Fitness/Sleeping Trackers Jawbone Up/Nike+ Fuelband/Fitbit

[meiosis]

Does anyone use fitness monitors? I've been thinking about getting one mainly for sleep monitoring (although I guess it would work as ulterior motivation to stay more fit)

[Novus]

Been curious about this also.
Do they actually work properly or give you terribly inflated results (like alot of the cheaper trackers)?

[meiosis]

Been curious about this also.
Do they actually work properly or give you terribly inflated results (like alot of the cheaper trackers)?

I heard that sometimes firmware messes up and it's not as accurate.

On the other hand some people actually believe that 100 steps = 10 calories.. and can't believe they aren't burning through it all by just being lazy.

I believe at least with the Nike Fuelband any stationary (biking/elliptical) isn't actually computed since it probably just uses a pedometer

[Lanx]

my wife and i have used these on and off for 5ish years.

any 5$ pedometer will "count" your steps all it is, is just a weighted ball that counts a step when it moves

then we go into the fitbit, i've had 2 fitbits, the latest one the flex is awesome. they give you one of those livestrong type bands and the fitbit fits in there, it's waterproof, and charge lasts 1 weekish. the flex is great b/c you don't have to "sync" to your computer no more, it auto syncs to your droid or iphone via bluetooth.

THIS IS IMPORTANT, cuz otherwise it's a pain in the ass to sync to your pc every other day. you also plug in a fitbit receiver and it'll autosync when near. these fitbit can talk to popular fitness apps like myfitnesspal, you can show your friends or join groups to see how much you've walked.

the device has no buttons, just tap it physically and it'll show you 1 to 5 lights, when you reach 5 lights thats your goal for the day. (you can adjust it)

there''s a bunch of other stuff too, but does it count calories? no, it just counts steps, and then by doing psuedo fake science some apps can sorta think how many calories you've burned (since you also enter in your weight/age...)

what it does is keep track of what you do. 2000 steps one day? wow you're thinking you're a lazy ass...

when i had my dog i would avg 12k to 15k steps daily, cuz i would walk my dog for that long (and regular movement)

when i lost my dog, i really didn't have a purpose to "Just walk" and my activity went down to a scary 2k (fitbit can't do treadmills well, funky readings)

we used to have the gowearfit, or also known as the bodybugg or the thing that all the biggest losers strap on their arm (this is where it got popular), it needs constant skin contact because this does measure calories burnt, through sensing skin ****. it wasn't water proof and you needed a yearly subscription in order to basically decode the info.

i could never do the sleep monitor cuz for most of them you have to "tell it" your gonna sleep, for me, i sleep when i sleep, so nah.

just ask questions and i'll answer.

[heedpantsnow]

I have a fitbit force and really love it.  It replaces my watch and has an OLED that lights the time, steps, calories, etc. when you press the button.  I really use the sleep tracker on it to test issues with my sleep apnea.  Like mentioned above it syncs in the background with my phone so it's pretty maintence free.  The battery last about 2 weeks then recharges in a couple of hours.

Be aware that if you drive a motorcycle or off-road vehicle then that will wreak havoc on your stats, even if you have it in your saddlebags.

[Lanx]

lol worse is if you fly, take off is like 10k registered steps.

[C5Allroad]

http://www.jaybirdsport.com/reign-activity-tracker/
This is the only one that I would try... But the hefty price tag isn't really too welcoming...

[Topre]

I have the Jawbone Up. I use it as an alarm, and it really does work for me. I usually don't wake up to many sounds but the vibrations are able to wake me up somehow.

I don't use it as a fitness monitor or any other features from it at all. The alarm was more than worth the investment in my opinion.