lynnerobb's Journal, 25 Jun 15

My parents have fitbits, they seem to love them. They too have a dog, and yes it tracks dog walking :). I know you can also use them for tracking your sleep patterns and calories. They seem like a fun gadget to have and I know it's a motivation for my parents to get 10,000 steps in a day. They compete with other couples. Would I get one? Not sure. But it may be the motivation I need to get moving more. 

Cool thanks Smonroe :) I will have to browse their website and see what I can find.  

I love my vivofit 2. It tracks my steps inside and out, including walking my dog. It also tracks my sleep. I have the heart rate monitor attachment and can monitor that as well. It certainly helped me become more active. I increased my goals until I was 10,000 steps per day. I only picked the vivofit 2 because it was water-resistant to 3ATMs. I like to be able to take a shower, do dishes, kayak, swim without taking off my tracker. Most people wear the fitbit all the time without a problem but it isn't covered if it has water damage. 

I'm of two minds about these gadgets. On the one hand I can see the benefits that Rose Tampa has listed (esp. sleep tracking, since poor sleep can undermine your health and weight loss goals). But on the other hand it seems like another device that separates us from body awareness as we look to information from our fitbits or vivos rather than listening to our own body's needs. We can track all our food and activity but really, do you want to do this the rest of your life? Personally I hope to evolve to a state of being where I automatically eat healthy foods in proper amounts and move my body appropriately. Tracking on Fatsecret is a step that helps me increase my awareness of the impact of what I eat and do, but only if I also pay attention to how I feel. I tend to think that the exercise tracker here is accurate enough. There's an element about these wearable devices that suggests to me that they are a fitness status symbol.  

I use the Gear-S watch. It is a full fledged phone, mp3 player, bluetooth, etc. It's a great accessory for a woman running alone (911). I'm just not impressed with the fitbit because it isn't stand alone. You can't really interact with it. You just have to have faith that it is doing what it is supposed to. Then you have to have faith it will actually sync your information to the computer. I see a lot of people having trouble with that. This site is supposed to be getting a sync option for S-Health. Been waiting for months now. 

@trackin64 - When I first got the Gear-S it was an added motivator to get out there and just do it. Now that I am familiar with calorie metrics in general, I could totally go without it. That being said. I do like having and tracking the data. Data is important when you want to get serious and find out what works and what doesn't. But I totally get where you are coming from. 

I used to think the fitness trackers were all about status. When I finally got one I realized that it makes me move more. It gives me a goal that I can track. I went from 3,000 steps a non-working day to over 10,000. It's just something that I can hold myself accountable in a way I can actually track. Now if I don't get enough steps in I go for another walk or just move and do stuff. Exercise is easy to put off but not as much when you have something right in front of you telling you to move. 

I thought it was all about status too, honestly. I track my food and exercise pretty well I think, but having that little bit of extra help might be nice. I would need something waterproof too since I do water aerobics etc.  

They have other waterproof/resistant ones. I picked the vivofit 2 because it was at the price point I was willing to pay and has some features I really like. I have a heart rate strap that I can use with mine, plus it auto syncs with my phone. I kayak and swim with it. 

Thanks Rose :) I don't own a cell phone ( yeah yeah I know, I live in the dark ages ) so I need to be able to sync to my PC, but tracking is most what I am after. I can just enter stuff manually here no worries :D 

My son has the same one (required tracker for school) so I sync his to the computer and mine to my phone. I could add a 2nd one to my phone but I want to keep them completely separate.  

I've downloaded the app without a tracker so you can test if you like that before you buy.