Fitbit - Small, But Mighty

As you may have seen me mention a dozen or so times, I finally got my Fitbit in the mail this week.  For those not familiar with the Fitbit, it's kind of like 24 Hour Fitness' Bodybugg®, only much smaller, can clip anywhere and it's cheaper*.

First, let's talk about the "smaller". I love that I don't have to wear a belt or an armband to use this device. I clip it to my collar, tank strap or my sportsbra when I'm walking around or at the gym. Its about the size of a portable USB thumbdrive and looks like a wee money clip. They provide an additional plastic clip it can slide into if you want to strap it to a thicker belt or strap. It also comes with a soft elastic wristband that the Fitbit clips onto (and slips into a protective sheath, as well) so you can track your sleep.

You heard me. Track your sleep!  That was the big seller for me, even above the price.  This doodad can track everything the Bodybugg tracks... my steps, my calories burned, my activity level (and on the website, my food intake, mood and more) and it can track my sleep patterns. I just get in bed, hold down the little button on my Fitbit for 2 seconds until I see the word 'start', then I just lie down and get my Z's on.  In the morning, when I wake up and am ready to get out of bed, I simply hold the button down again for 2 seconds until it says "stop" and go about my  day.  When it syncs with my profile, it'll tell me what time I went to bed, how long it took me to fall asleep, how many times I was 'active' during the night and ultimately, how much actual sleep I got. It also can be set more sensitively if you really want to see every time you rolled over or whatever.   Totally. Rad.

In terms of ease of use, this thing is awesome. As I said, I just "set it and forget it". I clip it and get on with my life. If I walk within 15 feet of the syncing station, it'll send my info to my Fitbit profile instantly. I don't have to do anything but be in my apartment, basically.  And the website is top notch!  It's much more modern than most other fitness/food tracking websites I've seen (Weight Watchers, Bodybugg ... though Weight Watchers has gotten better.)  From the design to the development, it feels fresh and easy to use, developed with current web standards and functions. Very nice job on that front.  I also love that it's also a social network.  I can make my profile public, hide some of it for just friends or even make it all private just for me. You can choose which sections you want available to each level. For example, I have my activity, steps, height, age and bio available to the public, my moods and journal posts available to friends only and my weight and food tracking private. They have a community forum to participate in, as well.  Oh! and once a day or once a week, you can have it send a tweet or post a Facebook status with your amount of calories burned, steps taken, etc. Like this!

Normally, I have this private, but I thought you might like to see.

Did I mention that the membership to the Fitbit website is free? Free!  Do you hear me, people?  FREE!  Bodybugg charges at least $9.95 a month** for access to the data that you're tallying. So it's $99 to buy it and that's it. The end. No monthly subscriptions and a fun, social networking-type community. AND you can be a member and start your profile even if you don't currently have a Fitbit.  Isn't that nice of them?

I owned a Bodybugg once -- the first issue (a.k.a. the cumbersome, "hey everyone, I'm fat!" bulgey one that looked like you had an arm tumor under your clothes). I used it maybe 3x and now it's collecting dust on a shelf (I've been meaning to Craigslist it).  I didn't like the website interface, though it may have improved since then) and I didn't like the way it wore or looked.  Bodybugg has vastly improved the appearance of their device, to their credit, but I still much prefer the FItbit's 'clip to anything' style, size and weight. I'm loving my new Fitbit.

It's interesting how having this tiny little thing clipped to my body is making me so aware. I feel accountable to it. Yesterday, I wasn't feeling well... tummy troubles... which drained me of all energy and made me skip Zumba. I was really annoyed that I had to skip Zumba because I was counting on logging all those steps.  The first day I used my Fitbit, I logged 7600 steps, roughly. That's way, way more than I log on a normal day, working at home and skipping the gym. I made sure  I went to the gym and knowing I still had a ways to go to meet 10k steps, I did 30 minutes of Wii Free Step and Free Run that night to crank up the tally.

We make excuses for ourselves all the time; I know I do. We overestimate the amount of calories we eat and burn, the amount of steps we take, etc. Not intentionally, I don't think... it's just human nature. Statistics say that people often overestimate thae amount of calories they burn at the gym and I rarely believe those machines when they give me that info.  They're designed for 'one size fits all' and while I may be overweight, I'm pretty strong and someone who may be thin, might not have the same fortitude I do. Everyone is different. The Fitbit tells me what is real... for me.  Granted, I'm sure it's not perfect, but it's a pretty close estimation based on my actual activity.

It's also helping me see that the gym is not the only form of activity that 'counts'.  I sometimes forget that cleaning the house, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, doing the laundry, climbing the 4 flights of stairs to my apartment, playing with Lulu (my bunny), watering the plants and making the bed are all... well, activities. "Active" is right in the name.  While having continuous, heart rate-elevating exercise for 30 minutes or more a day is considered optimal, we shouldn't discount all the other things we do in our lives that have us flop down at the end of the day and go, "Man, I'm pooped."  The Fitbit tallies all those movements, all those steps, all that activity and then you can fill in the holes with additional exercise, like cardio, yoga or whatever it is you like.  It'll show you on a graph when you were lightly active (general walking around), fairly active (cleaning the house) and very active (running, cardio, etc.) so you can appreciate all the things you do in a day.

I love this thing, can you tell? I'll know more by the end of next week what my patterns, burn and activity level is like overall; I've only had it a few days.  But for $99, a very nicely done website and no subscription fee, the wee Fitbit kicks a lot of ass.

* Fitbit is $99. Bodybugg is currently $175 on special as of today.
** As of today, June 18, 2010. Month to month.
 bodybugg is a registered trademark of 24 Hour Fitness USA
This review is UNsponsored, UNpaid and written solely because I think the product is the cat's ass. (That's good.)

 

I give this 5 donuts.