Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Does polar have a wristband with built-in HR monitor?

Microsoft just released one for $200 - http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-band/en-us

While I can't prove the non-existence of something, it seems that all Polar monitors rely on a chest-strap (including the Polar Loop).

I'm turning into a luddite! Having my heart rate monitored from my wrist would be cool, but I don't want all the other stuff.

That said, Microsoft looks like it's doing better than the Apple Watch "fitness" at $200 vs $349. Though the FitBit Charge HR looks like it'll be the cheapest option at $150.

I've been using a fitbit for 2 years now...started with the Ultra and now have the One. The biggest risk with the clip on versions is losing them or washing them in the laundry. The Ultra fell off frequently and was finally lost. The One design is better made but still comes off sometimes. I think the motivaion aspect is worth the risk, but its something to be aware of. You will likely lose it or wash it before it breaks.

I got a flex now and I'm sorry to say that ... yeah it's quite motivating to be tracked by an app rather than simply writing activities down on paper. Personally I'm gunning for calories and I can definitely see (in the mirror) a difference. Individual results might vary though.

DW bought the aria scale (I think I mentioned that above) and I personally don't find that very enlightening. In particular, the estimate of bf% is only semi-accurate and it depends a lot on hydration (with 1-2%). Your mirror is still your best friend when it comes to bf%. Then again, I'm gunning for the margins rather than trying to lose a bunch of pounds.

If anyone wants to compete, send me your details via PM and I'll add you to my friends list.

Agree with Jacob on basically everything... GF has Fibit and it seems like a glorified pedometer... "Steps" seems like a poor unit to me, I prefer km/miles. I actually enjoy guessing distances, and checking them on a program like GoogleEarth. Looks tedious entering food items in Fitbit, and does nothing to encourage consumption of quality food and do quality, higher intensity exercise. A watch, or smart watch, <$100 with heart rate monitor might make me jump, however.

I've had my Fitbit One for a year now and I actually find the competition really motivating. Walking is a main form of exercise for me, so the miles do add up. For a higher-impact workout, I can go running with the FitBit or enter a HIIT workout on the app. I don't bother entering food, but do track my sleep (or lack thereof).

In case anyone is curious, here's a teardown of the One on iFixit. If anyone wants to compete, feel free to PM.

@JohhnyH - It tracks steps, calories, and/or miles (or clicks) based on step*step length---user selectable. The primary value is in the automatic tracking and the competitive environment. You can enter food manually, but it's a hassle and there's no competition. Ditto exercises other than step related. The new versions measure heart rate as well but they're significantly more expensive.

I recently got talked/talked myself into trialthlon training which involves some steps + I'm obsessively competitive, so it works for me (encouraging). Were I to do just lifting and biking, it wouldn't be very useful [to me].

Do you guys have the Fitbits with sleep tracking? How well does it work?

(I was talking bicycle racing with Robbie Ventura about 5 years ago*, and one of the things he emphasized heavily was sleep quality and duration. This was back before Fitbits and such, and he had some dedicated devices that had his athletes using to gather their sleep data for analysis. Interesting stuff!

*Well, I wasn't talking to him myself very long - it was mostly a group discussion

It seems quite crude. After all it can only measure how erratic your wrist movements are. It counts one erratic movement over a short interval as "restless" and several such movements as "awake". It then tallies them and shows you at what time these "restless" and "awake" periods occurred. This agrees with when it happened. It's a somewhat precise measurement.

You get a 30 day count and a 1 week day by day indication of exactly when they occurred.

Mine occurs at 2-3 hour intervals which corresponds to REM sleep. If i drink coffee after noon, I get more of them. Hence, there's some feedback there. I don't find it that useful but that might be mainly because I don't overly care about the accuracy that's delivered.

Ahh thanks. I'm not sure, but I think more complicated sleep tracking devices are measuring other things as well. (not sure what.. heart rate at least, and probably some other things.? )

https://www.fitbit.com/group/22QL7X --- join up!

AT&T has Fitbit products 15% off right now (including the new ones) ... http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/access ... nat_a_fitb

Are any of you planning on trying an iWatch instead of a Fitbit?

http://codenameinsight.blogspot.com/201 ... niors.html

Interesting use for old fitbits...

"A friend of mine has found an ingenious use for his old fitness tracker. He was worried about his 90 year old mother who still lives by herself a few states away and he came up with the idea to give her his old FitBit that he wasn’t using. He was concerned that, aside from calling her each morning, there would be no way to tell if she fell or otherwise became incapacitated until he couldn’t reach her the next day. With her wearing the fitness tracker, he can literally log into the program on his computer that syncs with the program for her FitBit and see how much activity she is getting by the hour. Should this number unexpectedly drop, he can give her a call to make sure everything is OK. It’s a simple fix for both of them."

How does the Fitbit do tracking walking steps vs. running steps? Is it accurate?

And what if I'm using a standing desk? It looks like it won't count the steps because my arms are resting on the keyboard. Is that right?

It counts the number of steps inside one minute intervals as sorts them by light, moderate, and high activity. Moving faster than about 2.9-3mph counts as high activity. On the site you can display the exact step count in 5 minute intervals in a daily bar plot.

The step count is quite accurate. Obviously it can't know your stride length or how that changes by speed. Hence mileage count is not that accurate if you vary speeds between walking, jogging, and running.

If the fitbit is on your wrist (flex, force), your wrist must be moving. It won't if e.g. your holding a dog leash or resting it on a shopping cart or a desk or carrying a heavy bucket (in that hand). But then you just put the fitbit in your pocket (or hang it around your neck) and the problem is solved. Basically it has a Wii (nunchuk) sensor in there which tries to figure out whether you took a step based on the XYZ acceleration pattern. That pattern needs to be there.

I wonder if I could tie it to my shoelace when I'm working on the treadmill desk to make sure it counted my steps.

There are people on the interwebs wearing it around the ankle, but the official site doesn't recommend it.

The Zip and One models both are clip on style, so they would work great with a standing desk.