<p>My daughter says I should get myself a fitbit for Christmas (or, get one for H to give to me for Christmas - same thing at this point).</p>
<p>I have heard people mention these things but really have little idea what they are good for.</p>
<p>I am trying to move more (I even set an alarm at work, to get up from my desk every two hours and walk around) and want to start some core exercises . . . Would a fitbit help with those things?</p>
<p>Maybe. DH likes his. I use a simpler pocket pedometer. </p>
<p>See this thread - lots of various input <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1502695-anyone-tried-fitbit-similar-items.html?highlight=fitbit[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1502695-anyone-tried-fitbit-similar-items.html?highlight=fitbit</a></p>
<p>I got one last spring, I LOVE it. For me, I have learned a great deal about the days when I am doing more or less than I thought I was doing. For example, I walk for an hour with one neighbor or another, the steps are thousand more with the first neighbor. I had been thinking I was getting an hour of exercise, but this woke me up to the intensity .</p>
<p>I also discovered that I am truly motivated by the counter, I do all sorts of things to get more steps & flights or stairs 
I se the bra clip one and wear it all the time. You can even track how deeply you are sleeping if you wear it to bed.</p>
<p>Mathilda, if you like simple gadgets and are motivated to move, get one! Something for your health is a good thing! Make small goals and gradually up your steps. Once you get one you will probably hear about others who have one - seeing the numbers can be very gratifying and eye opening.</p>
<p>Got a fuel band myself. Love it</p>
<p>I really like my Fitbit. It amazes me that seeing those little lights is so motivating. I’ve paced around the living room just to reach my goal and get that last light illuminated before midnight!</p>
<p>As a privacy crazy person, I have to ask this, because I too have wondering about a fitbit. Is the data collected limited to the device (as in, I am the only one who would ever see it), or is it stored on the site of whoever makes FitBit (in which case I think it is very, very creepy that some corporation is collecting data about how deeply people are sleeping)? This is my issue with the websites that track food choices too, so I do my own tracking in a Word document. Call me crazy (or maybe, please don’t). I know it’s a hang up that most people don’t share. For the movement tracking, I bought a freestanding old school pedometer.</p>
<p>mjsmom, </p>
<p>Just create an account with a fake or nickname. Of course, someone very determined could track the IP address to your home/office I can’t imagine that being a very attractive “gain” for hackers. They couldn’t be SURE who was using the computer. </p>
<p>I love, love, love the MyFitnessPal, but I don’t need anyone ELSE seeing my daily calories :-). As cyber-security goes I wouldn’t worry much about this data!</p>
<p>There is a website with a dashboard to manage it, but I think you can limit who sees it, though, yes it is still stored somewhere in cyber space.</p>
<p>I know people who have them and like them.</p>
<p>For me it’s just one more “bit” of technology I don’t have time to keep up with. I have already failed miserably with WeightWatchers, LoseIt and CouchTo5K on my iPhone. I would just rather deal with my exercise and diet goals the old-fashioned way, I guess.</p>
<p>If you get the clip-on style, be careful to not launder it accidentally, which is one of the main problems I have read about (people leaving it in pocket or on clothing when laundering). </p>
<p>The bracelet model of the similar Nike fuel band, I have read that some people have been irked that some of the lights stop working. My niece has had to have her Nike fuel band replace once and then the replacement one had lights that stopped working but she couldn’t get them to replace it again because she didn’t have the paperwork the store required. She says it tracks her arm movements and can’t sense how much the rest of her body moves. Since she talks with her hands/arms and is somewhat sedentary, she knows the numbers on the band aren’t accurate about how much her legs and rest of her body moves. She does find the device motivating.</p>
<p>Another friend who has the clip on FitBit really loves his and feels it helps motivate him to be more active. H & I haven’t purchase either of these devices, nor have our kids…yet.</p>
<p>Huge fan of the FitBit One and whatever model preceded it that I destroyed. The prior model could be used to clip onto garment and clearly that was not how it was intended to be used. Mine fell apart after more than a year. New model is smaller when out of its clip, but the unit & clip combined are fairly streamlined. Smaller size means that it is prone to falling out of pocket if used without clip. </p>
<p>I love the bar graph that tracks movement (or lack of movement) in five minute increments and at three different activity levels. I find it to be a real motivator. </p>
<p>Yes, I suppose the FitBit people do know where you are going, but this hasn’t bothered me. I have not received any unsolicited mail in the year and a half that I have owned this device. Customer service is excellent. (I accidentally discarded the dongle that has to remain in the back of the computer to retrieve activity info from the unit. Customer Service replaced it free of charge.)</p>
<p>The differences between Fit Bit One ($99 version) and the $59 version is that One tracks flights of stairs (useful) and sleep (haven’t used). Hope you get one and enjoy it.</p>
<p>Sally, sometimes when life is mellow, I keep my fitbit dashboard open and track how I am doing, see if I can improve anything, etc. Other times, life is busy, like now with the holidays, I let it do it’s thing and I will check my numbers more carefully in January. I like the numbers. But the phone app lets me know how many steps I have that day.</p>
<p>Personally I love the stair tracker, i do a lot of elevation changes and that helps encourage me to do more…“Oh, just three more flights to hit 50” so I do three more flights. It is silly motivation, but it works for me.</p>
<p>For the sleep, you have to enter the time you went to bed and time you got up. There is a way to do it on the fitbit itself, but I found that more difficult to be sure I was doing it right.</p>
<p>The FitBit does not have GPS capability, so they have no idea where you are, just how many steps you’ve taken. The iPhone (and Android) apps that provide maps (such as RunMeter), those know where you were and when. (For that matter, so does my car.)</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t really care if a website tracks my steps, calories, weight, etc., because I think such information is so boring that no one would care.</p>
<p>I love my Fitbit and credit it and its website with my weight loss of 34 pounds.</p>
<p>I like a simple pocket pedometer. I just compare step count day to day.
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<p>Silly as it sounds, having the daily step count does motivate me. Recommendations are to walk 5,000 to 10,000 steps a day. I often work from home, so seeing step count under 2000 is a great reminder to do lunchtime walks and such. My record days are 17,000 steps (touring Florence) and 19,000 steps (DD talked me into a 6 mile walk).</p>
<p>D has one and loves it–wants to upgrade (or me to get hers so SHE can upgrade). All I can say is it works well for her. I’m still considering it.</p>
<p>dmd–Kudos to you and your weight loss. My FitBit sent me an email last week telling me I had walked 5000 miles since I started with it (18 months ago, or so), but I lose and regain the same five pounds regardless! I agree that </p>
<p>somemom–I completely agree about the incline tracking. I climb stairs w/o thinking in my house, but will now consciously decide to climb stairs instead of taking the elevator at low office buildings. </p>
<p>Best single day was 100 flights (more than once) and another day, 33,000+ steps, but have never come close to that again. 25,000 is a BIG day and that hasn’t happened since summer. The activity difference is notable with winter weather and shorter days.</p>
<p>Another FitBit fan here. H lost 30 lbs using one.</p>
<p>One thing to know is that the mileage is approximate but not accurate, but it is also not the point of the device. Tracking how many steps you are taking each day (not distance) is the goal. You can step in place or run 10+ miles; either way the key is to put in as many steps as you can.</p>
<p>Running will actually record fewer steps than walking the same distance, because your stride gets longer when you run. Similarly, if you walk/run with someone else who has a FitBit and longer legs, you may record more steps because your stride length is shorter.</p>
<p>It is recommended for women that the device be worn in the front center of your bra, as it is virtually invisible there, and you are less likely to lose it or put it through the wash inadvertently.</p>
<p>As someone else mentioned, sometimes it records movement that is not steps, but that is not a major issue. My FitBit once recorded that I had taken steps when I was a passenger in a power boat in rough seas.</p>
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<p>You got my attention now. How did he do that with fitbit?</p>
<p>razorsharp,
It was a combination of his new-found awareness of how much walking/running he was doing and needed to improve, and mostly his intensely competitive nature, that drove him to out-step himself daily and all of us fellow FitBitters.</p>
<p>You can “friend” anyone you know who also uses FitBit and compete for the most steps each week on a cumulative 7-day cycle. He is usually near the top with about 90,000 to 100,000 steps per week. My max week was 140,000, but I’m usually around 80 - 90,000. I have 8 FitBit friends, he has 10. It motivates you to put in that extra 3 mile walk you would not normally have undertaken before dinner, to keep yourself at the top, stay fit and lose weight.</p>