So, company's about to do an exercise promotion thing, offering a Fitbit One to participants at the end. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they worth bothering with?
I've had a FitBit One since last Christmas. It's neat, does pretty well for a pedometer, helps me keep active (I always feel bad when I check my dashboard and find I've only had like 2000 steps that day, motivates me to go do something active). The sleep tracking is kind of cool, interesting to see when and how much you stirred during the night. The silent alarm is nice, especially if you share your bed and don't want to wake them up with an alarm in the morning. I wish the alarm were adaptive (like if it would detect if you were stirring or sleeping deeply and would go off a bit early or delay some). At the end of the day, it really comes down to what you want to get out of it. If you're like me and you are a data junkie who wants to see stats and graphs to keep you motivated, it's worth it. If you're not data-driven, then maybe not.
Please keep in mind that the average human stirs or rolls over 1-2 times per hour. Movement is not in the slightest bit indicative of sleep health or depth, and anything that claims to "track it" outside of hours spent is bogus.
Please keep in mind that the average human stirs or rolls over 1-2 times per hour. Movement is not in the slightest bit indicative of sleep health or depth, and anything that claims to "track it" outside of hours spent is bogus.
Pretty sure it adjusts somewhat for "typical" movement. In my experience, there has been a pretty strong correlation between days when I don't feel rested and nights when it shows I had a lot of activity. Same thing with days where I felt rested and nights where FitBit showed fewer periods of restless sleep/waking.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
@Thrax That's about what I thought when I saw it does "sleep tracking." Mitebcool used in conjunction with other data, like objective restedness in the morning and such just to see if the amount you move around has any bearing on anything else, but other than that I don't see that feature being more than a gimmick. Also, the wristband would get on my nerves quick methinks.
I'm mostly interested in the interface, whether it's a decent pedometer, if the app is any good, if there are any nifties that aren't mentioned on the site, etc. The idea of a pedometer I never have to look at or write down numbers from seems kinda neat, but if it's super flimsy or doesn't work all that well then it might not be worth bothering with.
It's quite well built, the syncing works well (and the base station is so small I just leave it plugged into my laptop at all times and really never notice it). Pedometer seems pretty accurate to me, tends to jive with Endomondo with regards to distance walked when I use both to track. It can be a bit too sensitive at times and has a tendency to pick up stray steps on bumpy roads and whatnot... though I'd imagine that's a problem all pedometers have. Fitbit synchronizes with Endomondo as well, which is nice if you use that service. The FitBit Dashboard is also pretty nice, including their food tracker, if you are interested in keeping track of calories in v. calories out.
Oh, and I got used to sleeping with the wristband on really quickly. My only complaint about that is that the velcro they use isn't super grippy, so it comes off fairly easily.
@BetsyD has one. I'm sure she'll tell you about it when she sees this thread.
From what I've seen, so far it's done a good job of tracking, syncing, and even encouraging - It gives out vidyagame style achievements. The other night, Betsy went out for a walk because she was only a few thousand steps from the next achievement milestone. I'm pretty sure the novelty of that feature wears off after a while.
Also, hers doesn't use velcro, but I'm not sure if it's a different model, or if she just got a different band.
The velcro wristbands are just for the FitBit One, Zip and I think the Ultra for use when sleep tracking. That's because those models are designed to be clipped into your belt, pocket, bra or something similar during the day. The Flex and the Force are both built to be used with their wristbands full time, which are not secured using velcro.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
Ya, I got the Fitbit Flex. The main decision for that over the One is that too many of my friends told me that they broke their One's in the laundry several times. The Flex is meant to be worn 24/7 so it can get wet and since its a wrist band instead of on your pants/bra/shoe you are less likely to lose/wash it.
I've had my eye on it for a while. After having it for a week I'm considering sending it back and ordering the Force. It was announced just a couple days before I ordered my Flex and when I compared the Flex and Force the only difference is that the Force tracks stairs climbed as well as steps. I figured it wouldn't be something I really cared about but now that I've been using the dashboard and seeing the empty metric for stairs its making me really wish I had that metric tracked too.
If you can get it free by completing a fitness challenge I would definitely do it.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
Awesome, thanks for the input I've enrolled in the thingy, and all I have to do is mark down half an hour of exercise a few days a week for a few weeks. Easy-peasy.
Comments
I'm mostly interested in the interface, whether it's a decent pedometer, if the app is any good, if there are any nifties that aren't mentioned on the site, etc. The idea of a pedometer I never have to look at or write down numbers from seems kinda neat, but if it's super flimsy or doesn't work all that well then it might not be worth bothering with.
Oh, and I got used to sleeping with the wristband on really quickly. My only complaint about that is that the velcro they use isn't super grippy, so it comes off fairly easily.
From what I've seen, so far it's done a good job of tracking, syncing, and even encouraging - It gives out vidyagame style achievements. The other night, Betsy went out for a walk because she was only a few thousand steps from the next achievement milestone. I'm pretty sure the novelty of that feature wears off after a while.
Also, hers doesn't use velcro, but I'm not sure if it's a different model, or if she just got a different band.
I've had my eye on it for a while. After having it for a week I'm considering sending it back and ordering the Force. It was announced just a couple days before I ordered my Flex and when I compared the Flex and Force the only difference is that the Force tracks stairs climbed as well as steps. I figured it wouldn't be something I really cared about but now that I've been using the dashboard and seeing the empty metric for stairs its making me really wish I had that metric tracked too.
If you can get it free by completing a fitness challenge I would definitely do it.