anyone bought fitbit or similar??

rochja

I am using a fitbug orb with a dongle and a windows computer. By not using a smartphone app I lose the instantaneous display but I found it adequate for ensuring I do not do too little in a day and for tracking my calorie intake. It claims to track my sleep but I lay quite still when awake and it is misinterpreting quite large chunks of time. It is very easy to use but I am not sure about the differentiation between aerobic and other steps which seems a little arbitrary. Had I not had to purchase a dongle it would have been extremely cheap.

Anoneemoose

I got a fitbit flex on offer in sainsburys. I got it purely to measure my activity, with a view to gradually increasing it.

I read somewhere that it wasn't greatly accurate but for me, is sufficient. I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue so struggle to do anything some days. With this, I can increase. My daily steps average around 9500 at present so for me, I aim to increase that by a small amount at a time.

Johnmcl7

I bought a FitBit Flex last year out of interest to see what they were like but I have mixed feelings on it. I liked the way it passively measured everything as I'm used to specifically starting and stopping activities and I also liked some of the simple stuff like it mailing you when you'd reached a new milestone.

The sleep aspect was fairly interesting as well and seemed to be reasonably accurate, the spikes that occurred on the chart often matched another event happening in the house that I wasn't really aware of such as someone's alarm going off. What I found particularly interesting was that when I went to bed earlier to get a good night's sleep, I took much longer to get to sleep and I almost always had a period where I apparently got up in the middle of the night which I vaguely remembered the day after. When I went to bed slightly later, I went to sleep very quickly and usually had very few restless moments which meant the total amount of sleep was similar which matches how I feel in the morning. As I do shift work and on call I quite often have to sleep in but according to the Fitbit, that sleep was largely worthless due to how restless I was and again that matches how I felt. So I've adapted my sleep pattern to the optimum hours the Fitbit reckons works for me.

However when the battery started going very quickly on mine (which judging by this thread seems to be a common issue), I had it replaced but I've never opened the replacement as I found I preferred not having it on my wrist. I wear an analogue watch on my left wrist which I've always done so I'm very used to but I don't ever wear anything on my right so the Fitbit felt a bit odd although that's entirely personal. Plus I didn't really feel it was doing much for me, I'm an active person although I can see it being good for those trying to get more active as it was encouraging to have and as I neared my daily target I would find myself taking detours and adding bits on to get to the target. The reason I mention my watch is analogue is because I've considered other trackers I could wear that show the time but they're usually digital or a lot smaller so I don't think they could replace my watch which puts me back to the same problem.

There's a 5x50 challenge which I'm not sure is UK wide, the goal is simply to do 5K of exercise every day for 50 days. My workmates are doing it and have bought the Garmin VivoFit smartband which looks quite good. It runs on non-rechargeable batteries which are meant to last a year (the flex managed four or five days) and it has a numeric display so it can show you time, calories, distance etc. It's also got an inactivity indicator which lights up red when you haven't moved for an hour and lights up further segments every 15 minutes until you start moving which sounds a good idea since inactivity is the worst of all apparently. It also integrates with the other Garmin data which is appealing to me as I use an Edge for cycling, debating it for the moment so I'll see.

John

Mr_Singleton

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

My workmates are doing it and have bought the Garmin VivoFit smartband which looks quite good. It runs on non-rechargeable batteries which are meant to last a year (the flex managed four or five days) and it has a numeric display so it can show you time, calories, distance etc. It's also got an inactivity indicator which lights up red when you haven't moved for an hour and lights up further segments every 15 minutes until you start moving which sounds a good idea since inactivity is the worst of all apparently. It also integrates with the other Garmin data which is appealing to me as I use an Edge for cycling, debating it for the moment so I'll see.

Am currently using the original Vivofit which I've had since February and not having to recharge it is fantastic. You can link a heart rate monitor to it for running etc activities which improves the calories burned accuracy. I don't use it for fitness as being a Garmin freak I have a FR620 for running a Swim for (err...) swimming and Edge 1000 inc speed/cadence/power for cycling.

I totally recommend the Vivofit.

dragonsoup

I'm liking my vivofit too. I bought the original one cheaply about 6 weeks ago just before the latest model was released.

I only use it as a step counter and its accuracy isn't crucial. (It's not far off from my smartphone app though) It has got me much more active, I'm up from about 4000 steps a day to 15000 just by being a constant reminder of how active I'm being ( or not).

I like that it displays the number of steps on the device without having to sync and that I don't ever have to recharge it as it runs on cheap watch batteries that last a year. It does the sleep, heart rate and calorie monitoring too but those are features I'm not much interested in.

runnergirl1992

I love using my fitbit to monitor steps! Like it was posted above, despite being relatively active (running obsessive LOL) when I'm at work I had no idea how immobile I was! Having my fitbit step tracker encourages me to really try and fit in the extra steps on non training days - think it makes a difference to my training and general well being Don't like having to wake up a bit earlier to fit in the extra walk though mind :P

louby123

I recently found some great reviews of the latest Fitbit activity trackers and fitness watches. If you are thinking of buying one, pop over to - HeartRateMonitor.co.uk > Brands > Fitbit - for some impartial advice.

The new Blaze looks like it will have pretty much everything I've all been looking for... but the fact it doesn't have it's own GPS (it shares your phones) is a bit of a shame as I like to run/bike without my phone...

PS - Does anyone out there have any experience of SWIMMING with a Surge/Charge HR and getting accurate heart rate? This is something I'd like to use it for

Cheers

Syman

I have the ChargeHR and the heart rate seems to be pretty accurate, however is not recommended for swimming at all.

cazs

I have seen the various fitness gadgets trialled on tv/in papers much of late, what with it being January and all the reports weren't too favourable about the accuracy of them. The concept is relatively new, probably like the very first iphone so it will take some time, and models most likely till they can develop an accurate one.

fairy_lights

cazs wrote: »

I have seen the various fitness gadgets trialled on tv/in papers much of late, what with it being January and all the reports weren't too favourable about the accuracy of them. The concept is relatively new, probably like the very first iphone so it will take some time, and models most likely till they can develop an accurate one.

I've had my fitbit for a year now and have found it to be surprisingly accurate. Sometimes (don't judge me, I know this is sad! ) I count steps in my head as I go along to see if it tallies up, and the fitbit does indeed match my mental count almost exactly.
I think the issue of accuracy is something of a moot point anyway, if having a fitbit encourages someone to be more active then that can only be a good thing, even if it is over or underestimating slightly.