I just spent my morning with Tony Horton (on DVD, well MP4), and I decided it might behoove me to have a fitness tracker for this foray into fitness.

Does anyone have a Fitbit or off-brand that they like? I know Apple Watch is a favorite for some people, but I just ditched my 6S in favor of a Pixel2 (like a week before those dicks at Apple got caught throttling the phones), so I'd prefer to stay off the Apple ecosystem for now.

What do you like, or not like, about your tracker?

Thanks in advance!

I used to have a Fitbit until I got it wet. It worked fine for what it was.

These days I just use my old heart rate monitor at the gym. I'm more concerned with keeping my HR up then counting the number of steps I take.

Now some fitness trackers with do HR but some are not as accurate as the chest sensor ones. My old Fitbit had an HR sensor and while it was close to my real HR when not doing much it becomes more off when I really started to exercise.

What do you want/need it to do? Track steps, HR, GPS tracking. Running, biking or just general life and exercise.

Thanks for the reply. Good question! I guess just track my general life and exercise. I can't wear it while I'm working out at Wing Chun, but I can definitely wear it while I'm doing P90X or jogging on the treadmill.

I use the Fitbit Flex 2, because I swim. It's waterproof, but the trade off is that it doesn't offer the digital readout. I don't care, though, because I wear a watch and I see all the data on my phone app.

Fitbit Charge2. I've compared reading of heartbeats to Dr. office and they agree. The app for your smart phone or computer is very good, Bluetooth enabled to phone or computer.

I've been using a Fitbit One since 1/13. I bought one for my wife for Christmas, thought it was cool, so I bought one for myself.

I wear it daily (walk about ~13-15mi/day), a few 1/2 marathons, a few Tough Mudders, and other similar events.

My first one was replaced, free of charge, through their customer service, within the first year. I've had my current one ever since.

I'm not even sure if they still make The One. I'm not a fan of the wrist type, as I would beat the hell out of it.

The key is to make sure it is consistent. If you pretty much have know your schedule, and it shows 20k steps one day, and then 50k steps the next, something is wrong.

If mine died, suddenly, I would do my best to find another FitBit One. I'm about to break a pretty big milestone, so I'd like to see myself get it.

I wear a Apple V2 watch and carry a Fitbit One in my pocket. They are usually within 10% of each other with the Fitbit showing more activity.

I prefer the Garmin VivoFit series, as they use watch batteries and are powered for over a year and track sleep as well (I like that a lot).

Not as fancy as the others, but I hated having to charge them every day / every couple of days.

Whether a fitness tracker will do you any good or not is questionable. One study recently conducted found that people without them actually hit better fitness goals than those with them. By a pretty decisive margin, too.

I had an ASUS ZenWatch 2 upon which I'd installed a "get up and move" app. That was handy for prodding me to get up and move around on a regular basis, but only because I was motivated to do so. I now have an Apple watch, and it occasionally reminds me to get up and move. I ignore it.

Neither one of them was even remotely useful for tracking anything, IMO. Luckily, the Apple watch has a whole bunch of other useful features.

I use a Fitbit Charge HR. The main reason I got the Charge HR was the built in GPS tracking. I use it to track my mountain biking, hiking, and other such outdoor activities. The fact that it tracks my steps in almost irrelevant to me. The other main feature I use the the HR monitor. I like to see where my HR is at when I am really pushing myself on the bike. It helps me to back off a little bit when I need to. The biggest draw back to it is that it is not waterproof. There are some newer models out there that seem to be even better, but I won't bother replacing it until it dies.

Coffeeaddict uses the Fitbit Charge 2 and likes it a lot. She averages around 30,000 steps a day. She likes it because she can glance at her wrist when she gets a text message and see if it's something she needs to respond to immediately (she's a horse trainer and is usually either teaching a riding lesson or working with a horse, so it's great for her to be able to just see at a glance if it's important or not).

As you enjoy the benefits of using these things, you should bear in mind that those benefits come with a sacrifice. It's like carrying around your own personal snitch on your wrist. ANYBODY can find out exactly where you are at any time.

Privacy.

It ain't what it used to be.

quote:

Originally posted by SapperSteel:
As you enjoy the benefits of using these things, you should bear in mind that those benefits come with a sacrifice. It's like carrying around your own personal snitch on your wrist. ANYBODY can find out exactly where you are at any time.

Privacy.

It ain't what it used to be.

How most do not have GPS. If you carry a cell phone I would guess the same tracking would be true.

quote:

because I was motivated to do so

Motivation is the key to pretty much all success in life.

At the price point of the better fit-bits...(and since you mentioned the apple watch, so I assume its price point doesn't scare you), I think there are much better options.

The high end optical HR monitors are as good as the chest straps in all the reviews I've seen (Polar and Garmin watches).

I don't have one yet, but will probably bite the bullet and get a Garmin Forerunner 935. A lot of coin, but I have set my sights on a crazy endurance race that I need to train up for, this one adds an altimeter and some really advanced running analytics.

At a lower price point ($200-$350) are the Garmin Forerunner 235, 735, and Polar M430. These are integrated GPS and optical HR models with some advanced training and tracking features. These are water proof as well.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
How most do not have GPS. If you carry a cell phone I would guess the same tracking would be true.

True, most small fitness trackers do not have GPS; they use your cell phone GPS. But even then it’s not the tracker; it’s the app, and app settings, and phone settings.

I have a Charge 2. As much as the settings in app and in phone allow, no GPS data is tracked. At least Fitbit doesn’t know where I go (although I know that the cell provider could tell if they wanted).

As far as the Charge 2, I really like the incoming text alerts, caller ID, activity prompts, and silent alarms. It is not waterproof. Using a stairclimber will not register as flights of stairs, because Fitbit uses elevation change to register stairs.

Strava Heat Map exposes US mil facilities has a few good points:

“A 2015 study by Carnegie Mellon University found that apps such as Facebook were pinging location data back to their developers thousands of times a week.”

“Here’s something for you to try. Are you one of the billion people who use Google Maps? Launch the app on your phone, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines), then tap “Your Timeline”. Unless you have specifically turned off Google’s access to your location data – which few of us have – you will now see a map of your exact movements, every single day, stretching back for as long as you have been walking around with your phone. You can use the calendar view to see exactly where you have been on a given day.”

“When this data is the entire business model of these companies, what motivation do they really have to stop collecting it?”

As I have said to many people, when a ‘product’ (thing or service) is free, then YOU are the product.

I got the Fitbit Ionic as a Christmas/retirement gift.
It is waterproof and I will be using it as I do laps in the pool. With retirement I’m trying to do the 10K steps, one of the reasons for adding the lab to the house a couple of weeks ago.

I've been using a Polar A370 since last August. I
use is primarily as a heart monitor while treadmill running.

Due to bad knees and allergies(I take shots) I don't run outside, so I can't speak about the GPS related feature.

It's great as a heart rate monitor for steady state training. I've also compared it's live readings to my doctor's assistant taking my readings during an appointment.

It would take 10-20 seconds to respond to changes with a HITT interval (so I've heard/read).

The downside for me is the distance tracking for treadmill running is off. Like 2 to 3 tenths of a mile off per mile. So it makes it difficult to track performance improvements. I end up using the treadmill to track distance and use the A370 to monitor the heart rate over time. So over all the usefulness is limited.

No matter where I've looked on there website I haven't found a way to adjust or calibrate the distance for treadmill running.

-TVz

Fitbit charge HR2. Had it for over a year. Synced with my electronics.
If had it to do over I’d
get the same thing.

Samsung Gear Fit 2.

They have GPS, heart rate, automatic sleep and exercise detection, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so they work when away from your phone. I've bought two factory refurbs from Amazon, and no problems other than both were hesitant to charge the first time.

In addition to fitness teaching, I love being able to see my texts with the phone down the hall.