Fitbit - Ultra Wireless Activity and Sleep Tracker - Black/Blue

This particular gadget may cause you to start competing with yourself, trying to improve your numbers and stats. Well, at least it has for me. And as far as I’m concerned, any little tool or gadget that will motivate me to make good health choices (and compete with myself to improve each day), is worth every penny. The FitBit is like a personal trainer (without the gym membership) that collects data about your daily activities, such as exercise intensity levels, calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. The collected data is automatically uploaded to your personal Fitbit website where you can track your progress towards personal goals. This little guy is small and sleek, no bigger than a blue tooth. You can place your FitBit in your pocket on your waistband, your shirt collar, etc. But I guess the most popular place for women, is right on their bra. And that’s where I put mine…..because sometimes I don’t have pockets and I don’t want it poking out on my waistband. However, if you want to clip it to your waistband, they send along a little holder that that you slide it into, which allows for thicker waistbands that may include a belt. The FitBit uses motion sensor technology (just like the Nintendo Wii remote) and measures your motion all day long. The Fitbit accurately tracks your physical activity, steps taken, distance traveled, and calories burned. It also measures your sleep quality. What? Yeah. You just slide your little FitBit onto this wrist band (which is soft and non-buggy at all) and hop in bed. Then simply hold the button down for 3 seconds, which will put the device in sleep mode. The Fitbit will track your total sleep time as well as how much movement you had while sleeping and how many times you woke up. Then it will analyze your information and give you a report of your overall sleep quality for that night. Pretty. Darn. Cool. To charge your FitBit, just place it right into the docking station (that’s connected to your computer through a USB cable) and one charge will last 10 days … and only takes 90 minutes to charge. And any time you’re within 15 feet of the docking station, your FitBit will automatically transfer your information right over to your online account. What do you do with all of this information? Well, you can track your progress, set goals for yourself, try and beat your best scores, etc. You can also see what your slow days are like, figure out why you were so sedentary that day…..and then make some changes. Okay, and you can also do a whole lot more. There’s everything you can think of on your online account, keeping you right on track. You can even access your information on your iphone or droid phones and always keep tracking. The overall goal of the Fitbit is to make you more aware of your daily activity and promote you to live a more active lifestyle. And that results in a healthier you. Pretty neat little gadget, if you ask me.

Product comes in various colors (silver and teal). Although Best Buy ads and website show it in the silver model, you will most likely receive the Teal version which is what the stores carry. The product engineering is great since it uses gyroscopes to detect your walking and/or movement (while sleeping). Clarification on Sleep Mode: The device will not automatically know when you are alseep nor can you click a button on the unit to tell it you are going to bed. You must go to the website and log in with your account indicating what the sleeping window is for any particular day. Quite frankly, if you are looking for a good sleep tracker and have an iPhone use the app called "Sleep Cycle" as it does the same thing and you do not have to program your sleep times into it... The battery life is estimated to be 10 days which is good but you still need to connect it to the cradle it comes with to charge. They could have installed a micro USB port like those of most phones out today which would allow you to charge it from the office or car with your cell phone chargers... (otherwise you have to purchase additional cradles from the manufacturer). Like others have said, the wireless synchronization feature requires your computer to be turned on, connected to a network, and logged into the Fitbit website through the application in your system tray. The unit does not work like the EyeFi cards and does not connect to Wifi networks to upload the data wirelessly - it still uses some kind of near field communication to the base station that is included. Another thing to consider is the fact that the battery is not removable or exchangeable. Therefore when the battery life does expire and no longer holds a charge, you will be holding an overpriced plastic paperclip. If you want a more feature-packed pedometer at a comparable price, go buy an iPod nano (4th gen). At least it will play music, record distance, foot steps, play videos, record videos, and charge with your traditional iPod cables, etc. Sure the iPod nano will not track your progress online, but get an old fashion notebook and write down the values yourself. This product falls short of its promises both in design and durability.

My wife and I picked up a pair of these to help us gather data to assist us in our weight loss. After having them for about a week I can say boy do they provide data! From my testing, I'd say they estimate on the high end of the scale for steps and mileage. I did 2 miles on our treadmill and it showed I did over 2 1/4. So I imagine the steps are a bit high too. However, because it so far seems consistent it gives us the data we were looking for. If I take 13,000 steps one day, and only 8,000 the next I know that I didn't do as much. If I burn 3500 calories one day, and only 2800 the next... again I know I'm slacking. So it helps me target exactly how much effort I need to put into my workout. The sleep patterns are again a bit off. Mine normally says I fall a sleep in less than 10 min's every night. However I know I am a way a lot longer than that (normally takes me 20 - 30 min's to fall a sleep). But it does tell me how much I was moving around at night, and therefor likely not getting good sleep. So while it's again not exact, it gives me consistent data that I can use. I can't rate the durability over the long run yet from personal experience, but someone I work with has had it for several months and has not experienced any issues. The batter life is awesome, it's been going 5 days now with out being recharged. I wish my cell phone would have as good of battery life. Bottom line - If your looking to either loose weight, or just trying to get in better shape, you need real data to be able to judge where you are and what your doing. This little device gives you that.

Ok, I normally don't fill out reviews on products, but I have to give my feedback on this amazing little tracker. After a year and a half of using a bulky pedometer daily and also tracking my food intake using Sparkpeople, I was ready for something better. Something that combined the step tracking, weight tracking, and food intake all in one place. I found it (and more..it also tracks the hours you sleep each night) in the Fitbit device/website. Things I love about the Fitbit: - easy to wear (works great on my bra) - beyond the steps and sleep tracking, the website also allows you to track your weight, bp readings, glucose, heart rate and even customizable tracking (like how often I eat chocolate for example) - the food intake portion is user friendly and allows you to add food if it is not already in the database. The favorite foods and meal section makes it super easy to click and add to your daily caloric intake - i love that you can compare yourself ( based on either age, gender, BMI or all 3) to others to see how you rank in steps and acitivity - the historical data tab on the home page is a great way to see your progress in graphs over time...awesome! I have recommended this tracker to several friends and co-workers... what a great system to help you stay healthy and on target. In this day and age (of fast food, drive everywhere mentality, huge portions, tv/computers etc.) we can all use a tool to help us succeed. Hats off to Fitbit for providing a tool to do just that. Yes!!

I have been amazed at the vast amount of things that this little beauty can do...it monitors the number of steps you take, flights of stairs you climb, calories you burn and gives you places to log your food, mood and more! It also monitors your sleep! It's like a few of the products I have used so far, all wrapped up into one! Set up was a little tricky...it didn't seem to have a good flow to it, BUT I managed to get it all set up in about 15 minutes or so. Once you charge it up all you have to do is clip it on and you literally forget all about it. I wore it on one of the suggested places and didn't think about it for the rest of the day. It's very small and lightweight. Part of the set up process is setting up an online account that you sync up to occasionally, I did it daily. Above is a screen shot of my first partial day, I didn't get it put on until late in the day but it is still very interesting to see. I love seeing the number of steps taken and the number of miles traveled. I have a feeling that the pie chart will be my favorite and most disliked feature! The pie chart shows your level of various levels of activity throughout the day and the bar graph shows the times of day that you were most active. You can tell that I put the Fitbit on and did my morning workout, you can tell when I sat down to work, when I was cleaning and even when my boys were napping! At least, I can tell! It's nice to get a visual aid like this to encourage me to get off my bum, at least when I'm not sewing! Not only is this a GREAT product but I also love the format and set-up of the online account. There is room to journal a lot of what you deal with in a day, food, activity, etc. There are several goals for you to set, meet and earn online badges for. The online account is very easy to navigate and the overall feel of it is happy and calm. Another feature that I have really enjoyed is being able to take it off mid-day and click through some of the items it keeps track of, like a mid-day check in. See the little button on the top of the Fitbit? You just click on that and you can see how many calories you've burned, steps you've taken, etc. A GREAT way to help you stay on track, ramp it up, skip desert or take a break! Amazingly, I have nothing bad to share about the product. Other than my tiny snags with set up, that could very well be my fault, I am absolutely in love with this and look forward to using it to meet my health and fitness goals!

I really like the fitbit ultra. I purchased it to get an idea of my sleep habits and it turns out that it works pretty well. You don't get super in depth information, just how many times you have "woken up". Because this is based on movement, if you move a lot while sleeping, it will record you as awake at that time. Fitbit says that it uses complex algorithms to determine when you are actually awake and not, and I think that they work pretty well for myself. The number of times I am reported awake feels about right, maybe only a little high. As for the rest of it, it is basically a pedometer. The flight of stairs climbed feature is nice, but easily fooled. If you walk in place while taking an elevator up, it will record you as walking up stairs. Not the greatest, but if you are taking elevators and feel the need to trick fitbit into thinking that you are taking stairs, this probably isn't for you anyway. The user interface is nice, but the food tracking isn't the greatest, I prefer Lose It! which can conveniently export its data to the fitbit dashboard. I really appreciate the clock that is there, now I no longer need to bring a watch with me on my runs. The battery life is excellent! The only electronic device I have where the battery life meets or exceeds what is advertised! As a side note, it doesn't really slip when running or playing sports, however it does tend shift when I am sitting at work. All in all, I really like the fitbit and I am totally satisfied. A note for new users, it will tell you how many calories you burn each day, even if you don't wear it/use it. These calories are your base metabolism and are calculated based on your height, weight, and age.

The fitbit has all the markings of a product that was rushed to market in our society's latest gadget craze. It's poorly made (just read their message board) and their software is highly buggy and unstable (also, just read their own message board.) I bought two fitbits over the course of a weekend and took both back for different reasons. The first one wouldn't charge and died, so I took it back. The second one would not sync to my Mac, which they admit they are having issues being totally Mac friendly. But, the Fitbit also didn't sync with my PC laptop. Both machines are fairly new and in good working order. The syncing is weird to say they least. Your information syncs to your profile on their website, so you have to be logged in to their site, the base station plugged in, to sync and... well in my case it just never synced. Their message boards and community pages are littered with syncing problems, and crazy "stand on your head" suggestions to get it to sync, including going into your computer's terminal, restarting multiple times, DLing unstable beta versions of their software. In the end it's not and IF it's a WHEN you won't be able to sync the unit and you're restarting your machine, going into advanced install procedures, and doing a break dance to get the thing to resync- something you'll want to do daily. There is also NO 1800 number for support; all support is done via email, where they give you a formed response to your issue, which you probably could find out in a google search. If you read about the company bio, it's a small start up in silicon valley, of apparently some out of work software engineers who had an idea, and are cashing in on ignorant consumers. I consider myself slightly above average in the tech savyness dept. and do not recommend the Fitbit. Their website does get a solid B+ in my book, and you don't really need their device to do alot of the things on it. However, If you want something like the fitbit I suggest the Body Bug, it's 150$ but you get what you pay for.

Listen. I feel like over the last six weeks or so that I have never paid so much attention to all these aspects of my fitness. I'm watching what I eat, exercising more, taking care of my skin and popping vitamins and fish oil like they're candy. I am a stranger in my own body. The good news is it's all starting to feel a little more natural and becoming part of my daily routine. I wake up in the morning and know that I need to eat breakfast even though I really don't enjoy breakfast. I carry around almonds and little bags of granola so I can have a healthy snack and eat every three hours because it's supposed to help my metabolism. I put on my running shoes so I don't have time to talk myself out of working out. I weigh myself once a week. I think about portion size. I have a watch that tells me how hard I'm working out. I've become a laboratory rat. The point is I'm doing a lot of new stuff. All at one time. And sometimes I wonder if any of it's working and if there are ways I can work harder or do more. The most recent product I received from Best Buy is the FitBit. This Fitbit Ultra FB102P wireless activity and sleep tracker measures steps taken, distance traveled, stairs climbed and calories burned for efficient monitoring of your workout progress. It also tells you when you've sat on the couch all day watching all the shows you've recorded on you DVR. And I don't like it much on those days. But it makes me aware of how much I'm moving, how well I'm sleeping, and if I need a little more physical activity. In other words, it's like a conscience you can clip onto your bra or your belt or the waistband of your shorts. And you can create a personal account at Fitbit.com to keep track of all your information and track your progress.