Last year for my birthday, P gave me a fitbit Ultra (now known as One), which is essentially a fancy pedometer – it tracks your steps, flights of stairs climbed, hours slept, and calories burned. My fitbit & I lived happily ever after for the next 7 months, until I accidentally put it through the washing machine. And then the dryer. So we took some time apart to re-evaluate our relationship. In the end, I decided that while I had truly valued our time together, I needed to see what else was out there. I spent a few weeks looking at other similar devices before settling on the Body Media FIT LINK after reading Cely’s musings here.

fitbit

The good:

  • Easy to use.. Just clip it onto the front of your bra, the neck of your shirt, a pocket, etc. and forget about it. (Except don’t actually forget about it – that’s how fitbits end up in the wash!)
  • Simple tracking/syncing. The fitbit uses bluetooth to wirelessly sync with its base station when you’re stationary within 15 feet. Could they have made this any more idiot-proof?
  • Just enough information. It tracks good range of data points without being overwhelming. It also does neat things like adjust your calorie goal based on how many calories you typically burn.
  • Fantastic customer service. fitbit replaced the tracker that I put through the wash with no questions asked.

The bad:

  • Iffy sensitivity. On more than one day, I had been in the car for long periods of time and the fitbit thought I had been walking. Womp womp. Similarly, fitbit didn’t ever consider my bike riding to be strenuous exercise even though it was.
  • Not terribly durable. P bought himself a fitbit at the same time that he bought mine, but his only made it a month or two before breaking.

Body Media FIT LINK armband

The good:

  • More accurate. Because the FIT LINK has sensors that are in contact with your skin, you get fewer “fake steps,” like with fitbit.
  • Simple set up & syncing. Just plug it into your computer with the USB cord and it’ll automatically direct you to your latest stats. You can also pair the FIT LINK with your smartphone and sync it via bluetooth when you’re out and about.
  • Customizable. You can buy pretty skins for the FIT LINK so it matches your personality or outfit!
  • TONS of data. Did you see Cely’s graphs!? Those were what sold me.

The bad:

  • It’s an ARMBAND. I didn’t think this would bother me as much as it does – it presses into me if I sleep on my side or wear a shirt with tighter sleeves and you’re only supposed to wear it for 23 hours out of the day.

Overall – I prefer the fitbit and will probably be buying a One once my online spending freeze is over. The FIT LINK is a great product, but it doesn’t work as well for me as fitbit does. If I’d purchased them in the reverse order – FIT LINK first, fitbit second – my opinion might be different, but I was spoiled by the ease-of-use of fitbit and the FIT LINK never really stood a chance.

Do you use an activity tracker or pedometer? If so, which one? Do you like it?