Fitbit or similar - could it be of use? and how?

[Sushi]

Personally I prefer a Polar model with a chest strap as the HR function is more accurate--and that is very important to me. Mine also has most of the features of the Fitbit.

 

[Arc]

I bought a Fitbit One in the end that clips onto a pocket and counts steps (not brilliantly accurately) and floors climbed (generally good, but sometimes counts hills on my mobility scooter as multiple flights of stairs.

It's biggest use so far has been showing me I wasn't that much less active on a bad day. When my pain is bad I find it hard to settle, but I hadn't realised how much I kept moving, not constantly by any means but not being able to sit for as long as I normally do ie sit for five minutes, pace a bit, sit, etc (though I rest more too). So I deliberately throttled back, which was a big help.

 

[PracticingAcceptance]

Thanks for this thread I was thinking about buying a fitbit.

I have had a mi band 2 for about a year. It's quite inaccurate - but it seems a fitbit would be too. It records me being still in bed as sleep, and I often have to try twice to get an accurate heart rate reading.

It was annoying to try to extract the data, but we got there in the end. Also it would take a lot of work to try to weed out the inaccuracies in the data... might be impossible to do retrospectively.

I could see though that generally I am doing well to keep under the heart rate recommendation to stay within my energy envelope - at least when I have thought to measure my heart rate (it's not automatic).

I also know that my resting heart rate is higher now than it was when I got the mi band a year ago. It's hard to see that from the data, but I remember what it used to be on average. Sometimes it was less than 60bpm. Now it's more like 70bpm. I put this down to becoming less fit as I've been increasingly less able to walk. So, that's a useful bit of info.

And it's depressingly obvious how much less I'm able to walk this year.

I think it would become worth it to me to buy a fitbit if/when I start being able to increase my energy spend. It would be nice to have step targets to keep to. Right now it seems like most days are the same so I don't feel the need to watch more closely to even out my energy.

I'd buy a fitbit because it would be an upgrade from the mi band, where the data is hard to extract. Plus the strap is already cracked from one year of use.