Fitness Trackers

[razorback]

So, over the past year or so a good friend of mine and I have managed to put on a significant amount of weight. He's working towards his Master's and I went from a 5 minute commute to a 1.5+/1 hour commute.
Both being fans of Joe Rogan's podcast, they did their Sober October challenge which included a fitness portion. We are thinking of emulating this.
Both our wives will probably join along his brother, brother-in-law, and maybe a handful of other friends.

What we are looking for help with is what fitness tracker would help us emulate this.
They used the MYZONE MZ-3 Physical Activity Belt. They didn't seem 100% happy with this and we are looking for alternatives that will track activity along with an app so we can create some kind of leaderboard.

Any suggestions and/or stories about your experiences would be appreciated.

[wumpus]

My experience attempting to use a phone as a "fitness tracker/pedometer/bicycle computer" was mostly a failure.

I tried using "runkeeper", but it seems mostly built around facebook, I haven't been interested. Its other huge issue was that keeping it in my pocket appeared to hit buttons (especially the stop button) randomly. I've largely replaced it with a traditional stop watch that works much better.

If you want to keep abreast of each other, the facebook integration might be ideal (although if it were me, I'd make a custom "running razerback" facebook page just for that).

The cycling apps worked roughly as well, with switching runkeeper seeming at least as good as any else. Strava has pretty much taken over this market, and presumably works for most cyclists (I forget why it didn't impress me, possibly I wasn't supposed to keep it in my pocket).

[LordEntrails]

I've used Map My Fitness from UnderArmour just running as an app on my phone. It integrates with fitness trackers too if you want. We used it as part of my wife's work and she was part of a group at work where they could see what each other were doing. Seemed easy enough and I never had a problem with it tracking my activity (mostly biking & hiking).

[LibraryOgre]

The health plan at work provides a "Virgin Pulse Max Buzz", so that's what I've been wearing. The app that goes with it is relatively useful, though I've had occasional trouble getting the device to sync.

[gomipile]

I don't have any experience with fitness trackers. That being said, I see that The Wirecutter has a recently updated review article on them. Since that site has given me lots of good information and accurate reviews, I'm linking it here:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-fitness-trackers/

It should at least be an interesting read for you, and perhaps a good source of information on the subject.

[tomandtish]

FitBit apparently has a way people can link to each other and do challenges. I have not experimented with that functionality, so don;t know how it works or how well it works.

[Lord Torath]

FitBit apparently has a way people can link to each other and do challenges. I have not experimented with that functionality, so don;t know how it works or how well it works.My wife and daughter have "Fibbit"s as I call them, and they compete with other extended family members to get the most steps during the day, week, or over the weekend.

Just be aware that whatever fitness tracking device you use, insurance companies are interested in your results as well, and most apps can be used (possibly illegally) by third parties to track your position in real time. Suffice it to say: there are privacy concerns.

[razorback]

Thanks for the input, all.

wumpus, I don't engage in any social media at any level, so the FB wouldn't work but I might consider opening an account for this. Maybe.

LordEntrails, the Myzone looks to intergrate with the Underarmor app. The others we are considering are all seem to be compatible.

Mark Hall, looking online, it seems to be a common complaint with them. Coupled with Lord Torath's warning, I still might see if my insurance company offers anything. As I'm switching to Kaiser at the begining of the year, I'll have to see if either does and jump on it if I need to.

gomipile, I read through that plus some others (Wareable, PCmag, Digital Trends, etc). Ease of use and the ability to compete against each other is probably of most importance, so we may continue to dig.

tomandtish, the only issue I see is the youngest of us, and most in shape, is a Kineseology major who works at a gym, so the Myzone's 'golf handicap' has a lot of appeal to those of us with guts (the kind that hangs over my belt, not the kind that makes you jump into a fire to save someone).


Lord Torath, duly noted.

[Tvtyrant]

Make and share a discord or google doc for it. Discord is basically the old AIM or IRC channels but it saves everything, google docs you just make a spreadsheet and people can update their stats as time progresses.

[razorback]

Might try Discord. Threw the idea of using Googledocs to the groups but, knowing these bastiches, its better if it was automated (though I imagine there are work arounds for this.).

[Gullintanni]

My fiancee and I both use the Fitbit Charge 3. The app UI is okay, but the web UI is exceptional in terms of stats management. And I mean it really is exceptional. They spent a lot of time here. Formatting, and display, charts, etc -- are easy to find, access and browse. Historical data is easily accessed and the device provides weekly summaries of your activity via e-mail automatically. It maintains records of heart rate, steps taken, distance traveled and calories burned.

It also automatically detects prolonged periods of activity and attempts to categorise them for you. For example, if you go for a 30 minute run, the device will automatically detect that you've started running, and it'll log the workout. This functionality isn't perfect, and the device isn't smart enough to detect whether a workout is weightlifting vs. rock-climbing, for example, but I still find it useful.

The web app has a leaderboard built into it, and linking with your friends is easy through the web UI. The battery lasts for roughly a week and charges from 15 to 75% in about half an hour through a powered USB port. I image it'd be faster through a proper receptacle. The device is also waterproof.

I'm very impressed with mine for the most part. The biggest gripe I have is that about once a month it'll de-sync with my phone, and I'll to manually re-sync, which takes a while if I don't notice it for a few days as it has to push a larger backlog of data to the app. That said, the software updates they've pushed to the device lately seemed to have improve the reliability of the connection.

I can't speak to the privacy issues. If you aren't comfortable being monitored by nebulous, possibly nefarious vaguely defined entities, then the reality is that the internet is probably not a safe pass time.

It's a good buy and a great tool if you're interested in building habits, setting goals, and using the data to build on your successes. :smallsmile:

Oh! But if you go that route, buy a band with a magnetic fastening system. Amazon sells them for about 10-15 bucks. They provide a much more comfortable fit than the default bands.

[razorback]

I ended up with the the Charge 3 for me, my son and my wife. My buddy and his wife went with the Ionic and another friend went with Versa.
Yes, the dashboard works well. I just need to get my butt in gear as I'm in last and my wife is in first in the challenges. Our February 1st challenge is first to the virtual top of Mt Everest, which we are calling 58,070 stairs.
I've only had the sync issue once. Putting it on the charger seemed to clear it up, even though it was above 50%.
Haven't had any issues with the bands but I'll check 'em out. Thanks.

[Gullintanni]

Nice! That's awesome!

My fiancee and I are big into stats, so the devices have really started changing our habits. We learned that half an hour of walking is between 3000 and 4000 steps and we both get between 6k and 10k at work every day so we've started walking a bunch more to try and min/max our steps.

I hope they work out well for you :smallsmile: