FITBIT? Has this been discussed?

[DVC Daisy]

Goofy question - but does the Fitbit One have the flower that grows? I only see that on the images of the Ultra, which they do not sell anymore.

 

[phorsenuf]

Does anyone know how the Fitbit compares to Active Link through Weight Watchers?

 

[Janepod]

Does anyone know how the Fitbit compares to Active Link through Weight Watchers?

The Active Link has a $5/month fee (in addition to Weight Watchers' other charges, like online tools.) FitBit is free after you purchase it.

ActiveLink only translates into WW PPV. It does not give you calories, steps, distance, flights of stairs, etc. So while that is very useful if you are in WW, it is not practical in the "real word." Fitbit gives you data that is easily translated to free things like MyFitnessPal or old fashioned pen and pencil calorie counting.

 

[phorsenuf]

The Active Link has a $5/month fee (in addition to Weight Watchers' other charges, like online tools.) FitBit is free after you purchase it.

ActiveLink only translates into WW PPV. It does not give you calories, steps, distance, flights of stairs, etc. So while that is very useful if you are in WW, it is not practical in the "real word." Fitbit gives you data that is easily translated to free things like MyFitnessPal or old fashioned pen and pencil calorie counting.

I'm following Weight Watchers and have etools already. I do like though how Fitbit seems to encompass more. I wonder if there is a way to convert the Fitbit info into comparable info for WW.

 

[LisaR]

I have a question on how the Fitbit differs from a pedometer.

I love my pedometer and feel it has motivated me, but I've recently encountered something that bugs me.

I suffered a serious shoulder injury and have been in physical therapy since August. I just finished! I am now allowed to do all the circuits at the gym within reason. I am really working my way up compared to the first day they let me try the equipment at the gym and could barely pull 2 pounds. The problem is, my pedometer doesn't recognize any of it. It is in my pocket and most of my workout three days a week is focusing on upper body at the moment. So after an hour workout today, the number of calories burned barely registered. I only did 10 minutes on the rowing machine (that is all I am allowed to do at the moment) and the machine said I burned 60 calories, but my pedometer said I only burned 5!

Will the Fitbit work better for this? I keep reading about inputting information so if I tell it I am lifting weights, will I get some credit for it? I am frustrated with the pedometer because I am working my butt off and it doesn't notice. I do still do my lower body workout and that registers, but I want credit for the other stuff!

 

[Janepod]

I'm following Weight Watchers and have etools already. I do like though how Fitbit seems to encompass more. I wonder if there is a way to convert the Fitbit info into comparable info for WW.

I don't know the answer to that, but I think it's chintzy of WW to ask for another $5 a month for the ActiveLink when one is already paying what, like $40? for eTools. On top of the purchase price!

 

[phorsenuf]

I don't know the answer to that, but I think it's chintzy of WW to ask for another $5 a month for the ActiveLink when one is already paying what, like $40? for eTools. On top of the purchase price!

Yeah, it's $40 a month but that also includes all the meetings as well as the etools. I know you can sync it with your WW account.

 

[Janepod]

Yeah, it's $40 a month but that also includes all the meetings as well as the etools. I know you can sync it with your WW account.

Yes, that is correct. My point is that when one is already paying $40, it feels like WW is nickel and diming you by tacking on an additional $5/month for the ActiveLink, especially when the ActiveLink is $40 in the first place. The FitBit does not have an additional monthly charge.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

Goofy question - but does the Fitbit One have the flower that grows? I only see that on the images of the Ultra, which they do not sell anymore.

Yes, the one has the flower too.

I just rejoined weight watchers online. I had been using the fitbit food tracking, but the database was limited and I love the recipe builder that WW has. I have not found a way to combine the two, but I've never really counted activity points in WW anyway.

I also have the Aria scale, which I love. I weigh in daily on the fitbit site and I'm just going to use my Monday weigh in for WW.

Between hitting my 10,000 step goal every day last week and following ww I was down 3.7 lbs.

 

[DVC Daisy]

Yes, the one has the flower too.

I just rejoined weight watchers online. I had been using the fitbit food tracking, but the database was limited and I love the recipe builder that WW has. I have not found a way to combine the two, but I've never really counted activity points in WW anyway.

I also have the Aria scale, which I love. I weigh in daily on the fitbit site and I'm just going to use my Monday weigh in for WW.

Between hitting my 10,000 step goal every day last week and following ww I was down 3.7 lbs.

Thanks - glad it has the flower even if it sounds silly.

Would love to hear about the scale. I just want a scale that is "private", not one where others with access to the actual scale can see what your weight is wondering if this one is good for that.

Wow - congratulations on the 3.7 lbs very nice!!!

 

[Hrhpd]

I have a question on how the Fitbit differs from a pedometer.

I love my pedometer and feel it has motivated me, but I've recently encountered something that bugs me.

I suffered a serious shoulder injury and have been in physical therapy since August. I just finished! I am now allowed to do all the circuits at the gym within reason. I am really working my way up compared to the first day they let me try the equipment at the gym and could barely pull 2 pounds. The problem is, my pedometer doesn't recognize any of it. It is in my pocket and most of my workout three days a week is focusing on upper body at the moment. So after an hour workout today, the number of calories burned barely registered. I only did 10 minutes on the rowing machine (that is all I am allowed to do at the moment) and the machine said I burned 60 calories, but my pedometer said I only burned 5!

Will the Fitbit work better for this? I keep reading about inputting information so if I tell it I am lifting weights, will I get some credit for it? I am frustrated with the pedometer because I am working my butt off and it doesn't notice. I do still do my lower body workout and that registers, but I want credit for the other stuff!

The fitbit itself will not actually recognize your upper body work. However, when you log into fitbit.com, you can go to "log activities" and find one of the weight lifting activities. You log what time of day you started and how many hours, minutes and seconds you did the activity.

It will then calculate how many calories you spent and will add it to your total calories spent from the fitbit. You can also manually enter how many calories you spent. So, if your rowing machine said 60 calories, you would go to activities and log your rowing machine and enter 60 calories.

 

[Hrhpd]

They are very small. I wear mine on my waste band and I just use the fitbit itself, not the extra clamp that came with it. If I wear a dress or something I put it on my bra.



My favorite thing about fitbit.....I use their ap, which is not the greatest, BUT.... If you input your calories that you have eaten (I generally just go to custom foods and manually enter it in or save things I eat often), it will tell you how many calories you have left for the day. But what's different is that it adjusts based on how much activity you have done. So if you sit on the couch, it won't let you eat a lot. But if you walk a ton, you get to eat more. By tracking what I eat verses what I burn, I've lost 40 pounds easily. We don't even really diet. We do eat healthier to make the most of calories, but not always. If I want McDonalds, I get it. But I know I will have to walk that off, lol

That is my favorite thing too. I do low carb, but also don't want to exceed the calories allowed. No matter what diet you are on, the age old fact is you have to spend more calories than you take in.

But I track my food on Sparkpeople. It updates to Fitbit immediately, I don't have to do anything. Many people also track their food with Myfitnesspal which also syncs to fitbit.

I just got my invite to Neufit.com. Having fun with that too. It is activity quests that you can do (much like an online game) and earn points and real rewards.

 

[HockeyMomNH]

Thanks - glad it has the flower even if it sounds silly.

Would love to hear about the scale. I just want a scale that is "private", not one where others with access to the actual scale can see what your weight is wondering if this one is good for that.

Wow - congratulations on the 3.7 lbs very nice!!!

I love the little flower, so I understand!

You control the scale via the fitbit website. I think it will take up to 8 people. Right now my DD and I are the only ones that use mine. When I step on the scale it takes a second to do it's thing. Then you step off and it asks you who you are. When it gets to your name you tap it with your foot. Then it sends the info to the website. I can only see my weights on the website. My DD logs in to see hers on her account.

The scale also calculates body fat percentage and the website calculates BMI based on your height.

 

[lovetoscrap]

I will be EXTREMELY interested how the food journaling with the ratios, etc that you use in MFP from a fellow (obviously very successful from your badge) low carber! If you think it is worth me utilizing that, I will try it. Let me know what you think. Right now I use the Carb Diet app on my phone & really like it, but if you recommend a switch, I would try it

Oh - and I think it would be MORE awkward at work if you were asking fellow coworkers to check your progress.

!

I didn't think about it that way!

What is the Carb Diet app? I have an Ipod Touch.

I hate tracking my food. I don't think it is really necessary the way I eat following South Beach and so much of what I eat is based on "real" food and the online tracking sites are so heavily skewed toward processed foods (in my opinion) so it takes forever to input recipes and find the right ingredient in their database or try to figure out how to add it in myself. For instance on MFP tonight I needed to add a T of flour to the recipe. I put in "flour" in the search and got tons of listings for flour tortillas.

Most of the online programs don't take into account the high protein, low carb lifestyle, and South Beach doesn't really give you any exact numbers of each or percentages you should follow. I did do some Googling and found that 40% carb, 30% protein, 30% fat seemed to keep coming up as the right ratio so I put that into MFP. I am interested to see what happens when I put a few days worth in. If I had to guess right now I would say I don't actually eat that much carb.

But I am really curious to what my numbers look like so I will track for a while and see what I find out. I am still not totally understanding how they work together and what the information they are showing me means as far as the calories.

Oh, and today I wore my fitbit and the pedometer I have been using for 2 years. BIG difference! The fitbit registered over 1000 more steps! I think I will need to put my stride length in the fitbit. Because of my physical issues my stride length is probably not "average" for my height. But I just checked them by taking 20 steps and they both measured 20 steps. So maybe the fitbit is just registering a lot more of my movement?

That is my favorite thing too. I do low carb, but also don't want to exceed the calories allowed. No matter what diet you are on, the age old fact is you have to spend more calories than you take in.

I just got my invite to Neufit.com. Having fun with that too. It is activity quests that you can do (much like an online game) and earn points and real rewards.

What is Neufit.com?

 

[DVC Daisy]

I didn't think about it that way!

What is the Carb Diet app? I have an Ipod Touch.



What is Neufit.com?

I think that is actually the name of the app - Carb Diet. I can't tell just by looking at it. It is a green square with a green circle in it & a knife & a fork. It is very good for low carb tracking. I have been using it for quite awhile. Try searching the App Store for low carb & see if you can find that icon.

I would love to hear more about Neufit.com as well. Sounds interesting.

 

[Hrhpd]

Neufit is basically a gaming site that links to your fitbit. However, you are the player in the game. There are "quests" that you complete to advance. For instance, I am doing the walk 10 miles quest.

There are also all sorts of quests for gym workouts, swimming, cycling, running, etc. You earn "loot" everytime you complete a quest. You can work with people to complete a quest or you can do it solo.

There are some quests that are tailored to your area (if you allow it), some need pics uploaded, etc. You can be as simple as you want or get as involved as you want.

Here is the link to tell you more about it:
http://www.neufit.com/about/

It is in beta right now, so you have to request an invitation. I got mine about a week after I requested it. So far it seems like another fun thing to motivate you.

 

[LisaR]

The fitbit itself will not actually recognize your upper body work. However, when you log into fitbit.com, you can go to "log activities" and find one of the weight lifting activities. You log what time of day you started and how many hours, minutes and seconds you did the activity.

It will then calculate how many calories you spent and will add it to your total calories spent from the fitbit. You can also manually enter how many calories you spent. So, if your rowing machine said 60 calories, you would go to activities and log your rowing machine and enter 60 calories.

Thanks so much!

You've convinced many of us on this thread to buy one. Fitbit needs to give you a commission!

 

[phorsenuf]

Thanks so much!

You've convinced many of us on this thread to buy one. Fitbit needs to give you a commission!

I agree. The more I read about it the more I want one. I'll get one for my husband too. With his medical insurance through work we can get money knocked of our monthly premium by doing various healthy programs. One has to do with how many steps we take. It'll be a great way to track it. They also will cover weight management programs so I essentially get my WW fees covered. Pretty handy.

Now, where do I buy them?

 

[lovetoscrap]

I agree. The more I read about it the more I want one. I'll get one for my husband too. With his medical insurance through work we can get money knocked of our monthly premium by doing various healthy programs. One has to do with how many steps we take. It'll be a great way to track it. They also will cover weight management programs so I essentially get my WW fees covered. Pretty handy.

Now, where do I buy them?

I got mine at Best Buy. It didn't look like there were any price differences between the product site, Best Buy and Amazon. I didn't really look anywhere else. Since I was going near BB that day and I am too impatient to wait for shipping I just ran in and picked it up!

Loving it! Slept with it last night.


Does anyone know if you HAVE to wear it on your wrist at night? The way I sleep I could clip it on the back of my pants and I would prefer that.

 

[DVC Daisy]

Still waiting for my Fitbit from Amazon but I set up my account & joined the DIS Friends group.

Now, can we add each person in the group as a friend? Is that what you should do? How does the "friends" option work anyway.

I have no idea how to send a request. I did get one random guy send me a request & it just came to my email & I just hit accept & he was listed as a friend.

What do the Fitbit experts suggest to do re: friends. Have lots? Very few? Only people you know?

This is kinda confusing

Thanks!

(Gosh - I used to think Amazon Prime was fast LOL - seems like I have been waiting forever for mine to arrive)