I purchased a Fitbit Charge HR this summer so I could let some students and parents know whether I thought it was a worthwhile purchase. It was $180 online at fitbit.com. The fitbit has a few different uses.
It is a watch - I don't normally wear a watch but since this one is for my health and really it just looks like a small rubber band, I'm okay with it. I hardly notice it and I rarely take it off unless I am showering, swimming, or charging it.
It is a pedometer - I have noticed that it is fairly accurate for the amount of steps I take, and it can be very insightful into if I had received enough activity that day. I have set my goal to 15,000 steps per day and I achieve it on most days. It is a nice achievable goal for myself because sometimes I will hit over 30,000 but some days I will have to push myself to get out the door and gain those last 1000 steps to achieve my goal.
It is a heart rate monitor - I have used this in some instances for when I play soccer, or sometimes when I am doing activity in the gym and wonder if I have actually done enough to raise my heart rate to get some moderate to vigorous activity during my work day. I can check the graphs through my iPhone app very easily and monitor my workouts and daily activities.
It is a distance tracker - I don't use this piece as much. A runner or walker might find this piece motivating but I am mostly involved in sports for my activities and distances are not totally motivating for me. Although there is this great website called Active Globe where you could put your stats into it and you could set a goal to walk/run from here to New York, or Chile, or wherever and it would add your distances up from each day and you could watch your path over to New York and down to Chile and see how long that would take you in the amount of activity you do each day. This could be very motivating to some people.
It is a calorie counter - This is also useful if you are wondering whether you should eat a little bit extra tonight or a little less depending on the amount of calories you have burned that day. On days that I walk 30,000 steps and do activity from 8am to 9pm, I need to eat a little extra in order to sustain myself.
It monitors your sleep - If you leave it on at night, it can tell you when you went to sleep, when you were restless, and when you were awake in the night. I find this one especially useful because sometimes I will be in bed for 8 hours but I was awake or restless for over an hour. I wake up still feeling tired and no longer wonder why. I have heard about people linking their activity and meals to their sleep each night and figuring out what works best for them and what amount of activity and nutrition and when leads to a better nights sleep.
One thing that I really wish it had is an accelerometer that tracks your speed when you run. You can do this if you carry your iPhone with you but I don't like to bring my phone when I run. I also have a Polar M400 watch that does this and is excellent but the heart rate monitor is a chest strap so it is hard to use while playing soccer and it is expensive. I found the Polar M400 really motivating while running because I wanted to have faster runs, or hit overall top speeds but I am still yet to find something that has everything that the Fitbit does, as well as the accelerometer. Let me know if you know of anything out there.
All in all, I think it is a great purchase. I hope this helps with anyone that is on the fence about buying this.
It is a watch - I don't normally wear a watch but since this one is for my health and really it just looks like a small rubber band, I'm okay with it. I hardly notice it and I rarely take it off unless I am showering, swimming, or charging it.
It is a pedometer - I have noticed that it is fairly accurate for the amount of steps I take, and it can be very insightful into if I had received enough activity that day. I have set my goal to 15,000 steps per day and I achieve it on most days. It is a nice achievable goal for myself because sometimes I will hit over 30,000 but some days I will have to push myself to get out the door and gain those last 1000 steps to achieve my goal.
It is a heart rate monitor - I have used this in some instances for when I play soccer, or sometimes when I am doing activity in the gym and wonder if I have actually done enough to raise my heart rate to get some moderate to vigorous activity during my work day. I can check the graphs through my iPhone app very easily and monitor my workouts and daily activities.
It is a distance tracker - I don't use this piece as much. A runner or walker might find this piece motivating but I am mostly involved in sports for my activities and distances are not totally motivating for me. Although there is this great website called Active Globe where you could put your stats into it and you could set a goal to walk/run from here to New York, or Chile, or wherever and it would add your distances up from each day and you could watch your path over to New York and down to Chile and see how long that would take you in the amount of activity you do each day. This could be very motivating to some people.
It is a calorie counter - This is also useful if you are wondering whether you should eat a little bit extra tonight or a little less depending on the amount of calories you have burned that day. On days that I walk 30,000 steps and do activity from 8am to 9pm, I need to eat a little extra in order to sustain myself.
It monitors your sleep - If you leave it on at night, it can tell you when you went to sleep, when you were restless, and when you were awake in the night. I find this one especially useful because sometimes I will be in bed for 8 hours but I was awake or restless for over an hour. I wake up still feeling tired and no longer wonder why. I have heard about people linking their activity and meals to their sleep each night and figuring out what works best for them and what amount of activity and nutrition and when leads to a better nights sleep.
One thing that I really wish it had is an accelerometer that tracks your speed when you run. You can do this if you carry your iPhone with you but I don't like to bring my phone when I run. I also have a Polar M400 watch that does this and is excellent but the heart rate monitor is a chest strap so it is hard to use while playing soccer and it is expensive. I found the Polar M400 really motivating while running because I wanted to have faster runs, or hit overall top speeds but I am still yet to find something that has everything that the Fitbit does, as well as the accelerometer. Let me know if you know of anything out there.
All in all, I think it is a great purchase. I hope this helps with anyone that is on the fence about buying this.