Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ok so I promised myself I would test out the Fitbit against the several negative comments and come back and leave a review. All but ONE of the negative comments prove true. Let me start with the negative comments that proved untrue and why: Myth 1: this Fitbit doesn’t record accurate heart data, especially when working out. TRUTH: Yes it does record extremely accurately, including during workouts but you have to read the instructions!! When you workout the instructions say to tighten the strap one hole tighter than you usually wear it. Then you move the Fitbit 1-2 finger widths up from where your wrist meets your hand. After doing this I checked the Fitbit heart rate against my polar heart monitor every 5 minutes during a 45 min kickboxing workout. It was EXACTLY in tune with the polar heart rate monitor, always right on or within 5 BPM. The people who say otherwise are not following instructions or giving it a chance to figure out the best wrist placement. Myth 2: The light against your skin keeps you up at night/you can see the light as you try to sleep. TRUTH: No, you cannot see the blinking light that is against your skin. If you can then your band is way too lose. I wear it every night and never see the light blinking. I don’t even remember I’m wearing it! Myth 3: it scratches easily. TRUTH: I’ve banged mine up pretty bad and to my surprise not a scratch in sight! Okay now for the negative comment that I discovered was true: It does not track steps when you are pushing a grocery cart or stroller. Sadly, this is true. Very frustrating when you have a child and you push them around the zoo all day in a stroller to later discover your steps barely moved. I solve this by letting my husband push the cart/stroller when possible. :) But this is the biggest negative for me about this Fitbit. I just learn to let the number on the screen go on those days when I have no one to push the cart and know that day I had a lot more steps than recorded. Things I love: 1. The constant HR monitoring where you can see your heart health over time improve or get worse (in the Fitbit app) 2. The sleep monitoring - this has been so eye opening! I can’t wait to check the app in the morning to see how much deep sleep I had the night before. I now know based on my results how I’m probably going to feel that day. 3. Getting texts and calls!! It buzzes when you get a text or call and will scroll the message across the screen or show you who is calling. LOVE this feature. 4. Stays charged for a long time. 5. LOVE that it shows you total calorie burn for the day. Like the calories your body burns just by sleeping or sitting to workouts. This was the biggest reason I got this Fitbit (besides the constant HR monitoring) so I could make sure I was truly burning the calories I thought I was burning to aid in weight loss. That helped me to I know exactly how many calories to cut to lose weight. Things I wish I could change/do but in no way a deal breaker: 1. Rearrange which stat I see first when I tap my watch. 2. Be able to set it so that I can constantly see my HR when I’m working out. It gets old tapping it several times while I’m working out to find my HR. 3. I don’t trust the calorie burn calculator. It seems really low. After a kickboxing workout where my polar monitor says I burned 300 calories, the Fitbit only recorded 130 calories. I’ll keep looking into this and see if I can get something figured out. Thankfully you can add your workout in MyFitnessPal and it will sync up to the Fitbit app, including the calories you burned. 4. Would be cool to have an option to add optional stats when you click through on your wrist, such as the weather. I recommend this Fitbit if you are looking to track constant HR, sleep, total calorie burn, and get alerted to texts and calls. I have learned so much about myself and my health.