What You Should Know
The Fitbit is an interesting new piece of weight loss technology. In line with the popular Bodybugg weight loss tracker, the Fitbit is an electronic device that tracks your daily calorie burn and sleep cycle. You then synch this data with a PC and come up with interesting stats and exercise recommendations to reach your weight loss goals. The Fitbit is definitely a piece of 2010 technology, and the manufacturer claims that it uses the same motion t tech found in Nintendo’s Wii controlleurs to get a 3-D read of your daily and nightly activity. In addition to tracking and synthesizing data, the subscribing to the Fitbit’s online service also puts you in touch with other users online. The Fitbit is a slender device that looks a bit like a flip phone, and that can clip onto you pocket, wrist, bra, shirt or any other piece of clothing. In addition to syAs of this writing, the Fitbit is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, as well as with Mac OS X. It retails from the manufacturer for $99, plus shipping.
Ingredients
Not applicable.
Product Details
The Fitbit is another entry in the increasingly popular category of electronic exercise trackers. These devices record your movement, then use the manufacturer’s proprietary technology to synch with your computer and synthesize your activity data. One of the main selling points of the Fitbit over other Next Generation pedometers is that it also tracks sleep data. The manufacturers claim that recent studies have linked “sleep quality” to overall health and wellness. The manufacturers claim that, if you wake up but don’t remember it, this can still impact your overall feeling of health, and even your weight loss attempts. The Fitbit comes with a wristband that can be worn during sleep to recording sleep data. It also comes with a computer docking station for synching to your PC or Mac. The Fitbit has an OLED display that shows steps taken, calories burned, distance traveled, and an “overall activity picture” in real time. For this device to be fully operational, you will have to enter total calories eaten manually every day via the Fitbit’s tracking software. To get more than raw numbers from the Fitbit, you will need to subscribe to their online “premium service”, which costs $49.99 per year. According to the official website, this gets you access to workout recommendations, nutritional recommendations, and a feature that compares your stats and progress to Fitbit community averages.
Advantages
- Comes with a wristband case for easy wearing.
- Works with both PC and Mac operating systems.
Disadvantages
- Requires an extra yearly expense to get fitness data analysis.
- Costs $99 plus shippifng, which can be pricey for some consumers.
- Will not physically aid your weight loss efforts, just provides tracking and analysis.
Conclusion
The Fitbit is an interesting little device. If you like numbers, than this could be a piece of weight loss equipment that you’d really benefit from. However, most people are looking for something to enhance their diet and exercise efforts, not just a way to track calorie burn and activity levels.
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When the Fitbit unit syncs with the computer, this is a great idea. However, it is very difficult to keep the unit synced with the computer. When this happens, nothing registers online. Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend the Fitbit to anyone. It’s too expensive for how well it works.
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Where can I call to get help getting started w/my fitbit. I have printed the instruction manaul but having difficulty; sleep did not record, etc.
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Heidi – in reading other material about fitbit, they did say that to put in “sleep” mode, you need to hold down the button for 2 seconds. That’s all I know.
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I just received mine. Yes before you lay down for sleep you press and hold the button until you see “start” when you wake up you hold the button until you see “end”. then your sleep information is stored and you can download it onto the website.
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need phone number for questions
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