Fitbit Wireless Activity/Sleep Tracker, Black/Blue
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Fitbit vs. Bodybug

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Fitbit Vs. Bodybug

Fitbit Wireless Activity/Sleep Tracker, Black/Blue

$99.95/$81.88
I was an avid user of the bodymedia bodybug (now named the "Armband Advantage") for the past year. When it came time to renew my bodybug subscription at $9.95 a month, I did a little shopping around and opted to pay $100 for the fitbit with no subscription. Be forewarned that I can't really sing the praises of the fitbit without comparing it to the bodybug.

PROs

- LIGHTWEIGHT AND SMALL. It is MUCH easier to inconspicuously wear the fitbit than the bodybug. I'm looking forward to wearing tank tops this summer without having a conspicuous armband on. It was fine for bumming around and shopping; people would ask me about it and I didn't mind answering questions. But when it came to going out at night or attending weddings in sleeveless dresses, I was forced to leave the bodybug at home. Sometimes I'd pop it out of the armband and put it in my bra, but even that was sometimes a challenge. The fitbit easily clips on my bra with no bulges or discomfort.

- NO BEEPS OR SOUNDS. The bodybug made 3 beeps any time it made contact with your body for the first time, or if it lost contact with your body. Kinda embarrassing if you're in a quiet atmosphere.

- COMFORTABLE. Fitbit doesn't sit against your skin, so it's much more comfortable. I don't care what bodymedia says, it's not always comfortable to have a sweaty piece of plastic against your skin all day. (In their instructions they recommend you take it off for an hour a day, so no calorie tracking on the bodybugg for that time period).

- AFFORDABLE. The unit itself is about half the price of bodybugg. As for the online data, the graphs and info on fitbit.com are comparable, if not better than those on bodymedia.com; with no monthly subscription needed (saving you about $10 a month). You can buy the 'premium' fitbit access for $49 a year (still less than half the price of bodymedia.com), but I find the charts on fitbit.com are fine for my needs. Charts show activity throughout the day in 5-minute increments. The one thing that it doesn't offer is the ability to see how many calories you burned for a specific time period. Bodymedia.com allows you to drag your mouse across the graphs to hone in on certain time frames (i.e. show me the total calories burned from 3pm to 3:30pm). But you can a) add it up manually (mouse over the bars in the chart for each 5-minute increment between 3pm and 3:30pm. A popup shows the number of burned calories/steps, etc. during each 5-minute increment) or b) use the recording feature mentioned below.

- EASY TO TRACK WORKOUTS. Fitbit has a small button that is pretty much a stopwatch, but works well in tracking workouts and sleep. Press and hold the button for a few seconds to start the stopwatch/"recording" and press again to stop it. The duration of the activity will be displayed on your activity log on Fitbit.com. If it's during the day, fitbit assumes it's a workout. If it's at night, fitbit assumes it's sleeping (but you can manually change it). To make a short story long, I use this feature for my workouts and I can easily see data just for the workout session. In comparison, Bodybugg didn't have this feature. I had to take note of what time I started and stopped my workout, then use my mouse to "hone in" on that time frame in the graph in order see the calorie burn.

- WIRELESS. I love the wireless functionality. If I'm within 15 feet of my laptop, data is automatically uploaded. Bodybugg has this functionality, too, but I had the version that you have to pop out of the armband and connect via USB to your computer.

- ACCURATE. The fitbit is every bit as accurate as the bodybug. I do the elliptical machine and clip fitbit onto my sock. I've gotten good results doing this. There's a lot of hype that bodybug has "4 different sensors," but I'm not convinced that 4 are any better than the 2 in the fitbit. As far as I can tell, the bodybug only uses accelerometer data for its calcs. Anyway, the fitbit is just as accurate.

- INTERACTIVE. Love that you can personalize a message to show up on the fitbit. I also like getting weekly emails that show me my progress or congratulate me on certain achievements (10000 steps, 10 flights of stairs, etc.)

- DISPLAY IS ON THE UNIT. Unlike Bodybugg, which is kind of a 'black box' until you sync it to your computer, you can push the button on your fitbit at any time and see all the data for that day (steps, calories, miles, stairs, etc.). I found this to be very handy when it's getting towards midnight and I need to get more steps in. I just walk around my apartment, then check the display to see if I've met my goal. Also has a clock, which is nice.

CONs

- SMALL. Okay, if I HAVE to pick a con, it's that it takes some time to get in the habit of taking the fitbit off one set of clothes and putting them on another. In the beginning I'd change clothes to go out, only to later remember that my fitbit was clipped on the first outfit. I can definitely see how people have accidentally washed their fitbits. No biggy.

- NO DATA EXPORT. You can't export your data from the fitbit site unless you buy the premium access. Not a deal breaker for me (and premium access is still cheaper than bodymedia anyway).

- DAILY DATA DOESN'T RESET UNTIL YOU SYNC IT. I haven't fully tested this, but there was a 2-day period where I was traveling and unable to sync to my computer. I noticed that the data on the second day looked pretty high, so I assume it was still counting from the day before. Everything was fine in the online dashboard once I synced it. Not a big deal for me.

SUMMARY: Any pedometer or similar tool will be a great asset to any fitness program. I find myself wanting to take extra steps and take the stairs just to get "credit" for them in my daily tallies. I think fitbit is an affordable and easy tool to use. Hope this helps!

                                       - by Katrina728 "katrina7 @ 01/14/2012

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