Fitness Trackers??

Sammyantha13

So H has decided to get us a pair of fitness trackers...we like working out together and recently started doing P90X together again, so we would like to be able to track calories burned.  I use MyFitnessPal pretty regularly to track meals.  And we were hoping to find something that has a heart rate monitor (which from reading reviews, it seems like only the Fitbit ChargeHR has a heart rate monitor; the rest you have to buy one separately.)  

I've been reading reviews and narrowed it down to a few.  We want the wristband ones, not clip-ons.  So between the FitBit Flex, JawboneUP24, and the Nike+ Fuelband SE (which tracks sleep, unlike previous models), does anyone have reviews or suggestions?  (The Fitbit ChargeHR doesn't come out until early 2015, so I can't get any user reviews on it.)  I read a comparison between the FitBit and Nike, and it seems like the Nike is much more accurate as far as tracking calories burned/steps.  The review said that the FitBit was much too generous with footsteps and calories...they did the same workout with both bands, and the FitBit said it burned like 1900 calories, while the Nike said the same workout burned about 670 calories.  That's quite a difference!  

I was hoping for one with some sort of display, so that's where the Nike and FitBit Charge have an advantage.  Does anyone have the FitBit Flex and feel that having the light display is just as useful?  

Also, for those of you who have fitness trackers, do you think it will accurately track calories burned for activities like P90X?  I know that's not a standard workout, so now sure how effective it'll be.

climbingsingle

I was planning on getting the Jaybird. It's a brand new one that just came out. 

amelisha

Are you certain you want one of the bracelet style ones? Maybe I'm a dumb girl, but I chose one of the other fitbit models that clips to your bra or pants because I didn't want to wear a big rubber bracelet all the time. Totally outfit-ruining...

My FitBit was great until I put it through the wash and didn't replace it. I found it gave me more accurate counts for my runs (actually lower than MFP would have estimated and lower than the treadmill too.) It had a way to calibrate it and I found it to reflect my predicted step count over a given distance that I'd mathed out. 

That's the other thing about the wrist ones too - sometimes just moving your arms around will register as steps, which is super annoying.

KatieinBkln

My FI is in love with his Microsoft Band, which syncs with your phone. But it's ugly and big. I'd wait till the second gen and see if they can make it any daintier.

The Fitbit has a cool collaboration with Tory Burch--the bracelet is gorgeous but I like the necklace version, too: http://www.fitbit.com/toryburch#1 

lacqueredlover

I have a Fitbit Flex, have had it for about 18 months.  I really like it!  The lights give me a good indication where I"m at and it takes less than 30 seconds to look at my app on the phone to see if I'm where I want to be.  Plus I find it to be fairly comfortable!  I wanted the Tory Burch necklace for it but then I read a bunch of reviews which said it doesn't count the steps well then 

FiancB

I've heard the fitbits aren't all that accurate. I use a Polar HRM with a chest strap. It just tracks heart rate and calories, no sleep or all that fancy stuff, but I'm not super interested in that anyway. But I will say the Polar is kind of uncomfortable so I only wear it when I'm working out. It would be nice to have something to track all day.

charlottesmom0626

lacqueredlover said:

I have a Fitbit Flex, have had it for about 18 months.  I really like it!  The lights give me a good indication where I"m at and it takes less than 30 seconds to look at my app on the phone to see if I'm where I want to be.  Plus I find it to be fairly comfortable!  I wanted the Tory Burch necklace for it but then I read a bunch of reviews which said it doesn't count the steps well then 

This. I have the flex and I love it. I usually have my phone so it doesn't hurt to look at all of the other stats quickly either. Also @laqueredlover they have a TB bracelet too...did you look into that one?

lacqueredlover

charlottesmom0626 said:

lacqueredlover said:

I have a Fitbit Flex, have had it for about 18 months.  I really like it!  The lights give me a good indication where I"m at and it takes less than 30 seconds to look at my app on the phone to see if I'm where I want to be.  Plus I find it to be fairly comfortable!  I wanted the Tory Burch necklace for it but then I read a bunch of reviews which said it doesn't count the steps well then 

This. I have the flex and I love it. I usually have my phone so it doesn't hurt to look at all of the other stats quickly either. Also @laqueredlover they have a TB bracelet too...did you look into that one?

Yeah I saw it but I liked the idea of not having something on my arm.  I also dont' wanna spend the money 

charlottesmom0626

with you on the money: those things are pricey! But there are some sellers on Etsy that make covers and bracelets for fitbits. I have a few colors of the fit bit brand bands, but I'm always looking for new (cute) ones.

If i go to a class though, my fitbit will say I was "active" for 30 minutes during a 60 minute class. I know that there are warm ups and cool downs, so I think it's pretty accurate.

tcnoble

I have the Jawbone UP. Yeah, the bracelet isn't super attractive, but I stopped noticing it after awhile. I haven't found anything to complain about - the app is super easy to use, and it links with MFP so that helps too. My sister works for Nike so obviously is a little biased there, but I got the Jawbone because it was on sale at Target. The only disadvantage is I bought the cheaper version so to sync it you have to connect it via the headphone jack on your phone - it doesn't update wirelessly. 

WinstonsGirl

I've got the Fitbit Force, which isn't available anymore.  I needed a watch tied in with mine for work.  I like it.  The light display wouldn't do it for me, and since I don't have a phone, I can't just check the app for my stats.  The sleep tracking has been amazing for me.  I sleep like shit, so it's no wonder that I'm always tired. 

ETA - I wore it while doing Focus T-25 and it didn't register a lot of things cos I wasn't "walking".  Lots of the lunges, squats and arm exercises didn't register cos they didn't match the similar movement of walking, so even after 25 mins and dripping sweat, I was at say 6 min of active exercise.  

lovesclimbing

I have never used one.  My aunt has a FitBit, and she said she felt it was pretty accurate.  She hasn't used any other type though.

Kahlyla

My husband and I both have Nike+ FuelBands. They work well, do their thing... but between the two of us we've literally returned them a dozen times. They fail and break (the company says we've been unlucky and the next gen products are better...).

The good thing is their incredible warranty service, I guess!

morphemes

I have the fitbit flex and I love it! I've had it for about a year. It's true that excessive arm movements can add steps- but honestly this is pretty rare since there are settings that adjust for regular arm movements for both your dominant or non-dominant arm. 

I'd say it's fairly accurate. I walk to and from school every day (between 5-6 mils) and some days I walk to the store, etc and the counted number of miles/steps is always on par with how far I walked that day. I also do a dance workout class a couple times a week and we work out on individual pads that track our movements (pretty cool!) and the fitbit is usually a little lower than the steps the pad counts, probably because I don't actually move forward for some of the steps (just up and down which is harder for the fitbit to catch).

All in all I think it's great and the app is also very good. You can set your goals to any number you like-which makes the light display on the actual device a very helpful indicator. You can also sync your MFP or RK accounts (and countless others) to your fitbit app. 

mikenberger

I use a Fitbit flex for every day walking and a Polar F7 for workouts. If you're doing a weight workout, the HRM keeps better track of your calories burned bc it tracks your heart rate and not your steps.

kvruns

I have the Garmin VivoFit.  It has an actual display unlike most others, so you can easily see time, steps so far, steps you need until you hit the goal, calories, etc.  FI and I both think it's fairly accurate except for miles, it definitely overestimates the miles you've done.  You can get them for HRM too although I don't because I hate HRMs.  I have a garmin HRM band from another monitor that I believe I could start using with this if I want.  This also connects to MFP and also with other Garmin devices if you have any (like I have the Forerunner for my running).  It's waterproof and I wear it in the shower and haven't had any issues.  It does sleep tracking although all that is with any of these is how much you move in your sleep so really pretty pointless to me.

VivoFit is on major sale this weekend for Black Friday stuff, I think ours were $129 and now it's like $75-80 I think which would be nice.

ETA: It also has this annoying red bar that goes if you haven't gotten up and moved for an hour and then 15 min segments after that up to a total of 2 hours.  it drives me crazy and therefore makes me move!