What's your opinion on Fitbit (or Fitness trackers in general)?

A

ahd

Adept
Hi,
You might be aware that Fitbit is entering India in partnership with Amazon and are launching Fitbit next week. When I was on a weight loss regime last year, I felt the need for an effective fitness tracker to take care of my daily calorie burn effectively and never went ahead to purchase one because I thought they'd be rendered useless once I lose all the weight. Now, that I have successfully achieved weight loss and am on a bulking phase, I felt that it's still useful. This is because, I still need to burn some calories to limit my fat gains during this bulking regime. Also, I think it's particularly more useful in the bulking / maintenance phase because our mind is less conscious towards tracking daily calorie burn compared to the cutting phase and having a good tracker (w/ continuous heart rate monitor) can take care of tracking calorie burnt daily easily.

So whats your opinion on a fitness tracker during bulking / maintenance phase and for general health and well-being?
 
IMO it's a total waste of money, it's taken the body and mind 13.5 billion years to get where it is and you have to depend on a piece of chinese plastic to tell you what to do.
Around 5 years back i weighed 85kgs, one day i just decided to quit smoking + drinking, junk and processed foods and cut down on non-veg and hit the gym hard. I quit the gym around 2 years back after hitting a plateau but i run everyday for 45 mins and do some basic stretching and breathing exercises along with a lot of meditation, I weigh around 68kgs now and eat pretty much anything I want and I'm still lean.

Try to feel and understand your body and see how it reacts to changes in diet and exercise, it's much better in the long run instead of depending on some stupid overpriced strap. Stand naked in front of a mirror once a week and use that brain of yours to determine whether your regimen is working or not :p
 
Its good as long as:
1. You have to spend time on the app logging your exercise
2. Using a food app, you will have to enter meals taken and track calories.

If you can do this consistently, its a great device and app.
Its motivating and keeps you engaged to do more.
Its for people who either lack motivation or need stats and a boost to keep at it, Im one of those.
 
On the same note, which app is good for keeping track of calories according to meals, especially one supporting Indian recipes.
 
Whatever people said till now is true. My turn now..

I was fat as shit 2.5 years back... 138KG on a 172 cm height. Now I am 82~85 on the same height. And I run marathons, Rock climbing, Cycling, Regular gym time and what nots. Yet there is a flab around my belly.
But its ok. I am maintaining my weight for last 1 year. I binge every week(nowadays there are lot of binges :D :D.. But I keep my weight somehow), reduce that weight. So I am happy and content where I am. I am extremely self motivated. I can go to gym right after a power nap. even when I am lazying on my bed watching netflix. :D :D. My diet was a highly controlled calorie deficit type. Now its just calorie deficit. I eat whatever I want basically. Or i do when I binge. :D :D.

That aside. I am a regular user of Fitbit charge HR. I bought and returned UP3 and Microsoft band. Fitibit is the one I stick with. Many reasons why I chose that. UP3 is a peice of shit. lets throw that aside. Band is a tech nirvana.
But the feel on the wrist and battery life killed for me. And I like to wear my watches. Soo. Fitbit is the the most unassuming one.

I want my charge HR for few uses:

1. Call notification. I never put my phone in normal mode. Its always in silent mode. So I miss a lot of calls. :D. This helps me there.
2. My target is calorie burned. This helps me track it. There maybe deviations. But When It goes over 2930kcal and I ate properly that day. My weight always stay the same or it comes down few grams. So I go with fitbit.
3. Heart rate. I am a believer of Heart rate training. When I lift, The amount of rest or "free time" between reps, I use that. I like my body to stay in the weight burning rate. It works for me. But when I do weighted lunges or dead lift, this thing doesnt track. I dont know why. But when it comes back.. I will still be in the burn zone. It helps me at least.

Again, All these things, I now know and did know before the tracker. I am a techie so i love to use a device to show me that as well. I can live without it as well. I dont see this with the actual body builders in my gym. Guess they listen to their body rather than any arm bands.

I only NEED myfitnesspal to track my daily weight readings.
 
I think, I am gonna get the Fitbit Charge HR as heart rate tracking is critical to calculate calorie burn correctly and the only other continuous heart rate tracker in Fitbit is Surge which seems to be quite bulky. @psyph3r is right. If you're fit / ripped, appreciating your body once a while in front of the mirror gives one heck of a motivation which makes consuming excessive calories via junk foods or skipping workouts feel guilt ridden. But I also think, it adds value by providing stats and figures so that people can mould their workout / fitness regime more effectively towards their goal.

@puns what tracker are you using right now ?

@m-jeri congrats on losing all that weight! It must feel great. I came down from 88 to 67 @181cm in a span of 5 months and felt the most fantastic ever. I am curious about how exactly do you use your tracker to calculate the duration between two sets ?
 
Its nothing scientific. I just want to remain in the fat burn zone and dont want to give too much break either. And also dont want to jump in right away either. So maybe between sets of bench press, I give 1 minute or half. I am still in that zone according to the tracker. I dont know if that is true or not.

O crap. I forgot one of the main uses of my charge HR. Automatic Sleep tracking. I like to sleep. I do. When I sleep like 7 to 8 hours a day proper, I feel brilliant. This thing automatically does that. Fitbit Move, Up3, Band made me to it manually. Hated that. For me, this is a very important feature to have.
 
how good are these trackers in sleep tracking? do they point accurately to the quality of sleep too (for eg how much rem stage vs deep sleep) ?
 
techfan said:
how good are these trackers in sleep tracking? do they point accurately to the quality of sleep too (for eg how much rem stage vs deep sleep) ?
Click to expand...

Fitbit as @m-jeri said does a decent job. if you want proper REM tracking etcetera, Jawbone has better sleep tracking.

Glad fitbit has officially launched here, since i gifted my better half a flex last year, and the band has already cracked. Waiting on them to stock up replacement bands soon.
 
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