I love my fitbit one. It is the one with the clip, which I clip onto my bra. It links to my iPhone 5 and needs to be charged about once every ten days. It keeps me accountable and helped me lose twenty-five pounds in the last year. I hope to lose another ten this summer. Most of my weight loss happens in the summer, when I am outside and more active. If I can maintain my weight during the winter months, I am happy. I walk about 12,000 steps September through May and 18,000 during June, July, and August.
Before I got my fitbit, I used MapMyWalk when I went for a walk. It was good, but the fitbit is better.
My fitbit was a Christmas gift from my D and S. (I’m sure D bought it and S signed the card, but that is the subject of a thread of its own…)
I almost forgot - when I first pick it up in the morning, or clip it from one place to another, it flashes cute little messages like LET’S GO HRH, GO GIRL, SMOOCHES, and HUG ME, HRH.
There is a small readout, you can hit a button and scroll through time, steps, stairs, miles, calories. I have checked the steps and found them to be accurate, not sure about the miles and calories! I have had mine for two years and never lost or washed it, but it could happen. The key is a routine that happens every single time. My sister loaned hers to her DH for one day, he put it in his pocket instead of clipping it on, he lost it that day
I have the opposite concern of arabrab, I’m a software developer and I can’t stand anything moving around on my wrist. I’m very small boned and am concerned I won’t like the feel of it. I’m considering the fitbit HR. Does anyone have that one? I love the covers! Had not seen those before!
Thanks for posting – this reminds me that I had come close to buying one of these for myself during the holidays but never got around to it – I am going to do it now! I am wondering, do all of the fitbit models have these messages? What about other activity trackers? I think I recall reading that one of the activity trackers (can’t recall if it was a fitbit or not) would flash some kind of reminder if you had been inactive too long. Does anyone know which one that is? (I probably don’t need to say that I respond well to external motivation . . . )
I am sitting too much, so the key thing I’d like an activity monitor to do is prompt me to not sit so much, as well as tracking steps. I do not have my phone on me all the time, but I do have an iPhone 5.
@arabrab – I cannot answer your question about the FitBit wrist model, but the Fit Bit One definitely interfaced with the iPhone 5 and Mac. I had the 4S until I got the 6 last fall, and it worked with the three year old 4S.
I don’t know if I am supposed to have updated something on my computer, but I receive different data on my computer than my phone. The FitBit phone app includes Active Minutes but the computer illustrates data in a few different ways: pie chart showing amount of time at each activity level; bar graphs showing calories burned, steps walked, and flights climbed; and the daily log of steps, flights, miles & calories.
I did not want the wrist model for many reasons, but stray arm movement was a significant deterrent. I have not lost or washed the FitBit One and I often wear it in my pocket instead of clipped to waistband.
My unit undercounts mileage walked when walking for exercise but I think that is b/c my outdoor stride is longer than my indoor stride. I may be wrong about that, but I know that outdoor mileage is understated, having used Map My Run to track miles walked. But since it consistently undercounts the five mile walk, I don’t care and just pay attention to daily steps.
I aim for 20,000 steps/day and 75 flights. Doesn’t happen on rainy or snowy days. It is a wonderful motivator.
Love my FitBit One! I clip it to my pants pocket or waist band. Did accidentally wash it (twice) but revived it by burying it in a cup of rice for a day or so. After a couple of years it started resetting itself randomly (of course always after I’d completed my step goal for the day). I started shopping for whatever was the latest and greatest and ran across a comment to call FitBit customer support with my problem because they had a generous replacement policy… did just that and they sent me a brand new one! Just said for me to responsibly recycle the old one. For that reason alone, I will always stick with the FitBit brand.
I did read that the wrist ones were less accurate because of arm movement. There have been updates to the FitBit App & Dashboard, so if your phone/ipad/computer aren’t all running the most current version of the app, data may display differently. @CT1417 – I’m guessing your computer app is out of date. I know how it calculates active minutes recently changed. BTW, I’m in awe of your step/stair goal!
I wanted to add that the fitbit one has a little button and pressing it gives you different information: time, number of steps, number of flights of stairs, distance, calories burned, and a little flower that the stem gets longer as you are getting more exercise. It just said, “Hey! Hey! HRH”, “STEP IT UP, HRH!”, and I’M READY, HRH". I think it’s telling me to quit typing and get moving.
@CT1417 , can you share how you manage to get in 75 flights of stairs - wow!
I noticed that our new Costco had some FitBit products at the store entry the other day - but I was in a hurry and couldn’t stop to notice the models or prices - has anyone else purchased one at Costco and how comparable were the prices???
@abasket – I noticed the FitBit display by our Costco entrance also. I do not know the model name but it appears to be the one you strap to your wrist and the Costco package contained additional colored wristbands. I do not know if the price is competitive, but I find that almost everything at Costco is less expensive than a sale elsewhere. Without actually knowing this to be true, I would bet that that you will not pay the full price of the additional bands, so it comes down to whether or not you want the additional bands.
Re: flights of stairs. I run up and down the stairs an awful lot during the course of a regular day. Laundry & an extra refrigerator are downstairs, as well as back-up Costco storage (paper towels, TP). If something needs to be taken up or downstairs, I just take it there right away, as opposed to collecting items in basket at bottom of stairs.
It is almost impossible to log many flights of stairs when I travel unless hiking or something. My daily five mile walk adds some flights also, depending on the route.
@aMacMom – yes, FitBit offers amazing customer service. They replaced my entire unit when it stopped holding a charge after 13 months of ownership. They have sent replacement parts, one my fault and one a product defect. (I left the dongle in the back of the computer when sending it in for repair. They were under no obligation to replace that for free.)
I don’t use a FitBit app on the computer; I just log into the FitBit site, so perhaps that is the difference between my phone and computer.
I love the little motivating messages sent with accomplishment of each milestone but I think they need benchmarks between 200 & 300 flights. After 100, they send congratulatory notes at 125, 150, 175 & 200 but then nothing again until 300, and that may never happen. Two active vacations last year accounted for the 100+ flight days. (Grand Canyon and Big Sur.)
@hrh19 – I also use the button on the front of it throughout the day. Am amused by the ‘Go Girl’ & other supportive messages.
CT1417, your every day goals are my outstanding days. I had one random person friend me when I first signed up, no one I knew or invited. She had 30k+ steps every day. I was just about convinced she put it on her dog’s collar. I don’t know how someone does 30k steps every day, day after day. I have done it a few times and it is both an incredibly busy day, but also a day where I am doing nothing but moving all day, no work.
It’s important to pinpoint what your own personal “outstanding” or “target” days are. Some people have more free time or free time to move at their disposal. Some, like it or not, are chained to a desk hours a day (even with hourly “up and moving” breaks). Some have stairs at home to climb, some do not!
A good rule of thumb might be to keep a log of your “typical” days for a week or so. What is your average step count for those 7 days? Take that number and agree (with yourself!) to aim to increase the # of steps by a certain amount - maybe 25% higher to start??? THAT becomes your personal “outstanding/target” number.
@abasket – I agree that the point is to use the device for your own purposes. Whatever works to motivate each individual. The device must come pre-set with 10K steps and 10 flights of stairs and I have not changed those settings, but it leads me to wonder if that level of activity is what FitBit thinks is the goal level for most people. Anyone living in a ranch would have trouble climbing ten flights of stairs/day!
@somemom – agree that 30K steps only happens while on vacation, and even then, rarely. I don’t have any FitBit ‘friends’ so do not know others’ activity levels.
My favorite measurements are the Time Active pie chart and the Calories Burned bar chart graphics on the computer. The Calories Burned bar graph identifies low, medium & high activity times in five minute increments. I don’t have any idea of its accuracy in tracking calories but I figure it does know activity intensity. The lack of color (sedentary) during the evening hours is very revealing!
We have two sets of stairs in ours house, yesterday on a late spring cleaning, I got nearly 100 flights of steps, but I work out of town periodically at a location with no steps, I find it almost depressing to realize how many fewer steps I do there, but the fitbit helped me figure out why I always gain a few pounds there! No steps versus many steps, I generally have 50+/- flights.
I have the FitBit Charge HR. I use it with my Iphone 6 and iMac computer. You need to charge it about every 5 days, but it doesn’t take long to charge. My mom, adult kids, kid’s girlfriends, etc… all have them. Between her tennis, walking and smaller steps my mom usually is on the top of the leaderboard. It definitely is a great tool to tell you how active you have been. If I come home from work and am a few thousand steps from my goal of 10,000 a day I will take the dog around the block. My mom wore out the band of her FitBit Charge and they sent her a brand new FitBit Charge (just asked her to send them a picture).
@onward – That is odd! I can’t imagine that an office would have lower ceilings than a house. I have not researched this but I assume that the device tracks the ascent and not the number of steps? Sometimes the device does not ‘credit’ me when I fly up the stairs from the basement (12 steps) but always seems to credit the 13 step flight to the bedrooms. I know it tracks elevations (walking up hills) and stairs in doctors’ office buildings or the mall.
@somemom – could it be changed eating habits when away from home and unable to prepare your own meals? Not intending to take away from the benefits of movement, especially coming from an obsessed FitBit fan!
