Hi All,
Just wondering what everyones views are on Fitbits? Do you have one and do they keep you more motivated. I have been looking at these lately and I am undecided if they would be any good or am I wasting £70+ on a rubber wristband!.
Its my birthday coming up soon so I was thinking of asking my partner to get me 1 if peoples views on them are good!
I considered one and then just downloaded an ap on my phone for walking. Probably not accurate, but enough so to remind me to go for a stroll on those days I'm at my desk too long. Have you considered a cheap running watch? I have the cheapest Garmin and I find it really motivating. I like seeing how far my routes are, my stats, and I love seeing my lifetime totals of km run. However, it seems some people do worse with running gadgets, feeling bad if they didn't run as fast/far as last run, etc. so it depends what kind of person you are.
I got a Fitbit Charge HR last December. I was mainly interested in the heart rate and sleep monitor really (and it was a thing to put on my wishlist for my beloved who does like to buy gadgets... and he got it half price. In all honesty I wouldn't have been very comfortable with it at anything like full price)
There are loads of fine apps for phones which do lots of good stuff... and I still use MyFitnessPal and Runkeeper.
I am not actually very active... for sound reasons, and I find it very helpful to have the majority of my activity recorded automatically. I've seen some interesting patterns. It also tells me about how intensively (or mainly, not) I am exercising. I am also finding the way it tracks calories burned against eaten quite informative for weight loss purposes.
I don't think they are for everyone - I think Rignold recently suggested they are not for people who already know full well they are active enough and I feel that is a fair assessment (although maybe the heart rate monitor and sleep monitor might be of value).
I don't have a Fitbit but I do have an Up24, which I imagine has similar functionality. I got it about the time I started C25k (January 15), because I wanted to become more active, and thought tracking would be a help. I am somewhat surprised to find I am still using it, 16 months on, even though I can estimate my steps day by day reasonably accurately. I find it has supported me to be more active. There are 2 days in the week when I spend 90 minutes in a swimming pool and hence don't worry about my step count, but I try to exceed 12,000 steps on at least 4 days a week (2 of which are running days), and keep my 7 day rolling average above 10,000 a day. The running, the swimming and the general steps have made a big difference to my general health and wellbeing
I probably won't replace it when it dies, because I now have a much better feel for my activity levels and am motivated to keep up what I have gained. I personally wouldn't want a device that tracks heart rate. The sleep monitoring is interesting at first but not something that bothers me.
I've had a Fitbit charge since Christmas and I like it.
Apart from the obvious features I log my water intake on it too.
I love my Fitbit!
I have had the simple FitBit Flex for nearly 2 years. It is something that I look at every day, and still motivates me every day. Not a running day today, but 13k steps - above my target.
And on the other wrist I wear a Garmin FR235. It also counts daily steps, but I never look at steps on it. I use it for running... Great to track my runs and heart rate etc.
Different gadgets, different usage.
I have the Fitbit surge. Really does provide motivation. It had gps so use it to track my walks/runs. I couldn't recommend one highly enough. Had the surge before starting c25k. Had been tracking walks and seeing how I was burning less calories for the same walk as I was getting fitter prompted me to look for something of a higher intensity which was when I found C25k.
If you want to just try a device, then I heartily recommend the Mi Band 1S. It is cheap (I paid under £20 for my one on Amazon) and records your steps and sleep patterns, plus has a heart monitor!
It has an alarm feature that I use to wake me during light sleep in the mornings which works great, plus it can notify you of whatever you tell it to. You tell it what your daily goal is, it isn't set in stone.
There are great supporting apps to go with it, or it will sync to the usual ones.
I don't notice I'm wearing it most of the time either!
I know it's not a Fitbit, but I have a misfit Ray which I use to track my everyday activity and I got it as it didn't look like a watch and I could pass it off as jewellery. It does basic phone notifications and can tell you how your getting on with your goal from a coloured LED light. The functionality is quite basic, but it's waterproof and a good monitor of how I'm doing with my overal activity of the day. If I want more notification and more detail, I use my pebble watch and pair that with run keeper on my phone and gives me enough stats for any runs I might do outside.
I love mine I have a charge Hr so it has a heart rate monitor too and is a watch. mine was about £80 on offer just after Xmas. You can add friends and do mini challenges, it definitely makes sure you increase your step count, and you get badges as you go along for every 5,000 steps my top one is 65,000 in a day but you can go up to 100,000 - good luck with that one😁 And monitors your sleep too
I love my Fitbit charge HR xx
Thanks everyone, think I'm going to have 1 just got to wait till May 😀 Xx
I would recommend the Fitbit charge HR. With the heart rate monitor it it is more accurate recording calories burnt.
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