Tell me about the Fitbit and related accessories

[naturallove]

My SO just got a Fitbit and seems to love it. It seems like a cool gadget, given that it acts a pedometer and also tracks his activity level. I'm still not quite clear on what it does, given that there seems to be a lot of manual entry. He says that he enters his food intake online and it the Fitbit site tells him how much he needs to eat to lose X pounds in X number of days.

Can someone explain to me exactly how the Fitbit works and what the benefits of it are (vs. using a pedometer and HR monitor)? Also, I need to get him a belated birthday present. He's mentioned wanting a Fitbit scale, but are there any other accessories or different memberships options that he might like?

Thanks!

[naturallove]

Anyone? I know that some VFers have to own a Fitbit!!

[paideiamom]

Hey NL,

I am chiming in but I have an older Fitbit and the Ultras, the newer one your SO probably has, is way cooler.

Basics: fundamentally, yeah, it is a pedometer. But it gives you more info. The FB itself tells you how "active" you are being by showing you a flower with leaves, the more leaves, the more active you are. At the end of the day, or whenever you dock it, you get a breakdown as to activity periods, intensity of activity periods, times of day, estimated calorie burn.

There is a lot of manual entering if you choose to log activities such as weightlifting, housecleaning, sex, etc., activities which don't necessarily add steps to your day (okay, maybe a certain lightness to your step).

You can also use My Fitness Pal and a couple other programs with it.

It supposedly tells you how well you sleep at night, but if you lay there quietly like I do so as not to wake your partner, it is not that accurate.

Now, the Ultra gives you pep talks (via messages), tells you how many "stories" you have climbed (for ever 10-foot increase in elevation).

Why do I like it more than a ped? It makes me move. My minimum goal for a day is 10,000 steps. I have a sedentary job which allows little free will so there are some days it is major for me to get those 10,000 steps. Some days I get the 10,000 in before I leave the house. But the kicker to me is the weekly spreadsheet. I do whatever I can to make each spread sheet better than the week before.

There is a Fitbit Facebook group called Fitbit Friends, i think it is. You have to ask to join, but anybody who asks is in. justJo and Gyggles are two of the mods. It is a group of encouraging people with Fitbit knowledge and I learn from it. The Fitbit forums on the Fitbit site are not active. There are two lists on the Fitbit Friends page, one for people who want Fitbit only friends where through the Fitbit Forum you asu somebody to be your friend and then your stats match up against theirs; and then another list if you want to be both Forum and Facebook friends. Neither is required. I do the Forum friends, so I can see my stats against others' but not Facebook.

So I can't go back and read this because I am on my iPad, so I apologize for any misspellings, inconsistencies, incoherence.

It is my u derstanding the Fitbit scale is not out on the market yet. I know of no other Fitbit accessories.


Now, I do not

[slysam]

Originally Posted by naturallove

My SO just got a Fitbit and seems to love it. It seems like a cool gadget, given that it acts a pedometer and also tracks his activity level. I'm still not quite clear on what it does, given that there seems to be a lot of manual entry. He says that he enters his food intake online and it the Fitbit site tells him how much he needs to eat to lose X pounds in X number of days.

Can someone explain to me exactly how the Fitbit works and what the benefits of it are (vs. using a pedometer and HR monitor)? Also, I need to get him a belated birthday present. He's mentioned wanting a Fitbit scale, but are there any other accessories or different memberships options that he might like?

Thanks!

As far as I know, the only official accessory is the scale that hasn't come out yet (I think this month). But there are a number of services and apps that link to fitbit. So I suppose one useful unofficial accessory would be a smart phone (which I do not have so speaking from hearsay). There are two calorie tracking sites that link to fitbit and both I believe have phone apps with the ability to scan food barcodes to reduce manual logging for some people (Myfitnesspal and loseit.com). The main manual entry I do is I enter foods (no bar code reader for me and many foods I eat don't have bar codes) and certain activities that the fitbit might over or underestimate. For exercise I do use my heart rate monitor (not linked) and manually enter information, but I understand there is an app that links to fitbit and this app can link to certain hrms (I think it is called Endomondo or something like that, again I don't have a smart phone so haven't explored too deeply). But some people on the fitbit and mfp forums link to mfp for food tracking and bar code scanning and to endomondo for their heart rate monitor stuff. Also I think people may be able to link from an online Garmin account to fitbit, not sure maybe they are doing it through another app. I use a Polar with no internet syncing abilities so I manually enter. It really only takes a few minutes, it is the food tracking that takes time.

[Hoodone]

For me the fitbit has been the "missing link" in the equation of calories in/calories out. I have been logging my foot on myfitnesspal, to which fitbit links. I used the food logging to successfully lose 10 lbs. The fitbit has helped me lose an additional 5, and now possibly I find I might, might, want to lose another 5. For folks who don't even need to lose weight the fitbit will help you track your activity and keep you moving. I love my fitbit!

[slysam]

Originally Posted by naturallove

Can someone explain to me exactly how the Fitbit works and what the benefits of it are (vs. using a pedometer and HR monitor)?

I use both a fitbit and an hrm. I had a classic and when that died (second trip through a washing machine, my bad!) I received a new ultra as a gift. So I've used both types. I've tried to use cheap pedometers in the past.

Why I prefer my fitbit over the pedometers I have tried: it seems to track more accurately than the ones I have used, it is very small and discreet so I can find a place to wear it that doesn't show (usually on my bra), I like the all day long activity records and sleep tracking. There are spaces in my account to log different things like blood pressure, glucose, heart rate data, body fat, measurements so I like have a fairly centralized health and fitness logging "center". Also the current fitbit ultra tracks floors of stairs and hills (but not incline on treadmills/stair stepping machines, etc as floors). suspect some of the nicer digital pedometers might do more of what I like especially if they are small and discreet.

The fitbit isn't technically a pedometer, it measures movement in 3-d and tracks the pace/speed of the movement. The accuracy of the pace/speed information does depend a bit on having your stride set accurately though since there is no gps (I don't think I would want to wear a gps all day though). The stair floors are based on moving up in altitude. It doesn't catch every movement, but is pretty good especially for the price point and size of the device.

I tend to wear my fitbit for daily activity and non-water exercise and my heart rate monitor for intentional exercise. (Other than a calorie estimate the two devices give me different complementary information). I guess the benefit over just a heart rate monitor is it is smaller and more comfortable to war and probably better calibrated for non-exercise activities (since a fitness heart rate monitor is programed for cardio exercise). I do use the heart rate monitor calorie burn for workouts where I don't log many/any steps such as swimming, kettlebells, etc. But for some cardio my fitbit and hrm tend to be close or agree in their calorie burn estimates.

[cooldham]

I will chime in...I was waiting to respond because I just finished my first week with the device.

I had previously bought a really nice pedometer that was recommended by someone on VF, and now wish I had saved the $30...it was this giant bulky pedometer. The fitbit is so discreet, I just wear it clipped to my bra every day and no one knows the reason I am walking around the office for the 5th time that day is because I want to “up” my steps.

Things I really like: I sync it with the iphone app myfitnesspal...the fitbit app's food database is not as good as myfitness pal, and since they link and I've already been using myfitnesspal for so long, it made sense to keep doing so. I’ve been pretty irregular about using myfitnesspal to track food intake…all of a sudden with the fitbit, I am very, very encouraged to track my food. It’s almost like the fitbit has turned dieting into a game, where I want to up my steps and track all my calories. Myfitness pal will get an “adjustment” from fitbit for calories burned when you sync your fitbit, which is very rewarding.

The whole total calories burned for the day is very, very motivating to me. It’s encouraged me to be more active – for example, some days I will skip the dog walk for whatever reason….All of a sudden, I want to take that dog walk no matter what – I’ve got to up my steps! I hate not hitting 10000 every day! 

Another thing I like – if you put it down for a while, when you pick it up, you get a motivating message.

Things I am ambivalent about:
• The “floors climbed” tracker. The main reason I am not super excited about this is because I don’t have any floors to climb! My office is all one level and my house is a ranch with just a short flight of stairs down to the basement. Having said that – I KNOW how it has worked on me psychologically to get me to walk more – I can imagine if you worked in an office tower you would challenge yourself to take the stairs.
• The sleep tracker – I do like looking at the data, but I know it can’t be 100% accurate because of the times I’ve woken up and just laid in bed, it showed me as asleep. I’d say it’s more accurate than not, though.
• The flower that grows – neat, I like making it “grow”, but it doesn’t really tell me anything. From logging in and looking around, it seems like they have plans for more data tracking in the future, like for your active score. I am really looking forward to more features rolling out.


Other stuff:
• The online community is not very vibrant and active, and I’m not on facebook so that’s out. I am hoping the community gets better over time.
• Figuring out how accurate it is when counting steps – I read a ton of reviews before and after I bought it- it recommends you just stick with the automatically calculated stride length that it programs in for you when you tell your age/height/weight. At first, it didn’t seem accurate. But I’ve tested it multiple times my walking around, counting, and then checking the stats – it does seem to be accurate. But it’s one of those things – it’s a pedometer, there will probably always be a few steps missed or movement counted twice. I think it all averages out.


My overall opinion: best gadget I’ve bought in a long time, especially for the price. I am eager to see how my second week goes. I lost weight the first week (.5 lbs) and hope that trend will continue!

[cooldham]

Oops! Double post.

[pharma_gal]

Does the Fitbit measure your heart rate during exercise?

[cooldham]

pharma_gal, it does not measure your heart rate during exercise.

There are various ways to set the fitbit to measure the calories burned while you are exercising, depending on which apps you use.