Anyone use a fitbit

[borderter]

Thinking of getting a fitbit to encourage me to keep up the excercise and wondering if they are woth the money

 

[Enclave]

I have a fit bit Zip ... Love it ... I don't often log my food but its available if you want to use it.

 

[Brunneria]

I had worn one for about 2 years now.

I use it as a watch, a buzzing alarm clock, a pedometer and to make me realise i should be more active.

The feature i couldn't live without is the silently vibrating alarm clock - very good when your partner has weird shift patterns!

But, in all honesty, i don't use it to pep myself up to stretch for one more bit of exercise. That got old by week 3. Reminded me too much of all those irritating PE teachers trying to brain wash me into enjoying rounders and netball. Yawn.

So, i think a fitbit is great. But it wont change your basic nature into that of a rabid exerciser, and if you are already rabid, then you don't really need a fitbit...

You can get the diet monitoring from MyFitnessPal, and much cheaper pedometers.
But you can't get many silently vibrating wrist alarms!

 

[SugarJunkie]

I love my Fitbit, I log food on my fitness pal and it syncs to my Fitbit app. I find it does help me to be more motivated. I love the vibrating alarm and I also really like that I can discretely see who is calling when my phone is on silent at work. Worth the investment in my opinion

 

[Hiitsme]

My children gave me a Fitbit a year ago, a month after I was diagnosed type 2. I did use it to log food for about 6 months and it seemed very accurate with helping me to lose all the weight I wanted to. A year ago I was struggling to walk very far but slowly increased my walking and it was a wonderful feeling when I first managed the 10,000 steps. As I'm linked with my children it's a great encouragement to try and keep up with them as well. I have found it very useful and still find it encourages me to keep up my walking.

 

[TorqPenderloin]

I used to have a watch collection that was worth several thousand dollars. Now they're all collecting dust in favor of my Apple Watch (same concept as a fitbit). I'd like to think that's pretty good evidence that they're worth it (at least to me).

I think the accountability is great, and I find myself making the extra effort to hit 10-14k steps each day. Sometimes that can literally mean running in place or around my house (and looking like a fool doing it).

 

[Prem51]

I currently use an Omron pedometer which cost about £16. It does help me to motivate myself to do at least 10,000 steps a day.
I am thinking about getting a more advanced monitor. I did think about getting a Fitbit, but someone on this forum mentioned the Garmin Vivofit 2, and having read the reviews on Amazon, I will probably get that at some point. The reviews say it has a better battery life than the Fitbit, and is about £30 cheaper.

 

[IZ THE LEG END]

I use a Fitbit, purely for the steps and the challenges you can set up with friends!

Our lass has one and I'm not happy just beating her steps I have to absolutely obliterate her totals!!! Hahaha... It's good especially once you build up a good bunch of friends that all push you to beat each other week in week out...

I have a garmin which I use for tracking runs/races although I leave my Fitbit on for these too...

Thumbs up from me!

 

[cyclist]

I use a Garmin Vivosmart.
It integrates with Garmin Connect to track sleep and also MyFitnessPal for logging food and keeping track of intake.
If I am inactive for 45 minutes it vibrates and makes you want to get up and move.

 

[DianaRose]

I have a Fitbit. I love it. I like to see my sleep patterns. I also log my food and it tells me how many carbs I've had as I am on low carb - below 150. I bought an exercise bike as I had to stop going to the gym so log all the details in from that. I also have a stepper and log those too although the fitbit tells you that. I find it very motivational and think it was worth every penny. My life changed a bit when I was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia so I fit in exercise when I can but it is nice to see how many steps a day you and the site has a very good community and help desk.

 

[andyolly]

Interesting post as just started looking at buying a Garmin. Do you believe they are accurate enough and do they all allow food to be added

 

[DianaRose]

Interesting post as just started looking at buying a Garmin. Do you believe they are accurate enough and do they all allow food to be added

I looked at Garmin too but decided on the fitbit flex. Yes you can log your food - I do and it tells me how many carbs I have had. It has a huge database of food and as I am a veggie I did wonder if it would be any good. It has all the measurements of food too for you to choose from. There is an ability to add things to your logs ie I added my exercise bike and stepper which is great for me. I really can't fault it to be honest and wearing it on my wrist all the time is certainly motivational because at times I do need motivating. They are talking about bringing in a log for diabetics for their blogs too which would be good. As I said not sure about the Garmin and my bike gives heart rate and stuff like that so I don't need that. I'd definitely give it a go. Let me know how you get on. Love your tiger piccie by the way.

 

[DianaRose]

Anyone read the article on the material it is made from and allergies?

I checked on Google but the rashes could be caused by watches or anything that is worn in close contact to the skin. I keep mine clean and also have a variety of wrist bands. I'm usually allergic to anything going but am fine with this. It doesn't contain latex which is a relief.

 

[BlooTwo]

I recently got myself a Fitbit Flex. I love it, and I do think it has helped to motivate me to move a bit more.
On the 'Dashboard', I log my food intake, and keep track of carbs that way. You can also 'add a note' to meal & snack slots, so I use that to record blood sugar tests. That way, I can see instantly which foods are causing a spike. Really pleased I bought it.
The clip that holds it closed is made from surgical steel and contains Nickel, which I am allergic to, but so far it has not caused me any trouble. I think the knack it to wear it slightly loose, so that the clip is not in contact with the skin.
It's quite amusing when I go out for a walk in the evening to top up my steps if I haven't reached 10,000, and I see several other people marching purposefully round the block and checking their wrist occasionally. (I call it the FitBit Club, and I have got on chatting terms with one or two of them!)

 

[slip]

Both the wife and I have Fitbit Charges, She is and has been motivated by wearing it, it's not unusual to come home to find her pacing around the living room to get her step count up, she's lost weight since wearing it, and is more active generally because of it - I on the other hand just use it to annoy her - she's yet to win a challenge!

 

[IZ THE LEG END]

I have both the Fitbit charge HR and Garmin Fenix 3.

Fitbit... Small not so fashionable but practice... You can join challenges and compete against friends perfect for me as that's all the motivation I need. You will find yourself dancing round the lounge at 10pm to beat your best pal!!! You can use it to track food intake, and the database is huge... I don't use this feature but only through personal preference for using myfitnesspal, I do believe you can link these together but I haven't! Now you can use your phone to track say a run/walk via gps on the phone however another feature I do not use... What I have noticed is the Fitbit is a very clever piece of kit, the distance measured is almost spot on to distance recorded on my Garmin which has gps built in, I'm talking 100 metre out!!! With no gps that's pretty clever! Since it doesn't calculate stride length!

Finally price Fitbit is marketed very reasonably I picked mine up for around £85 which is a bargain but all I really use it for is my steps and the challenges with friends...

I use the Fenix 3 Garmin for all my running/swimming/walking/training it's much more comprehensive and provides me with much more data like stride length and cadence for running and SWOLF for swimming which aids me in my training aims for my future sporting events... But for the everyday step and fitness counter it would set you back around £430 which is a lot of money to spend to count steps

My wife had just upgraded her Fitbit charge to the new blaze!

And I have to say it's as good if not near as dammit an iwatch!!! It pretty much can carry out all the functions of an iwatch and it tracks data and steps as good as any other tracker and to be honest it looks really smart too!!!

If someone asked me for advice on fitness trackers it would be Fitbit all the way great kit... Oh and great customer support should you ever need to contact them!!!