[kbell]

I now have a vivofit smart HR by Garmin. It actually syncs up with a chest strap, possibly polars to get even more accurate heart readings. You can also swim with it. My watch went wacky about a year into it. This one is more durable and has far more functions including GPS, multiple sports modes, text readback, and caller id with cancel or accept options.

[polar]

(11-28-2017 02:47 PM)Dickerstaff1 Wrote:  

(11-28-2017 02:02 PM)polar Wrote:  

If you want reliable HR mid workout, get a chest strap sensor and a watch that connects to it. I recently got one on fire sale, and I'm never going back.

Do you mind telling me how you use the HR info to optimize workouts? Do you just shoot for target HR ranges? Sorry if this is basic shit.

Correct, I track ranges when I'm doing cardio, generally aiming for anywhere between 120 to 140 (rounded to nearest 5) depending on what I feel like that day. i.e., one day I might do steady state at 120, another day at 140. You can do intervals where you go all out for 30s or 1m, then break to minimum effort until your rate goes down to 135 (the better your recovery, the more often you'll do intervals). Or I track it for reference, such as average HR when I do Tabata intervals.

I log time, calories burnt, and target HR for my cardio workouts, to track calories per minute over time. I use Excel to track and plot HR on the X axis and calories per minute on the Y axis. More output (for the same length of time, same machine, etc.) means improvement.

I don't generally log or track HR when lifting, but I might try to use it to track recovery between sets. Something like "rest until HR goes below 110." Might incorporate this, actually, now that you made me think of it.

Read this about aerobic and anaerobic / interval training: http://www.muaythaischolar.com/running-in-thailand/

[Stallion]

Do you guys wear this all day?

I'm interested to get one to improve my sleep tracking/monitoring (the sleep like android app is amazing, but with fitbit it's supposed to be even more accurate).

However I can't see myself wearing this ugly piece of chinese plastic all day. It just looks like one of those casio watches teenagers used to wear, not something a man above 20 should have on his wrist.

Is it worth it only to track sleep? And maybe also monitor stuff in the gym. I don't really know if the gym data is very useful though...



From my research I think sleep like android is way better for tracking sleep (plus you don't need to buy an extra gadget).

But fitibit is better at detecting when you wake up in the middle of the night because it knows your heart rate. So combining both you get the best of both worlds.

[villageindian]

I don't have a Fitbit but use a Garmin almost 24/7 and can offer my view.

It is good to wear a fitness tracker only to track your daily walking, sleep and gym movements. Note I said movements as none of the trackers are accurate to determine your exercise or sleep/nap automatically and that is the primary intent of these - to nudge you gently to move your butt throughout the day instead of hunched in a chair.

You may have to manually add/modify the exercises either on your phone or your online account.

The other option is to manually track using paper or computer. You choose the option preferable to you.

All companies claim to use a sophisticated algorithm to track but the reality is that they are mostly hit-or-miss. I would have moved quite a bit but when I am seated, my Garmin alerts me with "Move" without properly calculating the steps I had done earlier.

Becoming healthy is the biggest side-benefit but consider other things (wanting to move, working out, healthy diet) for the whole picture while wearing these devices.

(12-06-2017 11:06 PM)Stallion Wrote:  

etc.. etc.. etc..

[Richard Turpin]

I bought a Fitbit Charge 2 recently when I saw it in a sale. As well as weights, I like to do a little running and cycling and was curious as to whether I was working hard enough/improving, etc.

I had low expectations and have always thought of them as a bit of a fad. However, I've found using it to be very useful and enjoyable, giving me great motivation to do better each run and bike ride. I was also surprised how high my heart-rate got to while lifting weights. Nearly everyone in my office has a fitbit I've found and we find that there is real competition to keep top of the leader-board each week. This competition has been enough to spur me to go out on a run many times when I wouldn't have otherwise, as well as forcing me to strive for at least 10,000 steps a day. None of us want to end up at the bottom of the league! As an aside, there is a definite correlation in the group I'm in between the ones who do a lot of steps being thinner and fitter, and the ones at the bottom being lazy and fatter! Who'd have thought it! Nice to see proof tho. I've also lost a few pounds as a result of using it.

[Richard Turpin]

In addition to my glowing recommendation of the Fitbit Charge 2 above I would like to share my story about its weight-loss/diet facility to those who are going down that route.

As I said in my previous post, I was extremely skeptical of Fitbits, and would have considered myself to be the last person on earth to gain some benefit from them. However, in addition to the work-rate assistance they offer (that I've already detailed), I can now confirm that they also definitely help you to lose weight by tracking calories/energy expended etc.

How do I know? Well, I bought one for my wife for Christmas and she started complaining how it wasn't helping her lose weight, despite her logging all her calories etc using the Fitbit app on her phone. In order to find out for myself I told her I was going to start using it to count calories as well and start weighing myself to see what happens, good or bad.

Despite having worked out all my adult life, I have never once been on a diet. Not once. I'm an ecto-meso and the only food problem I ever had was not eating enough of it. However, age and a sedentary job takes its toll, and despite my fast metabolism, I'd started to accept that I was carrying a bit too much and could do with losing a few pounds.

So, when I started, I was 195lbs at a height of 5ft 11. Bit heavy for me and I've lost a lot of definition and vascularity over the years despite regularly training, mainly due to bad diet. I entered a fitbit goal of 13 stone (182lbs) just for a laugh and started logging all my food etc. Fitbit told me whether the number of steps I've taken (energy expended) was over or under my calories ingested so all I had to do was keep an eye on the bar graphs and 'do a few more steps' if necessary to keep me in the clear. Sometimes, I had to do 5 minutes of running on the spot just to push my steps up! By the way, I don't consider this cheating because it's actually surprisingly beneficial if you can't get out for a walk or a run that day.

So anyway, I've achieved my goal (lost 9lbs) in 4 weeks with very little effort. If I hadn't got weighed all the way in front of my wife, she wouldn't have believed it. The only hardship has been having to settle for 2 biscuits with a cup of tea rather than 4 or 5 that I would usually have. Fitness wise, my bench press hasn't suffered and my pullups and running have got easier! Appearance wise, I look just about the same in clothes, but without, I can actually see my inter-costals (and I've gone down a notch on my belt). The whole thing has surprised me greatly and spurred me on to look at my diet in greater detail to see what other improvements I can make. It's also caused my wife to re-assess what she was doing and resolve to do more walking (her diet was actually good).

[heavy]

Bought a used Fitbit Charge HR a couple months ago after not owning one for a couple years. I used one before I started BJJ training.

Since owning one, I've started running a few times a week, just 2-4 miles, or running stairs. I went running last night after BJJ in 21'F weather, loved it. Well, I've started embracing the struggle more lately.

I love seeing my aerobic workouts on Fitbit.

Also, I work at a desk job. I do like the idea of getting in 250 steps per hour. I've started taking ~3 minute breaks at least once per hour to walk the building, up to another floor, and back. Keeps me a bit more loose.