Almost three years ago I decided I wanted to get in shape. I’ve been overweight since around sixth grade (or at least that was the first time one of my classmates called me “fat”) and grew up with overweight parents. But in 2010, my dad had hip surgery and lost over 100 pounds (kept it off) and I suddenly felt self conscious in front of my dad, who no longer ate carbs or sugars. It took me another year, until November 2011 to decide to get off my ass, quit feeling self conscious and wearing baggy clothes, sucking in my gut, wearing sweaters in the summer; quit wishing I was thinner, and actually work toward it.
I started with counting calories. I downloaded the app MyFitnessPal and immediately saw results. Just by moderation (something I was never taught), the pounds started to come off; even faster when I started to exercise regularly. I was motivated! Almost three years later, I’m down 50+ pounds at about 130 — a healthy weight. I still want to lose five pounds (to hit my “goal”), but I’m very happy where I am. My doctors are happy, I’m happy. Everyone is happy.
Fitbit Flex in orange band. Look! A PennyCat cameo!
Connectivity 10/10
I love, love, love how interactive Fitbit is with other fitness apps. For people like me who seriously love a phone full of apps, Fitbit is conscious of these users. I use Runkeeper and Gympact and a few other to keep on myself, but none more than my beloved MyFitnessPal. MyFitnessPal and Fitbit work together perfectly. While I enter in all of my food eaten and swimming completed during the day, Fitbit calculates how many extra calories I’ve burned throughout the day on top of my regular burns. Like today’s diary entry (don’t worry, I’m not done eating for the day!) shows, I’ve got about 1,000 extra calories to nom on because of how active I’ve been.
For me, this is a serious motivation. Not because I want to eat 1,000 extra calories (I don’t), but because I just want to see how many extra calories I can get. These two apps work fantastic together, and for what it’s worth, they’re really easy to set up. It makes counting calories and looking at a life of dieting and moderation a little more bearable because it adds something fun to the mix. I highly recommend both of these together.
Use 9/10
Flex is nice and easy to use. A wristband you put on and it does all the work. The sensor is inside the band. Unlike the One or the Ultra, there’s no physical display but five little LED lights that light up to show progress. For every 20% of the goal completed a light comes on, and with a double tap to the band, you can see your progress. Once you hit your goal (10,000 is the standard, set goal, though it’s adjustable), the band vibrates and does a little dance on your wrist to let you know how awesome you are.
Fitbit Flex with all the lights blazing. Hit my goal!
Flex is great for motivation, too, because the social aspect makes you want to be better than everyone else around you. For me and my mom, we’re constantly fighting over first place in the rankings. Yes, I’m competitive, but I think this is a pretty good motivational tool for anyone who needs a hand in keeping up with things.
I notice that there are a few things I have to be careful of. In some hand positions, the Flex doesn’t seem to register steps. For example, my hand around upper waist level while walking doesn’t count steps. If I’m pushing a shopping cart, it doesn’t count steps (today in Costco, for instance). So it means that sometimes, I have to be really conscious of where my hand is if I want my steps to count. On the other hand, sometimes if I flail my arms around while sitting (the other week I realized it does it while wrapping yarn) it’ll count steps even though I’m not taking any. So, maybe it all evens out — the ones I take that aren’t counted are counted when I’m sitting, flailing. Maybe I’m just picky because I spent a year with the Fitbit being attached to my waist, which was very accurate, and this is just an adjustment. Overall, it’s something I can live with.
So if the Flex is so great, why the missing a point? Because I’m a swimmer. The main reason I upgraded from the Ultra to the Flex was in hopes that the Flex (which is waterproof) would count some sort of steppage while I’m in the pool for over an hour. Not so. In over an hour, I got about 96 steps. Ouch. It’s a bummer that the bulk of my daily workout doesn’t count at all towards steps. Yes, it counts towards calories and minutes active, but I wish that it would take into consideration all hard work I do with my legs and body while I’m in the pool kicking ass. I hope with their next product, they’ll take swimmers into account and let some of that hard work I do count toward my daily steps.
App/Dashboard 9/10
The app for Fitbit is unfortunately pretty basic. Considering how much this product does and how interactive it is, I’d expect a fairly complicated app that gives you a lot of cool information. Not so. It’s pretty basic — steps, calories burned, distance traveled, weight, friends, etc. It’s not too bad, but I think there’s a lot more that could be done to help the app help the awesomeness of the overall product.
The dashboard is a little different. It actually is pretty cool. Fitbit just updated their dashboard and it’s a lot better than it was before, in my opinion. Since I’m a sucker for graphs and charts, I really like how Fitbit shows all of the activity. Graphs to show how you’ve done throughout the day, little circles that move depending on your activity and progress throughout the day. Also a leaderboard with friends that shows who’s beating who and the rankings for the day. It’s a nice visual feature for a fitness tool.
Comfort 10/10
Flex is comfortable. Period. I was worried about wearing a band 24/7 but it doesn’t bother me at all, even when I sleep. The band looks uncomfortable in pictures with the bump from the sensor inside the band, but it’s not. I think the Flex is also socially comfortable, too, as stupid as that sounds, but it’s nice to be able to change out colors so you can match it to whatever you’re wearing. I was also a little worried about people constantly asking “what is that?” but I’ve only had one query so far and it was from my childhood best friend. I’m assuming everyone else just thinks it’s a watch. Fine by me.
OVERALL RATING 9/10. I love my Flex. I do. I love that it’s comfortable, that it motivates me, that it works with my other apps. I just wish it would count my swimming, which is really my only complaint with the entire thing. Customer support is very good with their users — I’ve had accessories break and Fitbit send me replacements for free, and I’ve heard multiple stories of people breaking, losing or damaging their Fitbit and the company replacing the product at no cost. It’s great. I think it’s great for anyone who wants to keep consistent with their workout, have motivation to be more active, or stay on top of their new lifestyle. Well done, Flex!
The Woman Sconed 