Fit Trackers, thoughts?

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Shauni

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I just happened to be at a local Wal-Mart earlier and noticed they had a dedicated little section to Smart Watches and Fit Trackers. I've been traveling out of the country off and on the last few years, so I've not been in the loop with a lot of the Tech stuff. I have no real interest in Smart Watches, it's a concept I don't see the appeal of. The main thing of interest I have would be the fit tracking stuff. I've done a little googling here and there, and the idea seems pretty neat. Counting steps, calories, and how you sleep seems like something I'd be into.

Figured I'd start a thread and ask your thoughts about them for anyone who uses or has used them. Would you say the standalone fit trackers are actually something worthwhile, and accurate? And are there any that are fairly budget (we'll say budget is like $40-60 in this case).
 
Just use MyFitnessPal. It does the step tracking as well (not sure how accurate it is though). If you're looking to track calories, MFP is probably the best thing you can use.
 
Shauni said:
I just happened to be at a local Wal-Mart earlier and noticed they had a dedicated little section to Smart Watches and Fit Trackers. I've been traveling out of the country off and on the last few years, so I've not been in the loop with a lot of the Tech stuff. I have no real interest in Smart Watches, it's a concept I don't see the appeal of. The main thing of interest I have would be the fit tracking stuff. I've done a little googling here and there, and the idea seems pretty neat. Counting steps, calories, and how you sleep seems like something I'd be into.

Figured I'd start a thread and ask your thoughts about them for anyone who uses or has used them. Would you say the standalone fit trackers are actually something worthwhile, and accurate? And are there any that are fairly budget (we'll say budget is like $40-60 in this case).
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If you are looking for a budget one, go with a Xiaomi Miband. You can usually find deals on slickdeals for them in the 15$ range, and they do everything that the pricier ones do.
 
I have a Jawbone. I like to think of it as placebo fitness. It vibrates when I'm inactive for a bit. Can track my stuff, etc. I don't really find value in the data anymore, but constantly wearing it keeps me in a fitness state of mind.
 
Like a gym membership, it's only as good as what you get put into it. They're not a magic bean and if you're going to just ignore the alerts or goals they're useless.
 
Wafflecakes said:
If you are looking for a budget one, go with a Xiaomi Miband. You can usually find deals on slickdeals for them in the 15$ range, and they do everything that the pricier ones do.
Click to expand...

Really? Well, I may try that out for that price then. I'll look into it.

Cudder said:
Just use MyFitnessPal. It does the step tracking as well (not sure how accurate it is though). If you're looking to track calories, MFP is probably the best thing you can use.
Click to expand...

Not familiar with this either, thanks for the tip.

TarpitCarnivore said:
Like a gym membership, it's only as good as what you get put into it. They're not a magic bean and if you're going to just ignore the alerts or goals they're useless.
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While I appreciate what you mean here, I'm not one who needs to be told this advice.
 
TarpitCarnivore said:
Like a gym membership, it's only as good as what you get put into it. They're not a magic bean and if you're going to just ignore the alerts or goals they're useless.
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This.

Got a fitbit on sale off Best Buy a while back. Pretty much only use it to track and be reminded of my daily/weekly activity, or lack of it. My job is mostly sitting by a desk all day, so it's helped. + I have some friends on there that have the app and like to compete every once in a while.
 
I had a Misfit Flash.

I liked it, but lost it at a bar one night (the clasp wasn't the best)

I might buy another since it seemed to work well and provided a nice incentive, I'd just want one that had the clasp as part of the enclosure instead of being a "watch" module you slide into a clasp.
 
Shauni said:
Really? Well, I may try that out for that price then. I'll look into it.



Not familiar with this either, thanks for the tip.



While I appreciate what you mean here, I'm not one who needs to be told this advice.
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You don't appreciate honesty? Fitness bands are indeed pointless if you're not going to bother with fitness.

They are good incentive, but you have to follow up. I love my Fitbit for tracking steps and sleep stats and it gets me walking more, but I'm lazy with working out. I'd be kidding myself if I said that it makes me more fit.
 
I ended up getting a fitbit hr which is out of your price range ($150) but the overall fitness tracker is something I'm enjoying. It gives me a ton of data over weeks and I'm going to be interested in seeing how things change.

The step counter/distance counter is interesting. The sleep tracker isn't going to be 100% accurate but it does give me a good indication (like I sleep on average like 6.5-7 hours a night)
 
Echoing what most have said already - the data's useless if you don't respond to it. I got a Fitbit about a month ago and check it every day. I'm at a desk job, and have found it does make me more mindful of how little I move, and how easy it is to squeeze a few extra hundred (or thousand steps) into the day with just a few lifestyle changes. Less elevator, more stairs. Less bus travel, more walking. By the end of the day I'm only a couple of thousand steps off my 10,000 a day goal, so I do some on-the-spot jogging in the evening while I watch TV. Bam, goal reached. Keeps me moving, keeps me mindful.
 
I've been calorie tracking with MyFitnessPal for a few months, with success losing weight. I bought a Fitbit Charge HR (has always on heart rate monitor for more accurate calorie tracking) and I love it. It also tracks sleep and resting heart rate, which are nice bonuses.

By the by, Fitbit's food database is more 'curated' than MyFitnessPal, but also more incomplete. Since you can link the two, you can put your food in via MyFitnessPal when the Fitbit database is missing something.
 
Symphonic said:
You don't appreciate honesty?
Click to expand...

I think you might need to re-read what I said there.

Fitness bands are indeed pointless if you're not going to bother with fitness.

They are good incentive, but you have to follow up. I love my Fitbit for tracking steps and sleep stats and it gets me walking more, but I'm lazy with working out. I'd be kidding myself if I said that it makes me more fit.
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Yes, if my statement wasn't clear there, I am very aware of this fact, any kind of fitness supplement is useless without exercise, diet, or drive, yes.
 
I have a Fitbit Charge HR and have been using MyFitnessPal for 3 months. I have lost over 33 lbs (15 kg) in that time. I love my fitbit and using MyFitnessPal to track my caloric intake has been fantastic. Only thing I wish MyFitnessPal could do is track added sugar vs natural sugar.
 
I have a Fitbit that I have on me at all times, but it really is only useful for approximating steps and distance walked every day. It's better than carrying around something larger with you to track steps and you barely notice it during the day, so it can help with meeting step counts or distance or activity time. But really, that's about all it is good for and I would have never picked one up without it being discounted.
 
I just ordered myself a Xiomi Miband the other day - I figure for the price it's worth trying out just to see how well it works and how I can integrate it with a workout routine. And if I can't...well, it's only $15.

It's supposed to be comparable to most of the other ones out there, only with no bonus features (which is fine by me).
 
I use Sony's SmartBand. I got it for $70 on Amazon and mostly got it for sleep tracking. It's more of a life tracker because when you pair it with LifeLog on android it tracks how much time you spend on your phone, on transportation, maps every where you've been and your fitness stuff too.
 
I have a fitbit (charge hr). I like is as I always used a hr monitor at the gym. Now I can keep this on my wrist and know how I'm going. The previous one was a strap around the waist. The charge HR is just as accurate too.

Haven't used the food app yet, I tried once and it seemed rubbish. However, it seems you can link it with myfitnesspal? If so they I will use that as MFP is much better. Especially in Australia.

I like the step counter, it encourages me to actually get out more as well. If I see I haven't hit 15k then I know I need to go for a walk.

I never thought I'd wear a watch, but I do like this thing. Its not a smart watch but I would honestly never see myself using one of those.
 
Darren870 said:
I like the step counter, it encourages me to actually get out more as well. If I see I haven't hit 15k then I know I need to go for a walk.
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The step counter is useless. Just wave your arm in the air and you can get 50 steps.
rage.gif
 
shira said:
The step counter is useless. Just wave your arm in the air and you can get 50 steps.
rage.gif
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Ahh yes, because that's what normal people every day. Just waving their arms in the air like they just don't care.

Of course you can artificially make the counter go up. Why buy a device if that's what you are going to do.
 
I just got a Jawbone last week. I'm loving it so far, but I think it's in the honeymoon phase of things more than anything right now.

I like the step counter and the sleep counter. The food tracker is okay, but I don't really think it's super accurate. Just sort of a helper to let you know generally how much you eat. It's no substitute for discipline though.
 
My phone does a good enough job in tracking my runs. I already wear it to listen to music and to track it on nike running. I use sleep cycle to track how i sleep. I use up coffee to make sure i don't over caffeinate in a day.
 
I use misfit for my pebble which is nice because it's entirely independent from my phone, and I don't really care how accurate it is because it's just something to give me an artificial goal.
 
A friend gifted me a Fitbit last week. I like it a lot so far and like other's have said, it's a good way to remind yourself to keep moving. Having it on your dominant arm when you masturbate does throw off the accuracy, though.
 
I have a Misfit Shine. It does the job.

I find myself going out of the way to reach my goal, but that's likely a universal feeling with any fitness tracker. I don't want to let myself down.
 
I've got a garmin vivofit and thinks its pretty cool

too bad I can't take it anywhere I might be doing something because the clasp on the strap is so unbelievably shitty

I refuse to believe the people that made it tested it for actual daily use at alllll
 
Charcoal said:
A friend gifted me a Fitbit last week. I like it a lot so far and like other's have said, it's a good way to remind yourself to keep moving. Having it on your dominant arm when you masturbate does throw off the accuracy, though.
Click to expand...

You're still burning calories though, so it all evens out.
 
Since we don't seem to have a newer thread, I'm just going to use this one.

Got a Charge HR a few weeks back and it seems to be working pretty well. Plus it just got a firmware update that added a ton of handy features. Just wish the sleep tracking was worth a damn.
 
I have a smartwatch and the fitness tracking is my favorite part of it after 7 months of using it. It's not so much that I'm using it as a tool to be healthy, but it just helps me be aware of my physical activity, which in turn makes me more likely to be physical on my more sedentary days.
 
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