Fitbit (and other!) activity monitor track-all

Me three: https://www.fitbit.com/user/54JQL6. I am in GMT+1 timezone, so be prepared for weird step differences. I'm pretty nicely in the lead in the US morning and then get overtaken quickly

Was sick yesterday so somehow have to make up 10k+ steps this workweek. Woohoo!

wanderingtaoist wrote:

Me three: https://www.fitbit.com/user/54JQL6. I am in GMT+1 timezone, so be prepared for weird step differences. I'm pretty nicely in the lead in the US morning and then get overtaken quickly :)

I felt weirdly guilty two weeks ago when I was really pushing, and kept overtaking Dan W. after he was clearly done for the day.

Katy wrote:
wanderingtaoist wrote:

Me three: https://www.fitbit.com/user/54JQL6. I am in GMT+1 timezone, so be prepared for weird step differences. I'm pretty nicely in the lead in the US morning and then get overtaken quickly :)

I felt weirdly guilty two weeks ago when I was really pushing, and kept overtaking Dan W. after he was clearly done for the day.

hahaha I'd go to bed and be all NOOOOOOOO KATY IS GOING TO PASS MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Can someone invite me again to the workweek challenge. I missed last weeks invite and wasn't in the invite this week.

Sydhart wrote:

Can someone invite me again to the workweek challenge. I missed last weeks invite and wasn't in the invite this week.

Jason G. is my fitbit username

I *think* I sent it

Got it! Thanks.

So I'm apparently the bane of fitbit bands. I tend to go through them every two months. I have a Charge 2. The bands keep breaking where they attach to the fitbit. Does anybody have any suggestions? I've gotten a few replaced by fitbit but they won't do it anymore. I got a sport one (officially licensed) from Target a few months back and it literally just broke. This is so frustrating. My wife doesn't have any of these issues with hers. What am I doing wrong?

Are you wearing it too tight? Too loose? Does the band get caught on things?

merphle wrote:

Are you wearing it too tight? Too loose? Does the band get caught on things?

I think it is just right. Doesn't seem to get caught on things and I don't think it is too tight or too loose.

My daughter's broke once like that, but otherwise no problems here in over a year of use by three of us.

Are you putting a lot of pressure on the band/fitbit connection when putting them on or taking them off? When I looked at how our daughter's broke, it seemed like she had lifted up on the band too hard so that it snapped from the fitbit.

I don't think so. I wear mine to bed so the only time it comes off is when it has to charge or when I get in the shower. I try to be pretty careful with it. Who knows, maybe I am constantly messing with it in my sleep. Trying a new band off Amazon. Maybe this will last longer. Even if not, it is way cheaper.

I think it is poor design. My girlfriend just went through her third Fitbit Alta band and had enough of it. She is trying out a Garmin watch now.

It's a known issue with the Charge and the Charge 2. I went through 3 bands in 6 months with both the Charge and Charge 2. While under warranty and on the 3rd replacement I got them to give me credit instead of a new Charge 2 and I upgraded to the Blaze. I like the Blaze a lot better even if I had to spend $90 more on it. I got a heavy duty band for it too that I can wear while I'm playing sports and doing obstacle course races so I get a lot more activity monitoring.

It was so windy one day last week while I was walking my fitbit thought I had climbed up 85 flights of stairs!

My Fitbit Flex bands broke pretty regularly. After 2 or 3 replacement bands, I ended up getting a bunch of different colored ones for Xmas, and I could color coordinate with my outfit. I wore the black, gray, navy, and khaki-ish the most often. I believe the black one eventually broke and I started defaulting to gray.

I have an Alta now. The original band broke within 6 months (the metal piece that connected the band to the tracker disconnected from the band. I bought a 3rd party leather band that has held up well. The only problem is that it's leather and can get stinky.

I do have some problems with the display in the Alta. Sometimes the middle of the display is super dim and nearly impossible to read.

I'm having allergy problems with mine. My wrist is healing up now from a stint of wearing it. And this is with a silicon band I clean every night.

With all this nonsense, I'm beginning to wonder if my problem is that I'm allergic to having skin....

So I have not used my Blaze for a few months because the battery pretty much would not hold a charge. Looks to be pretty consistent with a lot of people's experience with newer fitbit devices where the battery does not last much longer than a year which I'm not a fan of. There is a chance I could replace it but the design is really poor so I would have to pretty much pull every piece apart inside. The battery is just not meant to be replaced easily at all.

My wife just got a new Versa and it was just a pain to setup and I foresee having issues with it as well. I'm tempted to just move away from fitbit. Are there any new options people have been purchasing recently?

Thanks!

Garmin construction is usually much better than Fitbits. They have their own lines of trackers and watches. The bands aren't as quickly replaceable but, at the same time, they don't break every 6 months.

It's funny I actually had a Polar watch that I really liked but the band broke a few years back. Been using the Charge 2 with no issues since then. *knocks on wood*

I see they're coming out with the Charge 3 in October and the fact that I wouldn't have to take it off every time I take a shower is pretty tempting. I'll probably just stick with the Charge 2 until I wear it out though.

I went from wearing a Vivoactive (OG model) to Vivoactive 3 both of which are waterproof. The only thing annoying about showering with them is Dove soap tends to build up in every crevice. Easy enough to clean off with Q-tips and alcohol but takes a little of the showering convenience out of it. Or maybe next time I will just opt for the white model

I have a Fitbit Charge HR...2 maybe? I'm on my second one; the band and housing on the first bubbles and slowly disassembled, which is sad because the computer stuff is fine. I'm wearing the factory replacement.

But sometimes I want to wear a watch. To tell, like, the time. Without having to dramatically twist my wrist like I'm a prima donna and really need to know what time it is. I have a couple decent watches, but wearing a watch and a Fitbit--which I've done--feels like too much.

All of which is no big whoop. I can hack it. But I keep thinking about the Apple Watch and wondering if it's a better watch and at least comparable in its fitness tracking, and maybe worth the money. I'm no fan of charging daily, let alone multiple times daily if that's a thing, but I'm still curious.

Does anyone here use an Apple Watch and like it?

muraii wrote:

Does anyone here use an Apple Watch and like it?

Yes, and yes. I don't run marathons with it, and I wish there wasn't such a hard cap on the amount of synced music, but generally there's still plenty of charge at the end of a day.

muraii wrote:

Does anyone here use an Apple Watch and like it?

Yes. I have the Series 2. I use it for sports tracking, and I've found it to be pretty good for regular running, but anything HIIT or gym where my heartbeat varies rapidly it can't keep up. I've run with it and a strap monitor and they show pretty similar beat when I run regular pace, but any variations or heaven forbid HIIT it's just so slow to react.

It also seems that some days it records way too much distance traveled, like twice as much as I've really moved. I haven't been able to pinpoint why it's happening, it seems like it's reading both my iPhone and the watch distances even though it should pick one.

As a step counter its very accurate.

I've found that completing the three daily rings does motivate me to try to move and stand enough during the day to actually complete them, in that sense it's made me move more.

I use it for sleep tracking and this has been very revelatory to me, and have made me do some adjustments to my sleeping habits.

It holds it charge just about two days, I charge it every other morning.

I have a nice automatic watch that has been languishing in it's box since I got the Apple Watch, lately I've been thinking of going back to it and just start using a strap for sports. For sleep tracking and HRV the new Oura Ring looks very interesting.

The heartbeat monitoring doesn't run constantly unless you're in a workout mode. I have one "Modular" watchface for most of the time, but then I have a second one that I can swipe over to that's aimed at working out, including complications to take me to the Intervals, Workout, and Heart apps. For HIIT, the Intervals app is pretty much exactly as complicated as it needs to get, and can trigger the workout mode itself when you use it.

Oh, I'm liking the looks of the FitBit Charge 3. Waterproof + Swim Tracking = Nice.

I'm in.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh, I'm liking the looks of the FitBit Charge 3. Waterproof + Swim Tracking = Nice.

I'm in.

If you don't have a fitbit already, when you set up your account, visit the web-based dashboard and join the GWJ fitbit group. (Most useful as a way to find some people to compete with; the app interface to groups is pretty terrible.)

There's also no real way to link handle to GWJ userid. There are some names that I have not managed to link to GWJ IDs -- I just know that they're in the GWJ group, and I have a feel for how many steps a day they usually get. (Do not compete with runners; they get 10000 steps before breakfast.)

Kurrelgyre wrote:

The heartbeat monitoring doesn't run constantly unless you're in a workout mode. I have one "Modular" watchface for most of the time, but then I have a second one that I can swipe over to that's aimed at working out, including complications to take me to the Intervals, Workout, and Heart apps. For HIIT, the Intervals app is pretty much exactly as complicated as it needs to get, and can trigger the workout mode itself when you use it.

Thanks you two.

Kurrelgyre, which series do you have? I think if I’m in the market for one it’ll be after this-month’s Apple event.

muraii wrote:

Kurrelgyre, which series do you have? I think if I’m in the market for one it’ll be after this-month’s Apple event.

I went from a "Series 0" to a Series 3, skipping the Series 1/2 release. It's a very noticeable difference, irrespective of the watchOS changes that have happened.