Tell me about your exercise/sleep-tracking gadget

In My Humble Opinion
41

Just want to point out, at least a couple of people have used the terms “data driven.”

I often find it curious the continuum of a desire for data that people exist along - often at different points in different situations. I guess I likely exist mostly at the shallower end of the data pool. Yes, I appreciate enough data to support my premises, but after that, I find more data often detracts from the experience. I’m more of a checkbox/list/calendar kind of guy, than “data driven.”

Again - no criticism. Just an observation as to why these things apparently appeal to some folk and not others (me).

42

You said yourself that you don’t have a weight problem, have never had a weight problem, and can accurately gauge whether a swim and a salad for lunch mean ice cream after dinner.

Lots of us don’t have that kind of luxury when it comes to exercise, weight, and eating. So far everyone who’s claimed to like the data seems to like it because guessing, the way you do, hasn’t worked for them.

43

That’s cool. But I see many people wearing these devices who don’t seem to be overweight. And it should be pretty obvious to someone who spends hours at a desk or in front of screens that they could benefit from either being more active or cutting down on the butter and sweets.

And - no - I never make a 1 to 1 calculation of a day’s diet to exercise. Instead, if my pants are getting too tight, I simply think whether I need to move more or eat less crap.

I haven’t drunk alcohol for over 10 years. I can’t imagine how I used to handle the number of calories I ingested from booze alone. But back then I was fighting competitively and running marathons. I used to joke that I wondered what kind of shape I’d be in if I actually incorporated my exercise into an all over healthy lifestyle. :smiley:

44

Dinsdale, you can stop making “innocent” comments and shut up now. We get it. You just don’t understand wearable tech and don’t need it, it’s so simple to stay fit without it, you’re tech challenged and still don’t see the need after so many have patiently answered your derp questions. The veil is so thin there are large holes.

45

(re: Fitbit Charge HR) I’ve had one for about 7 months and I wear it in the shower all the time. I don’t swim, so I can’t speak to longer exposure to being completely immersed in water, but showers are no problem.

My only (small-ish) beef with the Fitbit HR is that it has to be more or less in the correct position on your wrist to read your pulse, and they also recommend that you wear it loosely, so it tends to flop around and out of position from time to time. That said, the step counting, calories burned, sleep tracking etc. are generally pretty accurate. The counting of floors climbed is kind of pointless (based on some kind of altimeter, apparently), and it can be fooled by elevators or something (I was staying at a hotel one day and it said I had climbed 30 floors, when I had done no steps at all that day).

I’m considering moving up to their new watch-style Blaze, as it seems to have some useful improvements.

46

Thought we were expressing opinions and engaging in a discussion. I thought that honestly (and I thought respectfully) expressing my opinions, and inviting others to do likewise, was one of the best ways to actually learn about different people. I also made an effort that I intended no insult or ill-will - although I openly admitted my lack of understanding.

But, it is not my thread (any more than it is yours) so I will cease to make any more “innocent” comments and will - as you so politely suggest - “shut up.”

47

And apparently on a relatively normal work day, without even going outside the building at lunchtime, I do close to 8500 steps. Yes, I’m a public-transit-and-feet commuter, but apparently I do actually run around the office quite a bit!

This is pretty enlightening so far, but not in the direction I thought it would be. I’m curious to see trends over time.

48

Just thought of a problem with the Vivoactive that I forgot earlier because I was on vacation and wasn’t encountering it. My husband has the same issue, so it’s bound to be a common problem: After a 5k run in the tropical heat, I’m very sweaty and the watch is very sweaty. When that is the case, I often have trouble getting the timer to stop - no matter how carefully I press the button, it just doesn’t register. Yesterday it took me a full minute to get the damn thing to acknowledge that I was done.

Running in a slightly cooler environment, I had no trouble. But now that I’m back home in the heat, it’s annoying.

49

If you’re using the web interface, tell us what your resting heart rate does over the next couple weeks. Mine started out at 72, gradually dropped to 69 where it stayed for several days, and in the last couple days has dropped all the way to 66. I guess it’s adjusting based on greater amounts of data, but … ?

50

I have a Fitbit Charge HR. I’m not currently using it.

If I wore it loose, it seemed really inaccurate. When I wore it tight, I started getting pains at the base of my thumb similar to carpal tunnel.

Even when it was tighter, “more accurate” still seemed to have a lot of problems. It seemed fine for resting heart rate, but when exercising, more often than not I got no heart rate reading at all, just dashes. It then later uploaded data, so I’m not sure why it kept not displaying it.

When it did display and I was on my exercise bike, which has it’s own heartrate sensors, when I got readings from it, it often disagreed with the bike–at least at first. If I stayed at a sustained rate for a while, the Fitbit seemed to eventually “catch up” to what the bike was reading. Maybe it’s actually giving a 5 or 10 minute average or something and I missed where it said that?

Then I checked on pacing/distance calculations. Back when I was trying to run, I had an app that tracked distances via GPS, one particular path around the neighborhood came out to about 2 1/4 miles. Using google maps utilities to trace it out showed about the same. So when I walk that path with a fitbit? It records 1.5 miles.

51

I bought two Fitbit Charge HRs a few weeks ago – one for me, one for my wife – but the experience was so poor I returned them and got my money back after 2 weeks. There are two different reasons why I returned them, as explained below.

First off, “my” Fitbit device. I think that the device that I was using was defective. It could not stay synched to my phone, and the battery would lose 50% of its power overnight, even when it was just sitting on the nightstand. I really think there was a problem with the Bluetooth radio. I followed all the instructions on the Fitbit site, and would reset the device and then re-pair it with my phone. It would get synched up, and everything would be great for a while. Later, throughout the day, I would discover that it had stopped synching and nothing I did would get it to be recognized by my phone.

My phone was able to see other Bluetooth devices without issue. However, once my Fitbit stopped synching, my phone was unable to see the device unless I reset it. There is a possibility that the Bluetooth radio on the device was overwhelmed by proximity to other Bluetooth devices. I actually got it to synch a few times when I was standing on the street corner waiting for a bus, and there was nobody else around.

I think the problem with the Bluetooth radio caused the battery to drain faster than normal. According to the documentation that came with the device, it should have held its charge for at least 3 days. My device was losing a full charge in about 1 day.

I contacted Fitbit support and spent about 30 minutes with them, trying everything they suggested, but it just would not work. The only advice they could offer me was to go through the setup. According to bulletins on the Fitbit site, they were experiencing problems with certain Fitbit Charge HR devices, and that they were actively looking into a fix. When I researched the issue, I found that the first reports of the problem were raised sometime in October or November, 2015, and by January, 2016, they were still no closer to a solution. After going through the setup upwards of 8 or 9 times, I was done.

My wife’s Fitbit Charge HR was able to hold its synch relationship with her phone, but it was giving wildly inaccurate readings due to her job. She drives a school bus, and apparently, the motion of the bus and/or her seat caused the device to think that she was the most active person in the world! For three days in a row, the device was reporting that she had climbed more than 100 flights of stairs each day! (It is my understanding/observation that a “flight” is at least 10 stairs.) Her device was also indicating that she was taking 12,000 - 15,000 steps per day, even though she was physically sitting down in the driver’s seat for over 6 hours each day. (For the sake of comparison, I was walking approximately 1.2 miles to and from the bus stop each day, and was taking the stairs about 5 or 6 times a day, and I was struggling to get my 10,000 steps in, and was only registering about 8 or 9 flights of stairs.) My wife has had both knees replaced, and therefore, does not do as much walking as I do. Thus, it was very clear that the Fitbit just wasn’t compatible with my wife’s actual, daily behavior.

I know that I could have taken my wife’s Fitbit and returned my defective one, but after getting absolutely no help at all from the Fitbit support team, I lost my patience with the company and their devices.

I will admit that having a device that kept track of my steps and stairs was useful, and the heart rate functionality was absolutely a necessity. I had originally gotten the devices because my cardiologist wanted me to keep track of my heart rate due to some problems I have been having. The heart rate functionality on the Fitbits appeared to work correctly, but it was not enough to overcome all the negative juju I had already experienced with the devices.

I then bought a Garmin Vivofit with a heart rate monitor, but it was the wrong device. On that particular device, the heart rate monitor was an add-on, something you strapped around your chest during exercise. I need something that is monitoring my heart rate permanently, so I returned that device immediately after opening the package and discovering what it really was. I did not even turn on the device, so I have no opinion as to whether or not it worked.

I realize that the technology behind the devices is trying to equate certain motion with activity, but the reality was extremely disappointing. One day, I walked from the bus stop to my work, but because it was so cold, my hands were in my jacket pocket. Imagine my dismay when I got to work and saw that I had only walked about 200 steps, even though the actual distance I had traveled was a little more than a half-mile!

I’m going to try again, soon, perhaps after I have read this thread to find out which devices are true winners, but my first experiences were frustrating.

52

I will tell you, Fitbit has excellent customer service.

A plastic piece broke off my dongle (it still works) and I contacted them about getting a replacement.

They answered in less than 24 hours, asked for some specifics, and are shipping me a new dongle at no cost. I was fully expecting to pay for a replacement.

53

I think you’ll have some research to do besides this thread, as the heart rate monitoring and a device that tracks activity accurately may be two different devices for you. I think the smaller, not so expensive clip-on type of monitors are far more accurate with activity, as whatever algorithms their gyrometers use, are made to detect steps regardless of where they’re worn. I can wear mine as a necklace, clip it to my shirt, wear as a watch, clip to a shoelace, or just put in my pocket, and it gives the same step count. I can also “tell” it when I’m biking and clip it to my shoe and then have that activity register accurately as far as pedaling. But none of those track heart rate.

54

And apparently some days at work, I run around even more than others - again, just my regular commute, work day that didn’t involve going outside, no additional exercise, and I’m now at 12,365 steps. Who knew? That’s more than I did on Sunday, when I took a multi-stage long walk.

See? This is educational - I apparently covered 50% more cumulative ground than yesterday, and I don’t feel any differently.

55

My wife got me a FitBit charge HR this past Christmas. First thing I noticed, it tracks arm movement as steps- I was in the middle of making Christmas dinner for the family when all of a sudden it started blinking and vibrating like crazy. Turned out it was congratulating me on doing 10,000 steps that day, when I knew I didn’t walk nearly that much- it was all from moving my arms around making dinner.

I notice every once in a while when I check my heartrate history it will show a spike right up to my peak heartrate for several minutes at times when I was sedentary and would have thought I was having a heart attack if my heart was actually racing that much at the time. A little googling told me this was a common glitch with fitbits. So take heart rate read outs with a grain of salt (not too much salt though, bad for the blood pressure :D)

Also, as mentioned I sometimes have trouble synching to my iphone. It seems to be worse the longer I wait between synchs, so I try to do a synch at least once a day.

On the plus side, it’s kind of cool seeing how it tracks everything over time, like seeing my average resting heart rate drop over time as I continue to get exercise (then go up again if I have a stressful week at work).

56

ivylass, that is nice to hear. Sadly, I did not have the same experience, so, apparently, MMV (my mileage varied :D).

SeaDragonTattoo, thanks for the information. The main thing I need is an accurate heart rate monitor.