Fitbit Review

I've had my fitbit for almost two weeks now.  I Love It!  I really just wanted something that helped me tell how many calories I was burning when I was working out.  I did some research and found the fitbit.  It seemed to do so many neat things except measure your heart rate but I no nothing about that anyway so I wasn't too concerned. 

When I got my fitbit I immediately installed the software and plugged it in.  The website is way cool keeping track of everything that your fitbit measures.  It is also supposed to be wireless, so anytime you are within 15 feet of your computer it will automatically update the information.  Mine did this for the first day, since then it only updates when I plug it in - VERY AGGRAVATING and I need to spend some time fixing this. 

You clip it on your pants pocket or even in the middle of your bra.  I keep it on my pocket as I like to read the readings several times a day and I don't like digging into my shirt to pull it out!  It then will track how many steps you take, your distance in miles, calories burned, floors walked and how active you are.  It will also track your sleep, yes, your sleep.  You slip it on your wrist with the included wrist pouch, hit the stop watch and let it go.  What is really awesome is that when you go to the website it will tell you efficiently you are sleeping.  It tells you how long it took to fall asleep (this is based on your movement, so if you're really still watching TV like I am some nights, it thinks you fell asleep already), how long you slept, how many times you woke up or were active in your sleep.  I am totally fascinated with analyzing this data every day!  It totally registers how inactive or active you are in your sleep and on nights that I don't sleep well and toss and turn there are all kinds of indicators on the chart. 

Today, as of this blog, I have taken 7,159 steps and gone exactly 4 miles.  I have walked the equivalent of 6 flights of stairs.  This part is actually based on step height so you can't walk 1524588 steps and it translate into stairs, but it based on incline so if you are actually going up flights of stairs or walking on an incline, it will register here.  Yesterday I got to 10 flights of stairs - YES!  Based on my information I plugged into the website (how much I weigh, how much I want to lose, etc.) I need to burn approximately 2184 calories each day to reach my goal by August 30, 2012.  I have burned 2,049 so far today.  There is also a place to enter in your calorie input to see what you have left, etc.  I have linked my app for myfitnesspal.com to my fitbit.  So when I input my meals into myfitnesspal.com via my phone it will automatically connect with my fitbit dashboard and update.  It's all really cool. 

Finally, the last thing it measures is the your activity level.  There is a cute little flower that grows longer with more petals the more active you are.  When I run my flower is completely bloomed and right now, it's a short little stubby guy!  As the fitbit adjusts to your daily habits it gets harder to grow your flower making you become more active!

To be honest I thought about sending it back when I first realized it doesn't measure my calories for individual workouts.  I wanted to know exactly what I was burning during a run, or during my Zumba.  For example, Zumba for the wii is similar to Just Dance. The wii will rate you based on how well you are doing, so all you have to do is something and it thinks you are doing it right.  Yesterday after my zumba workout, the wii told me I burned 544 calories when in reality, according to my fitbit, it was closer to 250.  Way off.  But in order to know this I had to know how many calories I was at already and then how many I finished at and do the math.  The fitbit doesn't tell me per workout. 

Now that I've had it for almost 2 weeks I LOVE IT!!  I love that it tells me how many calories I have burned all day and I don't need to focus on burning a specific amount during a specific workout, rather I need to be active all day long and meet my 2,184 calorie burn for the day.   I LOVE the sleep feature.  I LOVE the flower feature.  I LOVE that you can earn badges and trophies based on your activity and it keeps going up so you are doing more and more!  I LOVE it all and I would totally recommend it to anyone!!!