finally broke down and bought a fitbit..

[NGL34]

And I wish i would of purchased one sooner.

I got the fitbit surge, which does way more than I actually need it for. Finally I have a ball park range of how many calories I'm burning each day. To my surprise my calorie expenditure day to day is very dramatic (as much as 1k calorie difference plus), esp on the days I'm off and just lounging around. Its very accurate as well. I tested it against the elliptical machine and treadmill, testing HR and calorie expenditure and it was right on the money.

Its pretty nice that I can also link it to myfitnesspal app, which is great so I can eat more flexibly and also eat more according to my true calorie expenditure for that day. If your the type that doesn't strictly eat the same meals and marcos day in and day out, this is worth every penny.

Depending on the device there are several other cool features such as, programming it to a specific workout to track time, hr rate, calories burnt (weight training, elliptical, tennis, etc), gps, tracks sleep, steps taken, stairs climbed, hr rate, etc. Pretty cool, but I can be kinda of a tech nerd at times.

I got my fitbit surge on ebay, they have some really good steals on there if your interested. Much more competitive than amazon or any other retailer.

 

[chinaboy]

My bother gave me his. If it weren't formthat I would never have grabbed one. It's great. I like the sleep monitoring and resting heart rate. If I slack on cardio my resting heart rate goes up. And if I'm tired usually I can look,back and see I haven't been sleeping enough. Also seeing my current heart rate calms me down and makes me less anxious as I can see if I'm worked up that my heart is still in range and Im not having heart issues. I know it sounds dumb but it helps me feel less anxious. Haha.

 

[SRhealth-Rachel]

Fitbit often drive us lazy people to workout, just like step ranking of WeRun

 

[Feeshoils]

I find mine especially helpful when tracking sleep. Seeing how much my sleep is affected in terms of restlessness when I take stims/ pre workout is quite an eye opener....
The days I don't take stims always seems to a more rested nights sleep, even if I take my pre workout in the morning.. Quite interesting .

 

[Thor]

.

i was thinking about getting one til i saw something on the news about them, i dont remember exactly what it was but i believe someone was suing them cuz they are not accurate.

 

[dnab87]

I find it hard to believe its able to track the stages of your sleep. Any sources behind this?

 

[NGL34]

I find mine especially helpful when tracking sleep. Seeing how much my sleep is affected in terms of restlessness when I take stims/ pre workout is quite an eye opener....
The days I don't take stims always seems to a more rested nights sleep, even if I take my pre workout in the morning.. Quite interesting .

I didn't think to much about this feature, but I'm starting to like it more. My sleep has always been bad to nocturia, no kidney issues. I realize that I sleep in 2-2.5 hour blocks per night but my efficiency is 94% or greater. If I can get close to three of these blocks of sleep a night I feel pretty good the next day.

 

[gulfcoast]

i was thinking about getting one til i saw something on the news about them, i dont remember exactly what it was but i believe someone was suing them cuz they are not accurate.

Yep... They are often WAY off and they are getting sued because of it.

I saw a clip somewhere on it where a guy sat on his couch and swung his arm around occasionally while watching tv, then went and did an hour casual workout. Both burned about the same cals according to the Fitbit he was wearing. lol

Good friend that is a really big personal trainer in ATL told me straight up that it was pretty useless for us hardcore types but it was probably beneficial for the casual user.

 

[NGL34]

i was thinking about getting one til i saw something on the news about them, i dont remember exactly what it was but i believe someone was suing them cuz they are not accurate.

They are being sue over the inaccuracy of the hr rate with intense exercise claiming it be off as much as much as %15 percent. I tested the hr rate monitor on both treadmill and elliptical and my hr according to my fitbit was usually righ on the money, never more then +- 2 beats different from those machines.

I find it hard to believe its able to track the stages of your sleep. Any sources behind this?

It doesn't track stages of sleep from what my device shows. What is does show is how many times your restless, wake up or asleep.

 

[Freedom15Muscle]

They are getting sued for the acccuracy of the sleep tracking too. I have a Garmin which is pretty much the same thing. Interesting to see the calorie expenditure and calorie tracking...but the longer I've had mine the less accurate it becomes. Wife sent hers in twice. It has a move reminder on it so if you sit too long the Garmin will tell you to move. She could be walking around and the move reminder still goes off. Take it for whats its worth...I think they help on some levels, but for the most part they are trash.

Sent from my SM-G530P using Tapatalk

 

[petegriffin]

I noticed there are 2 settings to track sleep, the normal and sensitive. I usually keep mine on normal and on days off work I'll get around 7 hours of sleep but when I put it on sensitive it says that I get around 4 to 5 hours of sleep. WTF lol

 

[Feeshoils]

I find it hard to believe its able to track the stages of your sleep. Any sources behind this?

It doesnt track stages of sleep as such, more so the level of restlessness. it Wouldn't be unfair to suggest less movement whilst sleeping could=deeper level of sleep.
Maybe total BS but i know i feel better in the morning when im not as restless during sleep.

 

[chinaboy]

My Fitbit definitely racks up steps when driving, especially my motorcycle.

 

[Pericles]

You do realize the are pretty inaccurate?

 

[chinaboy]

Yes, thanks.

 

[brutus69]

what i do cuz im old fashioned is, if im biking or doing anything outside w/o a heartrate monitor, i just every now and then take my pulse for 10 seconds x 6 and get my heart rate avg for whatever time im doing it. hit could be 170, hiking hard could be 120.
then i use the formula polar and some other companies use to get my cals burned for that time.

Calories Burned = [(Age x 0.2017) + (Weight x 0.09036) + (Heart Rate x 0.6309) -- 55.0969] x Time / 4.184. the formula for women is a bit different.

 

[Stewie Griffon]

Fitbit is nice if you do a lot of walking/running/cardio

To me the best feature is the phone app which lets me log food and training, I know there are many apps that do this but its nice combined with the fitbit functionality