About Dominique

@Adele287 wrote: My "active minutes" in the past were right on target with running and walking, now....never. Since Jawbone is consistently more accurate across the board every time I have cross calibrated it with the actual mileage I may switch my patients to that product, as most people want instant gratification! I know my diabetics do! Funnily enough, I just came across this post by @SunsetRunner@ (who also has a Flex), who wrote:   "I often get credit for High Active Minutes when I am just walking."   So some people complain it's too hard to get Very active minutes, while others complain it's too easy, and they are using the same Fitbit tracker.   I personally think Very active minutes should mean exactly that: minutes when I am indeed very active. Merely getting my fat ass off the chair and moving a little bit (like walking at a moderate pace) does not qualify as being very active in my books.   ... View more

@Adele287 wrote: Since the software upgrade several months ago, it has been underestimating steps, miles and active minutes! I've been using a Fitbit One since March 2013 and I haven't noticed any changes related to software/firmware upgrades. Generally speaking, I believe a waist-mounted tracker (like the Fitbit One or Zip) is going to count steps more accurately than a wrist-mounted one (Flex or Force). Anyway, I don't really care whether my Fitbit One is not counting steps 100% accurately: whether it reports 500 steps more or less than I actually took doesn't really matter. I want my Fitbit to make me more active and it's doing a fine job with that.   As to mileage, it's really step count x average stride length. Your stride length may vary a lot depending on where/when you're taking your steps (your stride is probably much shorter when walking from the couch to the fridge than when walking outside), how fast you're moving (the faster you're moving, the longer your stride normally is), your mood etc. If you really want a precise mileage, you should really get a GPS watch (but then, that wouldn't count steps taken inside). Again, if the purpose of your Fitbit is to make you more active, the absolute accuracy of your mileage doesn't really matter. ... View more

@Adele287 wrote: Did that also improve your active minutes? The goal is 30 qd and my patients are really trying very hard and not obtaining it currently. Very active minutes (as per Fitbit) are defined here:   http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/What-are-very-active-minutes/   The main problem with them IMO is that different trackers grant them very differently for the same activity level. This has been confirmed by many users who have had several Fitbit trackers. The most "generous" is the Fitbit Zip, while the "stingiest" is the Fitbit One and the Flex is somewhere in-between.   If your patients would get more motivation from more easily attainable very active minutes, then you should get them a Fitbit Zip instead.   Comparing very active minutes from Fitbit and Jawbone is pointless IMO, unless Jawbone happens to be using the same definition (6 x METs) as Fitbit. But as I said, Fitbit can't even get their own trackers to count VAM's in a consistent way. ... View more

@_Kayla_ wrote: don't want to build a lot of muscle, mostly just tone. My understanding is it's really hard for women to get bulky muscles, even if they'd want to. As to "toning", it really means decreasing your body fat % so that whatever muscles you have become visible. This is primarily done via nutrition. ... View more

@SunsetRunner wrote: I was wondering how many miles/steps do you do in a day? You will see a huge variation between people, because (as @Algenon noted) everyone is different: age, fitness level, time available etc.   If you subscribe to the Premium plan (I believe you can try it for free for one week), you can benchmark yourself against same-sex, same corpulence people in your age bracket. For instance, this is where I stand against normal weight 45-54-year-old men:     The benchmark data is compiled from hundreds of thousands of users and will give you a much more accurate picture of what other people are doing than the anecdotal evidence of people answering your question on this forum. ... View more

@Tammy724 wrote: Can anyone please tell me on my FitBit One, why is it that when I go up the steps it never catches EVERYTIME I go up?  I will go up 14-15 flights up stairs so that I can have 10 accounted for each day lol.  I know I can't go from floor 1 to floor 3 and expect it to count 2 flights, but it just don't catch when I go up the stairs solo. For your Fitbit One, a "floor" is really a 10-feet elevation (*). Chances are your 14-15 flights are only 100 feet in total, which is why you only get credited for 10 floors.   (*) see: http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-does-my-tracker-count-floors/ ... View more

@Kibbles314 wrote: Does anyone else feel that protein powder is necessary? Protein is necessary for building muscle, but it doesn't have to be in powder form. Powder just happens to be convenient to use, dose and store. I find a 4 kg bag of high-quality whey protein isolate doesn't cost me more than the same protein content in - say - chicken breast form.   You may find the following link useful:   http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-protein-powders   And here is another discussion on which protein powder is the best.     ... View more

@mrolling03 wrote: I wanted to see if anyone has heard of/tried carb cycling. I recently asked for opinions about Lyle McDonald's books on another Fitbit forum. @raychulj mentioned she read The Ultimate Diet 2.0. I believe the  "carb manipulation" she refers to in her reply is a variation of "carb cycling". ... View more

Thanks for the recommendation, Rachel! I ended up buying both A Guide for Flexible Dieting and The Ultimate Diet 2.0 (for $10 off for doing that). I like the author's no-BS style. I'm already half-way through flexible dieting and I look forward to experimenting with "free meals" and "structured refeeds". ... View more

@Bartlit wrote: I didn't know it included a deficit, I thought it was just my bmr *insert embarrassed face here!* So I can just leave it as is then? No, the default calorie burn target set by Fitbit is not your BMR. It's your BMR + a hefty calorie amount. You should definitely need more than 10,000 steps a day to reach that total calorie goal.   In my case, I noticed the calorie burn target set by Fitbit was the TDEE obtained with the Mifflin-St Jeor formula (which is what Fitbit uses) and Every day (*intense) or twice daily as the exercise level, using this TDEE calculator.   Calories burned are calories burned, they neither include a deficit, nor a surplus. Whether you'll have a deficit or a surplus depends on how much you eat, compared to how much you burned.   I don't count calories in either, but I do find the calorie burn target useful (because it's challenging).     ... View more

Just curious: why would someone want to absorb their food in liquid form? I can see the point for astronauts confined in a tiny spaceship, but I can't picture myself trading real food for a liquid meal. ... View more

@betpchem wrote: I know someone who has done at least 50,000 steps a day all summer. She is not cheating. She gets up at 4 am to get her steps in. So it is possible.  Yes, it's possible. That would require at least 6 hours of continuous walking/jogging. So yes, 3 hours in the morning before work, and 3 hours again in the evening after work, plus whatever she can get during the course of the day. The question is: why would someone want to do this? First, there's the law of diminishing returns: you don't get twice as fit with 50,000 steps compared to "only" 25,000 steps. Actually, 50k+ steps a day over a prolonged period of time most probably puts you at risk of developing some kind of injury. I personally think that if someone has six hours to dedicate to exercising on a daily basis, their time would be better spend by doing several varied activities, as opposed to doing only walking/jogging. Now don't tell me that in addition to her 50k+ steps, she also swims, attends zumba classes and lift weights. ... View more

OK, I had a look at one of your profile photos:       In it, you look in better shape than 99% of men in your age bracket, so the question is: why do you need/want to reach 10% body fat? Do you want to make the cover of the next issue of Men's Health?     Even with 10% body fat and the perfect six-pack, they would deem you too old    Here are a couple of blog posts by a doctor/body builder that may make you think twice about bringing your body fat % down:   http://drspencer.com/is-natural-bodybuilding-basically-castration/ http://drspencer.com/how-dr-spencer-got-his-groove-back-best-weight-vs-ideal-weight/   Bear in mind he's probably 15 years younger than you, so the hormonal change could have an even more dramatic impact on you.   Try not to spend too much time bare-chested under the Jamaican sun (skin cancer)!           ... View more

If you manually log your activity in the Dashboard, it gets "flattened out" and you lose your VAM's. This is described very well by @Colinm39 in several older posts such as this one, or this one.   There should be no need for you to manually log activities that are step-based (walking, jogging, running etc.). You can log them with your Fitbit One (by pressing the button when the activity starts, and pressing it again when it ends). This way it will appear in your Dashboard and you will get useful stats for that activity (how many calories you burned, how many steps you got etc.   As to the model you are using, you managed to pick the Fitbit tracker that is the "stingiest" with VAM's. Yes, all Fitbit trackers do not grant VAM's in the same way: for the same activity, the Zip will give you the most VAM's, the Flex will give you less and the One will give you even less. I'm not sure why Fitbit wasn't able to make their trackers consistent with regards to VAM counting, but that's the way it is. ... View more

What kind of activities does your workout consists of? Which Fitbit model are you using? Do you log any of your workouts manually? All these will affect the number of very active minutes you'll end up with.   You may also find the following help article useful:   https://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/1020095-what-are-%22very-active-minutes%22- ... View more

What's wrong with using the default calorie burn target set for you by Fitbit? It's quite challenging, meaning that when you have reached the other default target goals (eg. 10,000 steps), you most likely haven't reached the calorie burn target at the end of the day. In other words, you literally have to "go the extra mile" to reach it.   If you are not tracking your calories in, you don't really have a way to know about any deficit. Only your scale will tell, afterwards. ... View more

Det finns en grupp för Sverige här: https://www.fitbit.com/group/228T2J ... View more

@Saramarie1973 wrote: I guess I could go to the YMCA.... Some people also go to malls... ... View more

@Jeroen wrote: Your meals should be evenly split over the day, topping at dinner makes it out of balance. Who said they should, and on what ground? ... View more

@Jeroen wrote: Skipping breakfast to eat more during dinner? That sounds not like a healthy advise. Not necessarily. See:   http://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrient-timing ... View more

The ingredients are listed here. Why not buy them separately at a grocery store and eat them as you please (you do not necessarily have to blend them, nor eat all at the same time)? ... View more

@carl669 wrote: no offense, but i'm a skeptic at heart as well. the following article contains many links to studies which say the opposite (that acid/alkaline load doesn't matter):  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-dietary-acidbase-balance-matter/ Here is another article about calcium, but also the many other factors that affect bone health:   http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-bone-health   Here is what it says under Nutrition for strong bones:   "At this point, you’re probably wondering what you can eat – or stop eating – to ensure the healthiest bones possible. Luckily, it’s simple. Eat a balanced diet of whole, fresh foods. Combine that with regular exercise (so that your bones get the signal to remodel). And your bones will support you for years to come." ... View more

@SunsetRunner wrote: later did lots of researching to cross-collaborate the findings.  Would you care to share links to scientific studies that corroborate the findings? ... View more

@Heybales wrote: The problem with doing cardio prior to lifting too intense or long - is you tire out your muscles. My current program includes strength training every second day. On the days I lift weights, my cardio usually consists of walking, which I don't feel tires my muscles. I then run on the days I don't lift weights. I'm not dieting, btw. Does that make sense? ... View more

@wapuka wrote: When you perform cardio BEFORE weight training you are depleting your glycogen stores which makes your workout less effective during your weight trainging session. I assume this applies to a situation where you do both strength and cardio training during the same workout. What if you do one in the morning and the other one later in the day, with several hours in between? How much time do you need to replenish your glycogen stores (if you depleted them by performing cardio in the morning)? ... View more

What Fitbit device(s) do you have? I've got a Fitbit One (tracker), which has a rechargeable/non-replaceable battery (no problem so far) and a Fitbit Aria (scale), which uses regular AA batteries (4 of them). I'm still on my first set of AA batteries with the Aria after 13 months. If you're using a tracker with replaceable batteries (Zip?), you may want to consider using rechargeable batteries. Alternatively, you could upgrade your tracker to a model with built-in rechargeable batteries (One, Flex). ... View more

@dory0619 wrote: I have had my fitbit since 2013 and installed it   and yes it was working fine now all of sudden I have nothing    what I was trying to explain to Dominque is that little icon  does not show any more, so does that mean some how my computer lost all the data and do I need to reinstall  and start all over? Your Fitbit data is not stored on your computer, but on Fitbit's own server. It is therefore safe. If the little Fitbit icon disappeared from your System Tray, you can get it back by reinstalling Fitbit Connect. You can download Fitbit Connect at https://www.fitbit.com/start ... View more

@Pscott1309 wrote: So, do you feel that purchasing the Aria is beneficial to your goals and objectives in monitoring your Fitness? Well, it's just a scale, albeit a fancy one. In my case, I had a very old (25 years) scale that I knew wasn't terribly accurate. Therefore the Aria was a clear upgrade, especially since it also gives an estimate of your body fat and can automatically sync to your Fitbit account. If you already have an good scale, you can always enter your weight manually in your account. I like the fact I don't have to do this. I find the body fat % value useful, although I'm aware of the limitations of the method used by the Aria. ... View more

@dory0619 wrote: HeyBales   I am not sure what is Fitbit Connect Client Running?   Where is Sync Now? The Fitbit Connect icon is located in your System Tray (lower right corner of your screen), if you are on Windows:   Right-click that icon and you'll see the Sync Now option. ... View more

@Q4Rhority wrote: I am trying to hook up my scales. It said it was, but its giving me a ERR sign no weight.  There's a dedicated help forum for the Aria scale. It's probably a better place to ask your setup question.   You may also want to check the help articles. ... View more

@SunsetRunner wrote: Timing for foods and nutrients (mantra:  eat based on either what you just did or are about to do). Well, some think the importance of timing is over-rated:   http://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrient-timing ... View more

I've had a Fitbit Aria since June 2013 and I like it very much. I'm using it once a day, always first thing in the morning. Granted, it's expensive, but as a Fitbit user, you pay for the convenience of its seamless integration into your Fitbit account. It's also good-looking, if aesthetics matters to you. ... View more

@Ukase wrote: But, she is averaging - for this week anyway - about 45000 a day. Yes, I see from Sharon A's profile her lowest step count for the past 30 days was 39,605 and her highest 66,264. That would make her a highly atypical 74-year-old American. I guess she must have very good genes and very strong joints (knees, hips) as well. ... View more

Do you use metric units (kg), by any chance? If so, Fitbit converts everything to imperial units (lbs) internally, then back to metric. This could explain why you're getting decimals. ... View more

I'm afraid you will have to manually log activities that are not step-based. Even the elliptical is one such activity.     ... View more

@check wrote: Was just going to recommend the Orbit. I will be ordering mine soon. Will miss the Fitbit community, but not their shoddy products. Sorry to hear about your experience with Fitbit (I guess you're talking about the Force). I've been very happy with my One.   It would be nice if you could keep us posted about your experience with the Orbit, especially as compared to the Fitbit. ... View more

You may want to have a look at the new Runtastic Orbit. Here is a review of it:   http://www.digitaltrends.com/fitness-apparel-reviews/runtastic-orbit-review/   Looks very similar to the Fitbit Flex. Runtastic has strong credentials with their running app, which makes their new activity tracker more interesting than those from hardware companies. ... View more

@Ukase: with all the respect I owe your 74-year-old mother, she's not walking 88,000 steps per day, nor 20-30 miles either. I consider myself fit and when power-walking (at about 7 km/h, ie. 4.3 mph), I would get 9000 steps per hour. If I did that for 1 ½ hours in the morning and the same in the evening, I would get 27,000 steps and about 13 miles. Even if I were "pacing the length of the hallway" at a more leisurely speed for the rest of the day, I would maybe get another 15,000 steps. If you're not convinced, lend her your Fitbit for a day. ... View more