My Fitbit experience so far (5 days since using)

[WandaWoman]

In my opinion, Fitbit seems to be more suited to everyday people (i.e. NOT Gym Rats). It automatically tracks everyday habits/patterns:

• Heart rate
• Sleep duration
• Steps walked from point A to point B
• Stairs/ Floors climbed
• Allows logging of what you eat and drink, and how much you weigh
• Allows goal setting for each of above

Fitbit is NOT suitable or even helpful (in my opinion) for tracking exercises/ workouts. This is my experience so far:

• Fitbit does NOT track stairs/ floors climbed on Stair Master. I am told this is because Fitbit tracks altitude change for stair climbing tracking, and since you are not actually changing altitude when using a Stair Master, nothing is tracked. So I thought, "It probably counts the stairs climbed as steps walked". NOT!!! It tracks NOTHING! I always put the Stair Master at highest level which converts to 162 steps per minute. Last night I worked out on Stair Master for 1 hour for a total of 1500 calories burned, 9720 stairs climbed, and 650 floors. My Fitbit tracked NOTHING. So it's like I didn't even workout. You can manually log Stair Master workouts, but only the duration and calories burned can be logged. Perhaps Fitbit needs to update its algorithm to track stairs climbed on Stair Master OR allow you to manually add Stairs climbed and/or floors climbed OR create an ankle band to track this movement.

• Fitbit does not track steps walked on Treadmill, unless you are moving your arm back and forth (like you are walking). So if you are holding onto the side rails, NOTHING is tracked. When I use a treadmill I put it at 30% incline at 3.5 km per hour. This does not seem so fast, but at an incline it's hard to do without holding onto side rails. When I do this workout, I typically burn around 750 calories in 30 minutes. Not sure how many steps walked this converts to. Again, Fitbit tracks NOTHING. I know if I walk normally (i.e. on floor) and even if I do NOT move my arms, it does track my steps (I tested this). Perhaps Fitbit tracks walking steps because it can sense that you are moving forward (as opposed to treadmill where you are not really moving forward but remain stationary with feet moving in forward direction)? Perhaps Fitbit needs to create an ankle band to track this movement.

• You can cheat steps walked using Fitbit (even sitting down). Simply move your arm back and forth (the arm you wear your Fitbit on). It will track as steps walked!

• Fitbit does not track HIIT workouts. These are my toughest workouts and I believe I can burn at least 1000 calories in an hour. I combine kettlebells, sandbags and body weight exercises, skipping, etc. with VERY little rest. I can start and end a "Workout" to track, but it does not accurately track calories. I KNOW that workout is more than 142 calories burned in an hour, but this is what Fitbit tells me!

• I don't think Fitbit tracks "Weights" workouts well either. Like regular "Workouts" you can start and end weights workouts, but Fitbit does not know exactly what body part or how heavy you are lifting so how can it accurately track. I think these workouts need to have more features on Fitbit.

That's my experience and opinion so far. Perhaps some of my comments can be addressed or responded to, and hopefully is helpful for future product improvements!

[AlejandraFitbit]

Great to see you @WandaWoman. As mentioned in my reply in this post, you can try to manually log your activities. Also you can check the tips of our friend @bcalvanese in the Things You Can Do To Make The Blaze More Accurate post. 

Catch you later. 

[GetABitFit]

My Charge HR tracks the treadmill steps but I walk/run with arm movement.

It accounts for my kettle-bell workouts via heart rate.

It measured my steps on the cross-trainer the other day but not distance of course.

The cross trainer (or rower) displays distance and that can be logged.

Similar functions by the sound of it.

Blaze is better looking 😉