It's called a FitBit and you can check it out at their website: www.fitbit.com
**Just a quick disclaimer - I am in no way, shape, or form paid by FitBit for anything that I say here. I just really, really, really LOVE this little thing!!**
What is a FitBit? Some would say it's a tiny pedometer but it's oh so much more!
The actual device itself displays 4 screens of information. It tells you:
- how many steps you've taken
- how many miles you've walked (the device will estimate your stride but you can customize it - more on that later)
- how many calories you've burned for the day (yes, for the day - not just your activity - more on that later)
- how active you are in general. This one I love! It's a little flower. The more active you are, the more your flower grows! It's very cute!
Now here's where it gets AWESOME! Your online account is full of great data that you can use to manage your activity and weight loss. It gives you a real picture of how many calories you are actually burning in a day based on your movement and activity. Based on your account set up (height, current weight, gender, etc.) the device will estimate your Basal Metabolic Rate (or BMR). Your BMR is how many calories you would burn in a day just by living - heart beating, lungs breathing, etc. This does not include any activity at all. Even if you literally stayed in bed all day, you would still burn some calories just to carry out basic body functions. The FitBit then adds what ever activity you do complete in a day to your BMR and gives you your total calorie burn for the whole day.
Let's say that you do an hour of really intense yoga. Anyone who's done some serious yoga can tell you that it can be quite the work out! You can totally burn some serious calories with that activity. But, you're not stepping around much so your FitBit doesn't account for much activity in that hour. No problem! They have an activity data base (or you can create your own activities) that will over ride your recorded data with the correct calorie burn for that time frame. And even if you are doing an activity that does record serious steps (like Zumba, for example) you can still manually over ride the amount of calories recorded for that activity if you're wearing a heart rate monitor or something like that.
There is also an odometer function for walks and runs. Just hold down the button on the device until you see "START" and then start your walk or run! When you are finished, hold the button until you see "STOP". Then, when your device syncs with the base station, you'll be able to see the stats just for that walk/run. It will tell you how many miles, how many steps, your average speed, and how many calories burned.
It also had a great food database and a food diary - so you can record how many calories you eat in a day. Yes, I follow the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program, but a Point can vary in actual calories so I find this helpful in making sure that I am not eating more calories than I am burning. After all, weight management (whether losing or maintaining) is a simple formula: calories in vs. calories out. So I do double track my food, both in PointsPlus and in calories.
The website also gives you amazing graphs and charts that help you see very clearly how much of your day is spent in light, moderate or high activity vs. sedentary.
All of this data is FREE! That's right. Unlike other devices, like the BodyBugg, FitBit does not charge you for anything other than the device itself. (They do offer a premium service for $50 per year that gives you even more data, charts and graphs, but you do not have to subscribe to it. I did because I'm a math geek and I like numbers and charts, but that's just me!)
Finally this device will track your sleep. Yup. Your sleep! It comes with a wristband that you can wear at night. Just hold the button until you see "START" when you get into bed. The FitBit will record how long it took you to fall asleep as well as how many times you woke up during the night. (This is all based on movement so it is possible to be awake but very still and the device may think you're asleep - or you may roll in your sleep unconsciously and the device may record an "awake" moment even though you're not really awake for it). When you wake up, you hold the button until you see "STOP". When you sync your device, it will show you a graph of your sleep vs. wake time PLUS it will calculate how many minutes you were in bed vs. actually asleep so you can see how much sleep time you really get in a night!
Is this not the coolest gadget ever? Plus, unlike other devices, it's VERY small and discrete. You can wear it in your pocket (it works on an accelerometer like an iPhone so it doesn't need to remain upright or anything like that) or - for the ladies - you can even wear it on your bra strap. The only problem with it's size is that it could be easy to lose. But I've had mine for about 18 months and I haven't lost it yet!
So that's my review of the FitBit. It was a little pricy for a pedometer, but as you can see it does SO much more! I think it's worth the price I paid! Definitely check it out! www.fitbit.com
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