Does anyone else have one of these activity trackers, either a Fitbit, Jawbone, or something similar ? Since we have been going to the fitness center, I have been getting more exercise, and I have a little app on my iPad to track my food intake, exercise, calories, and such as that. It has a place to link up with an activity tracker, and I think that one of these would help me keep better track of what I am doing (or not doing). They also monitor your sleep, and apparently, some of them can even discern whether you are having a good night's sleep or not. I think that I would not need anything that sophisticated, and those seem to be pretty expensive anyway; so way, way out of my price range ! I am hoping that some one else here has used a tracker and can give me some suggestions on what kind you liked, and what all it does.
I had a Fitbit, Yvonne, but it was a pain to operate. Had to be charged quite often and was hard to set in sleep mode. I prefer the Vivofit I now have. First of all, it's a watch, easy to put in sleep mode, counts calories and keeps track of your steps and urges you to get up and excercise. And, you only need to put in two little batteries once a year. We got ours a Walmart, $79.00. Just a suggestion. Dave
@Dave Sun Dave, does the Vivofit count/measure stairs? I know there are so many variations of these devices on the market, including several different types of fitbits, but I specifically want one that will count the stairs I climb, since this is an easy way to measure my activity. Living in a two-story house gives me an opportunity to get some exercise indoors without buying special equipment, even in bad weather.
Bobby and I went to the liquidation store yesterday, and they had a little device called a Fitbug Orb and it was half price , from their already markdown price. That came to $15; so I got it . It can either be worn as a watch, or with a little clip-on. It does not really have a watch, just fits on the wrist. It measures all the steps I take, and when we went to the fitness center today and I used the cross-trainer, it measured my steps on that, too. I can't wear it in swimming, but that is okay. I don't need to measure that, I just swim and do water exercises for an hour every day we go there. I found that I do not like wearing it on my wrist; but the little clip-on goes right on my clothes and I never even know that it is there. They have a Fitbug app, which I downloaded and synced with my iPhone, so now all I have to do is push the little button, and it syncs all of my movements. The fitbug also monitors sleep; but I have not tried that part yet. I thought I will get a little more familiar with the activity monitoring first. @Diane Lane, I am sure that it would count the stair-climbing as activity steps; but maybe not any different than it counts steps when you are just walking on a flat floor. Mine just says X-number of steps, regardless of how I walked them.
@Yvonne Smith so how are you doing with this? It sounds like you are pretty active. I often wonder how many steps a day I take. In Zumba several of the girls had different little devices that they used to monitor their activity levels. I guess I am curious on average how many steps does a person make in a day? I wonder if Google knows? Interesting makes me even more curious to get some little app to measure this in my own day to day routine.
@Jenn Windey, I am really starting to like the little Fitbug Orb ! So far today, it says I have gone about 1400 steps. This was not a gym day; but I did take my friend @Joyce Mcgregor to Walmart, and I was wandering around the store while she was shopping for almost an hour. Other than that, I have not been doing a lot of extra walking today. There is a place on the Fitbug dashboard where I can enter in other activities, such as the swimming, which are not monitored by the Fitbug. Since I can't wear it in the water, I just add the swimming in extra and put in the duration time of an hour. The app does not have a place for everything; but when I actually go to my dashboard on the Fitbug webpage, then you can enter in all of the extra activities, food that you are eating, blood pressure, and just about anything else you want to track. Amazon has the Orbs starting at about $20, and up to about $50, depending on the colors and if it has extra wristbands. All in all, I am very pleased with it, and I think that I will enjoy keeping track of my fitness efforts.
I went to the doctor today and she checked my thyroid level again. It is much better this time, so taking the Armour thyroid has really helped me to feel better, lose some weight, and have more energy. She is going to raise the prescription dose just a little bit more, and she thinks that should get my levels right up where they should be. I also talked to her about that bad knee that doesn't bend, and she is sending me in for an X-ray to see if they can tell what is the problem with it. This is the knee that has had a terrible life. It has been smashed into the dashboard from two serious car wrecks, and once when the horse I was riding at full gallop fell with me and I landed on that knee (and my face). Then, I broke that same leg in a horseback riding accident, so the leg is shorter than the other leg and is put together a little bit crooked because I lost so much bone when it shattered. So, that poor knee has every reason to hurt and be uncooperative; but still, I really want to be able to ride a bicycle again, and I can't because the knee won't bend. I am hoping that when they take the X-ray, then I can find out whether it can be repaired or not, and maybe it will be something that I can just supplement it with.
I have a fitbit, Dave and my battery lasts almost a week. I have no problem with sleep mode either. Maybe they've fixed there issues or I have a different model. I just got mine at Christmas.
I have been using the Fitbug for the best part of a year now, and I really like wearing it. I thought for a while that i wanted a more sophisticated tracker; but after I looked at some other ones and what was on the app for them, I decided that my little Fitbug is perfect for me after all. I not only keep track of the steps I take; but there is an activity log where I can put down things like yard work and swimming and things that the Fitbug does not track. I also am starting to get better at logging in the food that I eat, and the app tracks that and shows me how many calories I had, how many I burned, and also shows carbs, proteins, and fats intake, so I can see how balanced that is. Bobby is wanting to track his food now, and I ordered him a Fitbug for his Father's Day gift. He should have it tomorrow, and then he can start tracking his food and activities, too. I would still prefer one that I could just charge up and not have to deal with replacing the batteries; but at least the batteries seem to be lasting longer now, and it is not an issue that we have to take care of very often.
My fitbit can be charged, Yvonne and the charge lasts a long time. I don't know about keeping track of calories since that's not an issue for me. I haven't worn in about a month because I haven't moved much. I might have even left it at my daughter's because I'm not seeing it anywhere.
I just got a Fitbit Inspire 2. Since I already have an Apple Watch, which I dearly love, you might be wondering why on earth would I want to get another activity tracker. Here is why......... it is Humana’s fault. With my Humana health insurance, there is an activity program called GO365, and every day that you walk at least 500 steps, you get credit for an active day. Then they give you reward points for the activity. The points can be cashed in for an Amazon or Walmart gift card. This is wonderful, but the problem is that Humana will not sync with my Apple Watch or iPhone. Every month, I have to log in, do the online chat with customer service, and get my activity credits. Humana does sync with Fitbit, and they also offer them through their OTC plan, so for this month’s OTC order, I ordered the Inspire. I also ordered a clip-on from Amazon, since I do not want to wear two watches on my wrist, and the Inspire can be used as a clip on and still record steps, which is all that I need it to do. I just set it up today, and it has already recorded the steps that I have taken since I put it on, and synced it with GO365. The clip should be here with UPS, and then I will change that out tonight once it arrives.
I hope you like your new Fitbit, Yvonne. Even though I have an Apple watch 6, I still wear my Fitbit Versa 2 most of the time. I've always liked the Fitbit app and interface.
I'm trying to do some walking this week; mostly inside the house. Yesterday I managed to log over 4500 steps so better than nothing.