And the Fit Link syncs to a smartphone, so you can get real time, up to the minute readings on your burns, your deficits, steps, and activity intensity. I love it.

Personally, I have a BodyMedia Fit Link and I love it. I wouldn't buy a FitBit because I do more things like cycling than anything else. The BMFL also monitors sleep, as well as 24/7 calorie burns, without having to switch modes or anything. Considered the most accurate of calorimeters on the consumer market for most people.

I know people that love the FitBit but to be honest, if I was going to invest in an HRM AND a FitBit, I'd just combine the cost and get a BodyBugg or a BodyMedia unit. The arm band will do everything the other two do and more... And the Fit Link syncs to a smartphone, so you can get real time, up to the minute readings on your burns, your deficits, steps, and activity intensity. I love it.

I had heard of BodyBugg before, but never the BodyMedia. I will have to look into both more and see what's the best for me! Thanks for throwing in some FitBit alternatives to consider.

And, of course, thanks to everyone else for stating (or repeating) your thoughts on the FitBit! (And, not to sound like I'm defending myself, but I searched the forum and this thread was the first one that came up. The others were about damages to the FitBit. Guess I should have dug a little deeper lol.)

Personally, I have a BodyMedia Fit Link and I love it. I wouldn't buy a FitBit because I do more things like cycling than anything else. The BMFL also monitors sleep, as well as 24/7 calorie burns, without having to switch modes or anything. Considered the most accurate of calorimeters on the consumer market for most people.

I know people that love the FitBit but to be honest, if I was going to invest in an HRM AND a FitBit, I'd just combine the cost and get a BodyBugg or a BodyMedia unit. The arm band will do everything the other two do and more... And the Fit Link syncs to a smartphone, so you can get real time, up to the minute readings on your burns, your deficits, steps, and activity intensity. I love it.

It's been a couple years since I had a BMF so maybe they've changed it but it didn't use to track cycling or resistance training any better than the Fitbit so in both cases you needed a HRM to track everything.