Fitbit – My Experience Two Years On

This review has been over two years in the making since I received it back in December 2010 just before Christmas as part of providing some motivation to get myself back into shape. At the time, the only way to get at Fitbit was to get it mail forwarded from the USA but these days you can get it in Australia from a few places including Harvey Norman.

So, just to refresh the old memory, what is a Fitbit?

Simply, it is a device that can measure your activity during the day and night. Primarily, this will be in the form of step counting but you can also track sleep time and efficiency as well as other isolated activities you want to track during the day. Later model Fitbits include the ability to count floors climbed and alternative syncing options. You also have the online aspect to keep track of your stats (including body measurements, blood pressure, etc) as well as what you eat in order to measure your energy intake and expenditure.

I guess the first thing to remember is the Fitbit by itself is not a silver bullet toward losing weight. Instead, it forms part of managing or changing your lifestyle for the better across what you eat, how much exercise you undertake and the regularity and intensity of the exercise. However, through automatic or assisted tracking of your health statistics, having a Fitbit can empower you to make better decisions as to what and how much you eat and how to tailor your exercise regime.

The original Fitbit device itself is unobtrusive enough. I prefer to keep it in the belt holder instead of clipping the Fitbit directly onto my belt so as to not snap the Fitbit due to stressing the thin joint in the middle. I figured it was more wiser to have a belt holder snap (which can be replaced) rather than breaking the Fitbit and then having to fork out another AU$120 for a new one. Battery life is also pretty good with at least two weeks before charges. Unfortunately, the original model doesn’t draw attention to itself when its battery is low and so I use the Fitbit Notifier service to fill that gap.

Anyway, you collect some intersting stats using the Fitbit (and the Fitbit Aria scale) and mine so far are:

• 4,876,051 steps (since initial activation),
• 26,483 steps (best day – 20/03/2011),
• 2,773.22km covered,
• 25.6kg lost (123kg down to 97.4kg).

I’ve still got a way to go but the Fitbit does help you keep visual track of your stats so just you don’t shrug off the fact that your belt notches have run out on the wrong end or having a false sense of your physical activity during the day. You also get weekly e-mail updates to let you know how you’re going.

At the end of the day, I do recommend the Fitbit as a great device and service but you, as an individual, need to put in the hard yards and enforce discipline in your eating and exercise habits to achieve good results.