A little help, if anyone can

[wildforce71]

My mother and I are thinking about getting my father a Fitbit for Christmas, mostly because he already has All the Tech. I have a general idea what they do; she is not very good at technology in general. Does anyone have one, or know about them, and can explain in small, friendly words? He doesn't do a lot of deliberate exercise but he does walk most days.

Thank you a million times in advance.

Comments

[tptigger]

I have one. What exactly they do depends on what model you get. The basic models count steps and active minutes. Others additionally can track sleep, how many floors of stairs you climb or descend, and I think the fancy newest ones also can track heart rate.

The default goals are 10,000 steps and 30 active minutes a day.

Hope that helps.

[sailorsol]

Yes, all those things. I've had the Flex, which is the fairly basic model, and currently have the Charge 2 (I had the Charge HR but they have a habit of falling apart). It tracks sleep and heart rate and various activities, calories burned, etc.

Basically it's just a bracelet/watch type thing and everything else is synced up with your smartphone or computer.

[starandrea]

I have several! :) I've worn a variety of fitbits over the past year, which means I've outlasted the typical fitbit user by about six months (the average fitbit user wears them for six months before getting bored with them).

Presumably in an effort to keep customer interest, fitbit releases new models once or twice a year and retires old ones at the same time. There are currently seven models available from fitbit.com, with older incarnations still available on ebay. (I bought two fitbits at a considerable discount on ebay and have no problem with them, but the advantage of buying from fitbit.com is the one-year warranty, through which two of my friends have had their fitbits replaced with no questions asked.)

Although all the models have different features and tracking ability, I personally would group them into two basic categories: fitbits that have a display built in, and fitbits with no display. Any fitbit needs to be synced to a fitbit account (free to create and maintain) through a smartphone app or computer in order to work (the account has a variety of privacy settings you can choose, including "don't share any of my data with anyone"). The difference is that fitbits with a display will show you things you've asked them to measure (steps, stairs, heart rate, etc.) when you tap them, while fitbits with no display won't tell you anything unless you check your account (via app or computer) for the information.

I've used fitbits with a display and fitbits without, and I like the ones with a display better but for one thing: they're bigger and clunkier, and I like to wear other things on my wrists without a fitbit getting in the way. So I currently wear the smallest bracelet fitbit they make, with no display, for everyday use, and I switch it with one of the bigger display fitbits when I go running (it has a built-in GPS that provides me with a map of my run, split times, heart rate, and so forth, none of which the smaller fitbit will do).

I do find that one of the most entertaining things about fitbit is the way you can compare your day to someone else's: that is, the friend factor. Fitbit users who have fitbit friends are more likely to wear them longer, because the "fitbit ecosystem" (actually what it's called!) keeps them engaged through informal competition and formal fitbit "challenges". Even when I'm not paying much attention to my daily steps or sleep or hours of activity, I often check to see where I rank among my friends: are they walking more or less than me?

(What the hell kind of job does Jade have that she regularly walks 200,000 steps in a 7-day period? Is Olivia's fitbit broken or did she just forget to sync it yesterday? That sort of thing. It appeals to my desire for community without the work of social interaction.)

That said, my dad is not technologically inclined and has no fitbit friends other than me and Marci, and he's never used his phone more than he uses it now: to check his fitbit every evening and see how many steps he got that day. So definitely different people get different things out of it! :)