Fitbit Zip, Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex or Jawbone Up fitness tracker?

[Darrell KSR]

My pedometer finally stopped working, right at the one year warranty (of course, I just paid $15 for it, so if you get that kind of use out of a product daily for a year, I think it's done its duty).

I've been slowly gaining weight again--not near what I used to be, but disappointing. I got so many comments from people that I would see infrequently last year, like people on soccer clubs that we may play once a season, or volleyball, or whatever, about how much weight I had lost that I kinda liked it. Now--not so much. I ran into several that I haven't seen in awhile a couple of weeks ago at soccer tryouts--nothing. At basketball pickup games--nothing.

I don't like it. I need incentive again.

I'm looking at those 4 fitness trackers. I'm leaning toward the Zip, because it's about half the price of the others, but I do sorta like the wristband approach, too.

I probably should go back to the pedometer I used, which worked very well, and was very accurate (as accurate as I need it to be, at least). But I'm looking for a little more incentive, and throwing an "app" at my activity with these fitness trackers may give me that incentive and accountability. I also like the fact that some of them (Zip included) tracks climbing stairs. I teach on the 4th floor; my office is on the 2nd floor at my office, and I visit other offices with stairs and elevators, and it would be nice to get "credit."

Anyway, do you guys have any experience with any of these? They all seem to have good to excellent ratings from different places, and as frugal (ok, cheap) as I am, I probably will get the Zip anyway, but I thought I'd see if anyone had any experiences they wanted to share.

[Catonahottinroof]

I have a fitbit one. Love it because because it will sync with my lose it app on my iphone plus it tracks my sleep which I never really knew how deficient I was until I saw it in a graph.

[Darrell KSR]

I started using a sleep app with the accelerometer in my phone and charting the same. Monitoring my sleep deficiency and watching it accumulate became depressing, however.

[Darrell KSR]

I'm think I'm between the Fitbit One and the Fitbit Zip now.

I LOVE the Fitbit One's tracking of stairs/floors climbed. The Zip does not do that. But really, I have only one flight of stairs I take at work each day, and the four flights I take I take only 2 days a week (although I take them twice). I can still do that.

I also LOVE the Fitbit One's silent alarm feature. At least, I love that in concept. Just makes sense that I can set an alarm, not have to wake up my wife when it goes off. I can also see me taking a 10-minute "rest," and in case I fall asleep, it would wake me up as well at work.

However,

I LOVE the button/cell battery the Zip uses, which does not have to be recharged, and just buy another one in 4-6 months. The One has a rechargeable battery that requires me to periodically "do something" with it. If I had to buy batteries for the Zip once a week, this would not be a positive, but 2-3 times a year? Yeah, that's a plus. But in reading the description of the One, it says it only has to be charged about once every 2 weeks, and only for about an hour. That's not bad.

Probably kidding myself; I'll generally go the "saving $40 route" and I know it. :)

[Bakert]

FWIW I have the Fitbit One and love it. I question the accuracy to some extent but think that would be true of anything worn on the wrist. But I love how easy it is to sync with other apps, particularly MyFitnessPal. Have had it a few months and so far, so good!

Charging is very easy and does give you a fairly lengthy time it an be used.

[Darrell KSR]

Appreciate the feedback. Have found a startling number of people I know have one of the Fitbit products.

[AshCat]

I've got the Fitbit Force for Christmas and love it. Great motivation tool. Took over for the app on my Galaxy S4. More accurate, has the sleep tracking app, ... It's more expensive but I think it was worth it.

[Darrell KSR]

Fitbit Force isn't an option, because they took it off the market and recalled it. Seemed the material irritated about 2% of the users.

98% of you were fine with it, and I wouldn't return it if it didn't bother me, but it is currently off the market. They are developing a hypoallergenic version that will probably be released soon, though.

[CitizenBBN]

I started using a sleep app with the accelerometer in my phone and charting the same. Monitoring my sleep deficiency and watching it accumulate became depressing, however.

I bet I could break one of those things, or have it commit suicide. My current deficiency could, if calculated, be large enough to cause a rift in spacetime.

[Darrell KSR]

Well, strike one.

I bought the Fitbit Zip last night. Had discounts, etc. that brought the price down to $42 at Target, and best I could find on the Fitbit One was $87, and couldn't justify the price difference.

Got it out of the box, and it was terrific, very easy to set up. Already had the Fitbit account. Put in the button cell battery, which I love, and it was up and running. Went to Walmart with my wife last night, and I walked for close to an hour, counted steps, and it was very accurate.

All good so far.

Problems:

a) Syncing to my phone (S5). It did it once, at 1377 steps, but never again. Kept giving me messages that it couldn't find Zip, etc. That's a deal-killer. Thought it might relate to my phone, but then tried with my son's phone (S3), and it couldn't find it. Then tried to sync to computer with the dongle, and it couldn't do it. So apparently it's a dud. Yes, I did everything they said to do in troubleshooting--I force stopped the app, rebooted the phone, uninstalled the app, reinstalled the app, rebooted the Fitbit Zip (several times), etc. Nothing. In reading up on it, there are apparently just lemons out there where that happens out of the gate, people return them, and they get a good one on their 2nd try. Or their 3rd try. Yech.

b) The other thing I didn't like was the lack of a backlight. Now, I didn't think that would bother me, and maybe it won't, if it is syncing with my phone as it should. But wanting to see how many steps I've taken, and not being able to see it in dim light? Having to take it off my waist to look at it? I don't know, that might be a deal-killer, too.

Will be returning it today or tomorrow; trying to determine if I want to give it another chance, or if that's enough to make me just nix it and go ahead and get the One. If the One had a button cell battery, it would be a done deal. You guys may be ok with it, but it's a pain in the rear end to have to charge up my phone, then my mp3 player, and add one more thing and I'm screaming. I just loved the idea that for six months, I do nothing, and it just....works. There are so few things in life that work that way.

[Darrell KSR]

My daughter came home for a quick visit Thursday (she's in a wedding today in Alabama) and told me she's been using her Fitbit Zip with her phone for a year now and it works great. So I replaced it with another one, and sure enough, this one is working flawlessly, syncing with my phone and with the computer. No frills, don't even think about it. Very tight clasp, wear it inside my pocket and I don't look at the display, since I can get it on my phone. $47.50 with Target card, minus a $5 gift card I had, $42.50. Happy with that, although I just got a $25 off $75 purchase at Sharper Imagie (or was it Brookstone) that would have allowed me to purchase the One for $74.99. I'm happier that I don't have to do it anything for 6 months with this one, though. Good decision for me.

Motivation? I went out and did two miles of interval training at lunchtime with my son today, in 89 degree (it was hotter on the track) weather. So it's working without me having to enter my steps into a spreadsheet, which is what I was doing before for internal motivation.