Do you sync / use your Fitbit with other apps?

[cdntech]

Hello All,

I was looking up more information on my Fitbit Flex and perusing the listing of other apps that can be tied in with the Fitbit. I am mainly interested in something tthat would give me a better overall picture of my health / fitness level....particularly my caloric intake.

I am curious, do any of you use your Fitbit with other apps?  Which ones? And do you find a combination of apps works better for your needs?

Thanks for any feedback in advance.

JR

[123sanbo]

i use myfitnespal apps for daily food intake and calorie calculations and the fitbit tracker co-ordinates my physical calorie expenditures with caloric intake on mfp and it gives me a good idea as to what i take in and burn at the same time. the mfp is quite good because it gives you the nutritional breakdown of what you have consumed.

[cdntech]

Thanks for the input 123sanbo.  I'll have a closer look at the MyFitnessPal app.

[SunsetRunner]

I also use myfitnesspal to track my food intake and sync it with Fitbit to bring in my activity for the day.  I also use a Garmin Forerunner 210 GPS watch that is synced to Strava for cataloging my runs/bike rides.

[SarahOR]

I use Loseit for food tracking - ideally I would just use one app but the fitbit food database (as well as lack of a scanner) is not on par.  

I log my activity in fitbit, then it syncs into lose it. 

In terms of other devices...

1) I have a Withings scale which syncs my weight into both fitbit and lose it.  I only use the Withings app for weight.  

2) I also have a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor. I manually enter the calories/duration into fitbit post work out and leave my fitbit in the gym locker.  There is a Polar website but I don't use it.  There is a Polar heart rate monitor (the H7)  which links up to the iPhone via Bluetooth - but I don't know that much about it.  I would really encourage use of a HRM for workouts - the data is much more accurate AND I find it keeps me honest in terms of pushing myself/working hard.

[gerrymcd]

I use a bluetooth heart rate monitor (HRM) linked to the digifit app on my iPhone. When I workout I just put on the HRM strap and hit 'start' in the app. At the end of the workout digifit automatically uploads all the relevant info to fitbit ( calories burned, etc.)

[JenniLacey]

I ♥ Sparkpeople. They have the most up to date information and research on healthy living, diet and exercise. They have onsite dietitions and personal trainers who promptly answer any questions you may have. Not only do they provide you with the tools to help you reach a healthy weight and maintain but they also give you motivation, support, guidance and help you to reach your goals safely and effectively by emphasizing lifestyle changes over fad diets, gimmicks and pills. They have an enormous library of articles on nutrition, fitness, motivation and wellness as well as their own exercise videos and a workout generator to help you design a workout based on what equipment you have and your ability. They have a sub site called Sparkrecipes where you can get ideas for healthy meals or calculate the nutrion in your own recipes. Their food tracker is way more user friendly and has a better database than Fitbit so I log most of my food with Sparkpeople (I also have almost two years of recipes, food groupings and saved foods there) and it auto syncs here.

I lost 60 lbs in 8 months using their website and have been maintaining for a year now.

[cdntech]

Thanks for all the great feedback folks. Looks like I have a bit more research to do.

I do have an Android phone so I'll have to see what sort of HRM I can use with that. I think it would be ideal for my spinning classes as well as my regular gym sessions.

I briefly looked at SparkPeople but will take a more in depth look....I'm intrigued by the recipes. Thanks for the tip.

[PNewmanTx]

@123sanbo wrote:

i use myfitnespal apps for daily food intake and calorie calculations and the fitbit tracker co-ordinates my physical calorie expenditures with caloric intake on mfp and it gives me a good idea as to what i take in and burn at the same time. the mfp is quite good because it gives you the nutritional breakdown of what you have consumed.

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My wife and I just got our Flex units this last Friday (3/21/14). She does Weight Watchers, so I wanted something I could sync with my Flex. So far, I've found MFP to be a great match.

[SunsetRunner]

@pnewmanTX- Does your wife know she can enter her daily steps on WW online to earn activity points? I found this out a week before I quit WW, tempted to go back though.

[Heybales]

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@cdntech wrote:

I do have an Android phone so I'll have to see what sort of HRM I can use with that. I think it would be ideal for my spinning classes as well as my regular gym sessions.

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Just be aware that the formula for calculating calorie burn from HR is only valid for steady-state aerobic cardio, so same HR for 2-4 min.

So the spinning and other cardio machines fine - but if lifting is your other sessions - it'll be inflated calorie burn since that is not steady-state and anaerobic if doing it right. Or circuit training with HR going up and down by big jumps.

What's nice with Digifit is it gives some self-tests and stats for VO2max you'd need a more expensive Polar to get. And more machines are being open to those BlueTooth or ANT heartrate straps, so you can visually see it there too, and some machines will run special workouts based on HR like intervals or such.

[debram]

hello!  I am also new to fitbit flex and was wondering if there is a way to use WW point system together with fitbit and laptop.  The food calorie guide on fitbit has almost none of the canadian restaurants or the foods i usually consume and WW has the points online for almost everything i eat.  An app seems like the logical solution, but I am unsure of which one.  I would also consider a calorie counting app that maybe has more foods than the fitbit app.  I am also looking for increased listed activities than available on fitbit.  thanks ..dm

[lisapisa]

Hi there,

have you been able to get sparkpeople food tracker to sync up with fit bit?

[ac7ss]

I use MyFitnessPal for food and weight entry. (Like most prople here, the better data entry and scanning barcodes makes it easier.)
I also use Map My Walk, not really necessary, but I like to see my split mile times as I am starting to learn to run. (46 and haven't run in 25 years.) Do not link MMW to MFP! You will end up with double activities and your estimated calorie burn will be WAY off. I am thinking about using a HRM, but I will be sticking to my watch/chest band one for now.

[Sasmadar]

Hi All,

Does any of the push-ups apps (such as the one developed by Northpark) connect to fitbit?

Would be great if I could some link any of these applications to the dashboard/activities.

Thanks,

Sasmadar