FitBit, pet rock of the 21st century?

fishgutzy

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In my humble opinion it is.
Does anyone that wants to be for actually change what they do because of one?
Every time I think it might be useful, I look at what I do. And nothing would change if I spent the money. I'd rather spend that money on ammo.

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I got mine setup to a minimum of 15000 steps/day
It does help in keeping me focused on a daily goal.
My Fitbit is 3 years old so it doesn't have HR and I wouldn't spend the money to upgrade.


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My wife won't allow one in the house. Her Mom died of cancer about 1.5 years ago and she thinks Fitnits, bluetooths and phones MIGHT cause some cancers. I have a PHD buddy at Vanderbilt studying that exact theory and he won't let a cell phone stay on his body or anywhere nears his 'package'. Who knows? All I know is that my 3% body fat, athletic, workout 16 year old wants one and it is causing family strife occasionally.

I don't intend to walk many steps today. You only get so many you know!
 
Wife does crossfit competitions and wanted one so i bought her the Garmin one without HR...she loves it. Id say if you dont exercise or run 3x a week then buy ammo
I swim 4 miles a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Often further in weekends.
I get all the info I need from a simple digital click/ lap counter.
None of the trackers work swimming except the high end ones, $450.
And even those world not change my workout.
I wear a heart rate transmitter when I do spin class. But the bike converts watts over time to kJoules then kcal.

I just wonder if even rise who say they love would rally change what they do.

My phone tracks my steps. But i could care less about that. In not supposed to walk for exercise. [emoji12] [emoji38]

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I like mine, but the HR monitoring sucks since it doesn't refresh fast enough, and isn't accurate enough, for interval training.

My wife won't allow one in the house. Her Mom died of cancer about 1.5 years ago and she thinks Fitnits, bluetooths and phones MIGHT cause some cancers. I have a PHD buddy at Vanderbilt studying that exact theory and he won't let a cell phone stay on his body or anywhere nears his 'package'. Who knows?

Folks have spent tens of millions studying this, and so far no relationship has been found. Good to stay on it I suppose, but hope it's not funded by tax dollars.
 
My wife got one and stopped wearing it so I used it. I was doing great 10k plus steps a day. Then I went back to work. In an 8 hour shift I walked less than 750 steps. I just threw it in the drawer.
 
Might depend on your personality, but those things are great at "gamifying" activity. So if you have a hard time thinking that working out is fun, it can at least get people to enjoy walking around. My dad is getting on the older side now and it's helping keep him really active & gives him another fun way to make fun of my brother (when he beats him in steps) ;D
 
I have one and personally think it has helped tremendously. When I got my Charge 2 in early Feb, I thought I had a semi-accurate idea of my calories in, calories out, activity etc and weighed 265. Today, I have a much, much better idea, have been able to tweak my activities to hit fat burning or cardio range while doing cardio, etc and weighed 238 when I stepped on the scale this morning. Could I have achieved the same results without it? Maybe but this allowed me to achieve the results quicker, so I consider it money well spent.
 
I have the HR, it's useful to a point. Mostly watch sleep patterns (I work a really messed up schedule of overnights and rotating days off) and heart rate while exercising. The distance is never really accurate as it is a glorified pedometer and just counts steps.

OTOH, I have it linked with my Dick's Sporting Goods app and every few months I get a $10 store card as long as I hit a daily goal, so there's that.
 
I like mine, but the HR monitoring sucks since it doesn't refresh fast enough, and isn't accurate enough, for interval training.



Folks have spent tens of millions studying this, and so far no relationship has been found. Good to stay on it I suppose, but hope it's not funded by tax dollars.

Almost all research and university research is funded at least in part with our tax dollars. :(
 
To compare it to the pet rock is quite harsh.

Do not have one, likely will not get one because, like Fish, my phone keeps track of my steps for me.
But, like another poster has said - it has made activity more fun, you 'chase' that goal each day.

It's gotten me to walk a lot more than I would without it because I know I want to hit my minimum each day.
If the fitbit gets people more active then I say, 'awesome.'
 
Like many products, FitBits are very useful to a small subset of the population, a novelty to a larger subset and totally useless to an even larger subset.

This is the problem FitBit and the pedometer/fitness tracking product category in general faces - lots of competition and a relatively small addressable market (getting even smaller as smartwatches start elbowing into this space - why bother with a fitness tracking watch when you can get a smartwatch that does fitness tracking + a whole lot more). And at this point, most of the people who want a fitness tracker already have one. And since we don't expect to replace these devices every 2 years, as many would their cellphones, it's difficult to grow sales at the pace of even just a couple of years ago.

FitBit recognizes this, which is why they are repositioning themselves as a health partner for corporations - i.e., employees who use FitBits generally incur lower medical costs than those who don't.
 
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I don't have a Fitbit but I use my bicycle computer to track all my bike rides with stuff like distance, speed, max speed, average speed and elapsed time, HR, max HR and average HR.
 
i wore one once, but i think it was broken. i didnt walk a step all day, just surfing a few sites, and it counted near 20k. i took it right back to the store.
Was it counting hand strokes ?
 
I think the fidgetspinners are gonna give them a run for their money
 
I think the fidgetspinners are gonna give them a run for their money
In what? I dont see a lot of teens with fitbits lol

The spinner thing is interesting, been around the EDC community for some time now, lots of DIY and Makers making them from cheap and high end materials.
Now people have struck gold with the kids - I bet there is at least one for every student in my school at this moment (well...not at THIS moment...it is Saturday and all...but you know what I meant).

Surprisingly its not an issue though, Ive taken one, but kids have been good, at least for me, about not having them out. But they are everywhere!
 
Was it counting hand strokes ?


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Like many products, FitBits are very useful to a small subset of the population, a novelty to a larger subset and totally useless to an even larger subset.

This is the problem FitBit and the pedometer/fitness tracking product category in general faces - lots of competition and a relatively small addressable market (getting even smaller as smartwatches start elbowing into this space - why bother with a fitness tracking watch when you can get a smartwatch that does fitness tracking + a whole lot more). And at this point, most of the people who want a fitness tracker already have one. And since we don't expect to replace these devices every 2 years, as many would their cellphones, it's difficult to grow sales at the pace of even just a couple of years ago.

FitBit recognizes this, which is why they are repositioning themselves as a health partner for corporations - i.e., employees who use FitBits generally incur lower medical costs than those who don't.
That last part is the biggest oday of the fraudulent marketing by FitBit. They make the inflate and inaccurate pitch to corporations. The company then chargers employees more if they don't sign up to use them. Then employees like me get screwed. I can't wear anything one my wrist all day due to eczema and these things don't work for the type of exercises I do. [emoji38] [emoji12]


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My wife won't allow one in the house. Her Mom died of cancer about 1.5 years ago and she thinks Fitnits, bluetooths and phones MIGHT cause some cancers. I have a PHD buddy at Vanderbilt studying that exact theory and he won't let a cell phone stay on his body or anywhere nears his 'package'. Who knows? All I know is that my 3% body fat, athletic, workout 16 year old wants one and it is causing family strife occasionally.

I don't intend to walk many steps today. You only get so many you know!


I can say this...i have a charge hr2, wearing it for 6 months now, I developed a pain in my left wrist near the joint. Not the rash thing that the old bands did, actual pain in the hand. I stopped wearing it for a few days and it got better. Might be just the shape of it and I slept on it or something but I know it was sore.
 
Like many products, FitBits are very useful to a small subset of the population, a novelty to a larger subset and totally useless to an even larger subset.

This is the problem FitBit and the pedometer/fitness tracking product category in general faces - lots of competition and a relatively small addressable market (getting even smaller as smartwatches start elbowing into this space - why bother with a fitness tracking watch when you can get a smartwatch that does fitness tracking + a whole lot more). And at this point, most of the people who want a fitness tracker already have one. And since we don't expect to replace these devices every 2 years, as many would their cellphones, it's difficult to grow sales at the pace of even just a couple of years ago.

FitBit recognizes this, which is why they are repositioning themselves as a health partner for corporations - i.e., employees who use FitBits generally incur lower medical costs than those who don't.

With the apps today, cell phones can do just about the same thing.

FWIW, my wife has one, and she uses it to set and follow goals. If that motivates you to exercise, that's not a bad thing.

You are spot on in that some job providers will lower health insurance costs or otherwise incentivize using fitness trackers, gym memberships, etc. What burns my biscuits is that none of this is covered by HSA accounts, yet the literature supports that incentivizing exercise leads to better health outcomes and spending less health maintenance dollars.
 
I swim 4 miles a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Often further in weekends.
I get all the info I need from a simple digital click/ lap counter.
None of the trackers work swimming except the high end ones, $450.
And even those world not change my workout.
I wear a heart rate transmitter when I do spin class. But the bike converts watts over time to kJoules then kcal.

I just wonder if even rise who say they love would rally change what they do.

My phone tracks my steps. But i could care less about that. In not supposed to walk for exercise. [emoji12] [emoji38]

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That's why I hate swimming laps in the pool and prefer open water (not that I have done that lately). I usually forget what lap I am on by the third or fourth lap. If I can times my first five or six laps I can get a general idea =/- a lap just by figuring the time.
 
I am sure in the right situation and someone that is physically active, it would be a great way to keep up with goals. I am fairly active (canoeing/hiking) and don't see the need to keep up with how many steps etc. My waistline tell me all that. Just an observation on my part, mainly from work, I see lots of obese (not just chubby) folks wearing them and have been for months and look the same. I think part of it is just a fad to make them feel better about themselves and pretend they are doing something about their health when they really are not.
 
I would like to say it doesn't make a difference. However, I had one that broke and I never replaced it. Since that time I have gradually been putting on more weight. So I guess in retrospect it was keeping me focused on a certain amount of activity every day.
 
That's why I hate swimming laps in the pool and prefer open water (not that I have done that lately). I usually forget what lap I am on by the third or fourth lap. If I can times my first five or six laps I can get a general idea =/- a lap just by figuring the time.
finally broke down and bought a Garmin Fenix5X. Love it. I can set a custom length when I'm in China. The guy there is a 22m pool.
Did 5 miles 2 days in a row so far this week. I like the way metrics break out in the app.
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It's made a difference for my wife. She chases those daily benchmarks.


DITTO. My wife tends to be a bit obsessive. If her FitBit tells her she needs 13 more steps to finish the day, buy God she's going for a walk. same with calories, nutrition goals, etc. It's been perfect for her.

For ME? I picked up an Apple Watch 3 the other day. So far, I'm in the "meh" category. I'll likely return it to pay for the FLIR I just bought.
 
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