Everyone these days seems to have a FitBit or a similar device to help them count their steps, count the number of stairs they climb, monitor their sleep, or whatever. Fitbit seems to be leading the pack among the people who I know and I have one on my wrist most days as well. My husband keeps his tracker on his wallet in his pocket. Both seem to work fairly well on counting the steps but there are definitely some bugs in the counting.
I went to the wrist one after losing the clip-on type twice. I prefer the clip-on because it counts stairs and the wrist one does not. Also, should you forget to wear it on a day when you are particularly busy walking about places, you're just out of luck. You can add your steps for an additional workout but it won't show up in the "comparison with friends" charts which is great fun to see what you are doing versus your friends with the same devices. And I have yet to find a way to input stairs climbed without the clip-on Fitbit.
This past weekend, my husband and I were together 72 hours, walking the same places, stopping the same times, stopping in the same places, walking basically almost exactly the same and yet I had over 2000 additional steps over his recorded Fitbit. Wow, I must have danced my way to the toilet the one time I went in a public place because it certainly wasn't 1000 steps to walk through the door and into a stall and back out again! amazing. I have also discovered that some of my crafts tend to add additional steps. When I am hammering some jewellery, each swing of the hammer gets me an additional step. isn't that amazing that I could go 10,000 steps in a day when I have only walked downstairs, around the house, and out to my workshop and back. That one particularly irritates my hubby when I have so many more steps than he does in a week yet I haven't gone anywhere.
I was less than impressed with the sleep function. I had tried it on my previous Fitbit and it was rather ridiculous in its estimation of my sleep patterns. On the nights when I slept only on my back because I had a cat on top of me, I got a full 7 hours of sleep without waking once. Amazing since I got up to go to the bathroom twice and repositioned the cat about 4 times. And on the nights when I didn't have a cat on top of me and was able to turn over several times, I would "wake" about 76 times during the night. So I am either totally rested or totally screwed. I gave up on the sleep function.
So with everyone using their Fitbits to stay in shape, to make their goals, to track their sleep and to monitor their calories, I just have a OMG, do you really believe it is so accurate as to build your health and welfare and life around its software and counting? I wear mine because it is just fun to see how far I've gone in a day. It is not my physical fitness guru. It's just a tool to be used with common sense. yep, common sense.
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