Techy Tuesday: FitBit (Guest Post by Dana E)

Note from Cori - I don't often do guest posts (in fact, this is the first one), but when one of my oldest friends, Dana, shared her thoughts on her FitBit Ultra - I knew I had to share it with you all!  Now - I think I'm off to buy one for myself!  After a weekend of Thanksgiving indulgence, I'm sure this little device is exactly what the doctor ordered for most of us!

I had been waffling on getting one for a while when I read on Coach Calorie that a lot of people do their workout and then are sedentary the rest of the day. He basically urged his readers to concentrate more on the other 23 hours in the day. I took his words to heart and decided to get a FitBit to help motivate me to be more active throughout the day.

It's not perfect, but I LOVE it. It was a real eye-opener for me and my "desk job".

Very small!

Comes with Fitbit Ultra, USB charging base and sleep sleeve.

The Pros:

• It's small (I wear mine on my bra, and with the exception of one of my white shirts it's completely unnoticeable).
• It's easy to use.
• It is very motivating - I love the badges and that you can connect with your FitBit using friends to compete for most steps. I have found myself running around the house in the evening to get my steps up or stay within my calories for the day.
• The charge lasts forever - well, not really but mine's hardly ever on the charger.
• The charts and graphs on the online dashboard are very easy to read and helpful.
• There's no cost once you buy it - there is a paid account as well, but I'm completely satisfied with the free stuff.
• It connects with MyFitnessPal (the FitBit food database is definitely lacking) and a few other apps you might be using.
• I actually lose weight when I use it in conjunction with MyFitnessPal; I was not losing weight just counting calories.

The Cons:

• I have had it fly off a couple of times when I was horsing around with the kids - thank goodness someone has noticed every time.
• It is not a heart rate monitor - it does not track all activity (lifting weights, cycling etc) and the calorie burn is sometimes way under because it is only tracking your movement through space - I put it head to head against my Polar while doing heavy housework (mopping, scrubbing bathrooms, carrying laundry baskets) and after 2 hours it was about 200 calories under the reading on my HRM
• It is not waterproof - one of my friends wrecked hers with sweat, BUT FitBit replaced it for free :)
• Some people claim it's hard to remember to put on - I have worn mine every single day since I got it.

For me, it was definitely worth the money. I knew I wasn't moving enough throughout the day, and it really gets me moving most days.

Some shots of the dashboard:
(Just click to enlarge for detail)

About the author:  Dana Evanyshyn is a longtime friend of Cori's (like since 8th grade - though we may have had a hiatus from high school until both of us were "blessed" with twins and ended up on similar career paths).  She lives in Central Alberta with her hubby and three kids and we regularly share our twin trials and adventures in weight loss and web design.