Thursday, December 22, 2016

Fitbit - Yay or Nay?

I'm a BIG fan of Fitbit and get asked often if I think it's worth the expense and if I thought it was accurate...

Here's how I answer that one:

I have owned two kinds of Fitbits; the flex and the one. I am a big fan of the fitbits in general. The company has excellent service and they make a good product. A high level overview... a fitbit is a pedometer. That's basically it. Some of their newer and more pricey models have a heart rate monitor as well, which makes those an activity tracker. The prices range from $50 to around $250; all fitbits though.

So is it worth the price? Well that will depend on which one you get and if it does for you what you need/want it to do.

Is is accurate? Also depends on how you use it and wear it. The clip on version may be more accurate for counting steps vs. a wrist wearing version that's dependent on you swinging your arm to get a step count.

BUT... it's pretty darn close. And all models WILL get you moving more. Which at the end of the day is the goal here.

If you need more accurate data points, look at finding an activity tracker vs. a pedometer that will monitor your heart rate. THat will give you a more detailed calorie burn count.

Scenario: I wear my fitbit one daily. I clip it to my bra and go about my day. I let it count my steps. I let that sync automatically to myfitnesspal. Go me. When I take time to do a focused workout; let's say I pop in my Turbo Fire Kickboxing DVD... then I'll put on my polar watch with chest strap. That's my HRM (Heart Rate Monitor). That will give me an accurate calorie burn based on my own heart beat and my specific to me data points pre-entered into the algorithm.

I had the chest strap HRM long before Fitbit came out with their version of one, and now that they have one, I'd love to hear from those that have one too!

YES I think it's worth the price and YES I think it's accurate enough for me. AND When I first bought my fitbit, I was hitting around 2000 steps a day. After I owned that fitbit for a year, I was hitting 10,000 and up steps a day. Was it "accurate"? Maybe, maybe not. But I was losing weight and feeling wonderful and accomplished every day I went over that 10k. So WORTH it in many many many aspects.

If you're new to pedometers in general and not sure where to even start, I wrote about those here: http://bwarsh.blogspot.com/2014/08/need-pedometer-but-not-sure-which-one.html. Feel free to check it out. Maybe it'll be helpful to you. :)

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