Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband, Slate, Small/Large

SUMMARY: This device will not do anything for you, but it will help you make good decisions about what you need to do yourself. Fitness is hard work. If I had to sum up what this device is doing for me, it is this. It is keeping me utterly honest about everything. I cannot lie to myself about how many calories I'm burning. It won't let me. Just knowing there is a record motivates me to make sure it is a good one. It's the same effect one gets if they know they are being graded.  ****** THE LONG VERSION I have been using the fitbit flex for five days now and I have fewer pounds and great fitting pants already, so it would be hard to regret my purchase. I went ahead and set my fitbit up to integrate with MyFitnessPal as soon as I set it up, so I have no idea how it works without it. Setting it up was a breeze. Go here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/fitbit and follow the instructions. Once it is set up it gives you a warning that you should only enter your food on MFP to avoid double entries. I have entered everything I eat on MFP, and the info magically finds it's way to my fitbit dashboard, and there have been no problems whatsoever. Entering exercise is a little more complicated. Once you've done the integration, your MFP exercise entries will require one extra step--the start time of your exercise. My entries consist mostly of running and swimming. Technically, I don't need to enter the runs, since the pedometer takes care of them just fine, but when I do enter a run, the two apps manage it well. MFP gives the start time and duration of the run to fitbit, and fitbit takes that info and does some calculations that take the pedometer data into account, and comes up with a number of calories burned. I have run into one snag...if I edit the start time of my entry in MFP after I've already logged it, it causes the exercise to log twice on fitbit and I have to go into fitbit and manually remove the double entry. Sometimes I'm lazy and I don't enter the runs in MFP and I just let fitbit use the pedometer data exclusively....I've not taken a close enough look at the difference to comment on it, but it seems to work well either way as far as calorie counting. I just prefer knowing the speed and duration of specific intervals and that data is lost if I don't enter it into MFP. I take the flex off when I swim laps, since I have a watch that counts my laps and distances for me and wearing both would be cumbersome. I enter my swims manually into MFP, and fitbit automatically calculates it all. I've had no problems. You'll have a new thing in your MFP display too. Your exercise log will have a "fitbit calorie adjustment" entry. For whatever reason, fitbit lets me eat just a little less than fitness pal does, so the math is obviously a little different on the two programs. If you are tall and have abnormally long legs like me, you may have to adjust fitbit's default stride settings. Their website can tell you how. The biggest lifestyle change for me has been brought about by the in-your-face awareness of just how sedentary sitting at a computer is. On days when I work at my desk, 6PM rolls around and I've only got maybe 500 steps logged. I'll hit the gym to do my 3 mile jog, and still be no where near the 10 thousand step goal that is the default setting for the fitbit, so I end up walking on the treadmill until I get there. I find myself going on long walks after my swim too. Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't stand to go to bed without meeting my step goals first, even if I've logged a long swim, but whatever the reasons, it is working, and fast. I am losing weight again after stalling out for quite a while. I mentioned only having 500 steps after a day at my desk. Yesterday I had my first day away from my desk...shopping, a little yardwork, housework, just getting all the little things that need done around the house...at 5pm I had logged 8000 steps and was almost to my goal. I mention this because I think this is what makes the fitbit worthwhile. It quantifies how sedentary your life is on a given day and then tells you exactly what you need to do to make up for it. And I know, if you are a desk worker like me, that 10,000 steps is going to seem a bit ridiculous after a day at the office, but trust me, if you can make yourself make up for it, you will be blown away by the results. I hesitate to put the numbers down for my weight loss over the last 5 days, because I have frankly lost weight faster than I should and I don't want to invite trolls or create unrealistic expectations...everyone is different. I am eating more than 2000 calories a day (within the recommendations of the app set at medium plan intensity), I'm not starving myself, and yes, my legs were pretty tired the first few days, but I promise, I feel great. I'll be at my goal of 145 in a couple of weeks at this rate. The fitbit didn't lose that weight for me...I worked my butt off all by myself, but fitbit helped me figure out what I needed to be doing. **** I know this review is getting long, but I wanted to mention a couple of other things. I LOVE the sleep monitoring. I have random bouts of insomnia, and I sometimes wake up repeatedly all night, and this thing has done a brilliant job of measuring how much time I've actually spent sleeping vs. how much time I've been in bed. And that number of hours of actual sleep correlates almost perfectly to how I feel, mentally, through the day. The default sensitivity is perfect for me...though I have seen it isn't so much for other people. It is easy to turn it on for naps too. Just tap it five times when you lay down, and again when you get up. You can fix it manually in the website if you forget...it will still have the movement data regardless of whether you tap it or not, it just needs to know when you were sleeping to fix it all. It accidentally goes into sleep mode here and there...once when I was using a hammer drill, once when I was using a hammer, and once when I was shaking a bottle of cat antibiotics to mix it, but when that happens, you know because it vibrates, and if you tap it five times right away to bring it out of sleep mode, it won't mess up your data.

**********Still IN LOVE with this Fitbit! I have had no problem with it becoming loose or falling off, the charge lasts for daaayyyysss! I am moving more than ever! Down 5 pounds toward my goal weight!!!!! Get moving! : ) 1 WEEK TODAY!!!! I am in LOVE with this Fitbit. I had wondered why I was gaining weight. . .easy answer. . .I eat more than I move! Now, this may seem a no brainer. . .but with an office job, I did not realize how much I was not moving and what poor choices of food I was choosing to eat quickly. This fitbit is a motivator for me. . .constant reminder to get up and move. . .to make smarter choices with my food. I like that it encourages me to compete with me for my physical well being. And, I can now connect to my friends on FB who are also Fitbit addicts. . .I have nothing negative to say about this. The band is comfortable. . .when you put it on listen for the clicks and it is secure. . .my band has not fallen loose much less fallen off. . .secure all day. I love Fitbit! *********Weekend update: I found I do not have to set my flex for when I am about to sleep, it monitors it on its own. ' I was pleasantly surprised about how much I walked just during everyday cleaning, but was surprised that "active minutes" never registered anything. But, today after going outside to walk and pick up downed limbs around my land I was surprised when I checked my app and already had 27 active minutes, so it definitely picks up when your walking includes more effort. I know you are supposed to be able to shower with it on, but for now I am afraid to lol. I have took it on and off with no assistance and have had NO problems with it falling off and it continues to get more comfortable. I am purposefully drinking more water so I can log it and eating less so I don't have to log it '. Also, it makes me want to keep moving so I can beat my day before. However so far can still not connect to fb to challenge my friends, this is apparently an issue for many right now. Will update again soon! ******************************************************************* I received my Fitbit flex yesterday. I chose the slate color thinking it would blend in nicely with the outfits I choose for work. I also chose the flex because of the price, until I see what I do with it and how useful I find it. I may choose to stick with the flex or upgrade depending on my experience. The packaging was great. It comes with two bands, a small and a large. The actual "brain" is in the large but slips easily into the small. I watched one of many YouTube videos to have a heads up on how to begin. I immediately put the "brain" part into the charger, included, and plugged it in with the dock from my iPhone. It reached 60% within minutes and that is all you need to begin. I downloaded the Fitbit app on my IPhone 6s and it literally walked me through step by step on how to get it set up and going. Setup was a breeze. I quickly put it on my arm, with my daughters help. The band was a little hard to get on by myself, but I did snap it and unsnap it several times before I put it in to loosen it up. Also the clasp was on the large band but it switched right over to the small easily. I walked around the house doing regular chores, checked my app and was pleased to see it was indeed counting my steps and calories burned. I decided to play with it more and went to the calories part. How easily it was to add in my food intake for the day, and it recognized each food I put in, I did not even need instructions to do this, just minutes to sit down and play with it. I was not happy to see how many calories I had actually consumed while hurriedly eating at work '. I do think this is going to make me more aware and hopefully for that I will make better choices, if I can commit to being faithful to this, we will see. I did wear it to bed and whenever I woke up I was aware that it was on my arm. I may loosen it or just see if over time I don't notice it at night, it is very comfortable when I am up and moving. I did forget to let it know I was going to bed so it did not monitor my sleep, this morning it did say I got 8.5 hours asleep, but I am not sure where that info came from. But, I did go to bed close to 10pm and was up a few minutes after 6:00 am since it is Saturday, so I'm not sure yet how the sleep part works, gonna figure that out today. I am going to consume more water just so I can add it in to my log '. And, already this morning after about an hour of housework I am surprised how many steps I have taken. So far I am excited, pleased and ready to see what I can do with Fitbit as my motivator. I will update again in a week.

Its not worth the buy ! . I purchased it with lot of expectations .. 1) It looks good though not very good .. 2) It shows progress but only on tapping . 3) Every time you want to see your figures steps taken etc , you have to log to your computer or mobile and the sync device has to be near by otherwise you cant see the stats . 4) I have doubts on the calibration of steps taken as I walk in a park which is 3.1 km even after walking one full round it shows that you have not completed one mile ..it is absurd ..... Yes it does not calculate steps while driving ..that's a good thing .. rest its a waste of money ......I think and strongly recommend Samsung Watch or Basis

J'ai acheté une fitbit afin d'avoir un meilleur suivi de mes pas mais aussi pour me motiver à bouger plus. Mise a part la syncronisation qui n'est pas toujours facile à obtenir( même avec le meilleur port USB de l'ordinateur), je la trouvait parfaite et motivante. L'application fitbit est vraiment bien fait, c'est en partie grâce a elle si j'ai réussi a mieux gerer mon alimentation et mon poids. Tout allait bien jusqu'à ce que viennent des journées ou j'avais de la misère à atteindre mon objectif quotidien de 10 000 pas. Mon rythme de marche n'avais pas changé et mon trajet ne faisait que s'allonger de jour en jour. Je devais toujours marche plus pour obtenir le même résultat que la veille. Il y a des moment dans la journée ou la fiabilité était présente et d'autre fois non (batterie plein et à moitié chargée). J'ai joint des images du résulats d'un même trajet de 1.1 km, afin de vous donner une idée de quoi cela l'air. Pour un 7.5 km, il arrive qu'elle m'indique seulement 5,5 km. Récement la montre commence aussi à me mettre en sommeil alors que je suis reveillée depuis plus de 5h00. Bref, cette montre n'est pas fait pour les gens qui marchent rapidement (au-delà de 6km/h). Étant donné que le vendeur ne l'avait plus en stock, j'ai obtenu un remboursement plutôt qu'un échange.

I compared the FitBit Ultra, BASIS Wristband and FitBit Flex I bought two of each to help rule out Duds or Lemons The Fitbit Ultra is what I have used the longest, and it has been tough and reliable for two years straight (but it is no longer manufactured). It took awhile for the barometer to kick in when I first got them. I was about to ask for an RMA when they finally started showing "stairs climbed," so if the new model, the FitBit One, is similar ... then I encourage you to be patient and give it a week to get going at full functionality. Pedometer mode: Ultra is very accurate as a Step Counter, Climbed Elevation Recorder and distance recorder; it is more accurate than the BASIS Band or the FitBit Flex BASIS Band is not consistently reliable, it often fails to register any steps for hours at a time. When it is working it works well, but it has no barometer, so does not record Elevation. Flex is not accurate as a step counter (mine over-counts by 20 to 25%) but is very consistent and it is a very accurate calorie counter. Flex has no Elevation sensor. Barometer mode: The Ultra is generally accurate, but changeable weather can cause misreadings. BASIS Band does not record elevation FitBit Flex does not record elevation Calorie estimator mode: Ultra ... generally accurate. BASIS Band when the pedometer is working, it is accurate here too. FitBit Flex ... generally accurate. Heart Rate monitor mode: Ultra does not record heart data: so "not available." BASIS Band does not have the high reliability/sensitivity level of a true medical device, but when it is showing heart data, it is very accurate FitBit Flex does not record heart data: so "not available." Skin Temperature monitor mode: Ultra Skin Temperature data not measured. BASIS Band does not have the high reliability/sensitivity level of a true medical device, but when it is showing Skin Temperature data, it is very accurate FitBit Flex Skin Temperature data not measured. Sleep sensor & analysis mode: Ultra needs to be placed in a wrist harness at night, then manually recorded via the software input editor the following day. Analysis is graphed automaticly. BASIS Band auto records sleep. Analysis is graphed automaticly. FitBit Flex can be told via tap-code to automate the sleep session record, or manually recorded via the software input editor the following day. Analysis is graphed automaticly. Wrist Watch mode: Ultra can display the hour/minute digitally, but is not a replacement for a watch. BASIS Band functions as a digital watch displaying date/day/hour/minute. FitBit Flex can not be used as a watch. User experience: Ultra needs to be placed in a wrist harness at night, the harness is a pain to use; the Ultra is simple and easy to use during the normal work day. BASIS Band simple to use, comfortable to wear. FitBit Flex's latch is difficult to master, otherwise the Flex is comfortable and it's simple to use. Software Fitbit software is flexible and simple to use "as is" or customized. Results are compatible with several other devices, Withings, for example, and FitBit graphics are printable. BASIS Software is not nearly so simple to setup, nor easy to use, nor is it always easy to Sync and display. BASIS is not customizable, exportable nor printable. Users may be reduced to screen captures as the permanent, viewable record of BASIS Band data. Online Customer Support: BASIS and FitBit both offer customer support, but I have had erroneous "help" advice from FitBit staffers 50% of the time, and they tend to be defensive when they are wrong rather than being willing to try again to troubleshoot issues. That is not a deal-breaker, but be warned that you may be disappointed by the FitBit support staff... Basis Support staff are much better, they make it clear the customer matters to Basis. For highly reliable fitness measuring devices I trust FitBit over BASIS, and for ease of sharing with a coach or medic, FitBit gets an "A" to BASIS's "F"; but when the kinks are worked out, BASIS will be a real training asset. FitBit cant touch BASIS, if the BASIS is working reliably. You can collect more data and paint a more complete pattern of ones' health and fitness using the BASIS; but the brittle and clumsy software interface cripples the BASIS. Buy both if you need a good sensor array right now and cost is not a problem; or wait for BASIS to get better software and more reliable sensors and just go with BASIS.