FitBit?

[Hevnbound 51]

Returned my Force 10 days after use.

GOOD:

Fit my wrist well, very light, could forget it was on

Looks good - if you like the "techie" look

Display; time especially ... Bright and clear

Records stairs very accurately

Price reasonable when compared to others with similar features

Vibrating alarm

Visual display of sleep patterns. (On app)

BAD:

Hard to get band snapped in properly. Watch out for this or no more Fitbit!

Steps counted way over actual. Compared to cheap pedometer .. 10 to 20% over depending on daily activity

Calories burned very optimistic!

Limitations to counting some activities (eg. Pushing grocery cart through Super Walmart -unless you try to steer the cart with one hand and let the arm with the fitbit dangle ... Try doing that for awhile and you will get extra exercise ..LOL

Although seeing sleep patterns is cool .... I know whether or not I've had a good night sleep

All total ... A lot of money for a gimmicky device.

Although not as fun, a standard pedometer seems to register activity better and by using MFP for food, exercise, etc you get a more accurate measurement of activities for a lot less money.

My $ .02 worth.

[BellaHugz 331]

I love my fitbit force and the looking to buy their scale that links to it too. I enjoy beign able to see my activity and my calories burned also track my Water intake too. I love the weekly reports keeps me challenging myself!

Edited February 19, 2014 by BellaHugz

[CarlosLG 4]

Regarding the comment on the calories burnt being "optimistic", FitBit is contemplating not only what you burn from activity but also an estimate of what someone your height and weight would burn just by being alive and breathing. Just wanted to clear that out.

[nynewlywed 17]

Thank you everyone for your imput! As always you are all VERY helpful. I think i'm going to give it a go. But i'll wait for Tory Burchs FitBit line that is coming out this spring. Haha i'm very excited to see how i do with steps and sleeping and also to track a realistic estimating of calories burned. I read that a person my size/age/sex would burn around 2,000 calories a day if i was a couch potato the entire time.. Our bodies are remarkable things!

[plasticbee 22]

I too have a FitBit Force.

I preferred it over the Flex, mostly because of the clock feature because my thought was -- if I am going to wear something on my wrist, it might as well have a watch feature. I originally had a Flex, and used it for a few days (Christmas Present) but found the tapping for sleep monitoring not as intuitive and easy to "start" as it is with the Force. I also like that I can see my progress directly on the Force as well, whereas on the Flex you only have those dots.

I also recently purchased the Aria to sync with my Fitbit and its absolutely fantastic.

If you have smartphone, I highly recommend getting some apps for your Fitbit. I use MyFitnessPal to track food simply because the database is bigger than Fitbit's, and since the programs sync, its not a big deal. I also like that MFP has a widget that I can keep on my phone screen that keeps track of calories, as well as the barcode scanner which has come in handy a few times. I prefer to track my Water through Fitbit's app, though just because it seems simpler to me. Fitbit does not currently have a widget like MFP so it was a no brainer for me to continue using MFP with the sync.

I also recommend getting DriveBit (or something similar) which is a widget/app you can place on your phone and Start/Stop when you are driving (flying, etc) since occasionally Fitbit will calculate that as your actual movement. I have an Android phone, and use the DashClock app, and someone made a DashClock Fitbit extension that shows your percentage on the screen when the phone is idling -- I found that pretty nice to see at a glance as well.

Also, I posted this on its own -- but if you have the Aria scale, I highly recommend www.trendweight.com which you can sync with the Aria scale and it will trend track your weight loss, and project a time towards your goal weight based on your actual weight loss. I like a lot of data, so I understand that this won't be for everyone. That said, I recommend the Aria scale highly. It was a bit pricey, but the information it gives me and the fact that I can do so much, like track my trend with weight loss is really worth the pricetag to me.

For anyone concerned about the Fitbit not securing correctly, it DOES get easier with use. MIne took about a week for the snaps to go into place without a struggle. You still DO need to be careful as it is just a snap and can come off if hit the right way to pull it (I occasionally do this in my sleep when I roll over, but I sleep light and wake up and adjust it before falling back asleep),

I also highly recommend getting an app or program to remind you about the low battery on the FitBit. I have one that emails me when mine is getting low, and have found that fairly useful as well.