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Anyone with one of these is welcome to post their impressions/observations/criticisms, etc. here.
I bought one about 3 weeks ago. It's interesting that it can distinguish and label exercise events such as bike, run and "sport" without being told to.
Some of the heart rate numbers I question. It's given me a max heart rate of 183 on one occasion and 200 on another. Seems a bit high for a 65 yr old geezer such as myself. A few runs have had me in peak heart zone for several minutes, which usually is not advisable.
In general, however, the feedback appears to be accurate. Average heart rate is highest during runs, especially those with more elevation gain. Hiking up a steep mountain is next highest, followed by tennis.
Last is mountain biking, even with elevation gain.
I also question the distinction between "fat burn" and "cardio". Basically I'm never in cardio when biking and that doesn't make any sense. Going uphill on a mountain bike is definitely cardio.
I've had my Charge 5 for 11 months and use it primarily to monitor my 10,000 steps. I paired it with My Fitness Plan app and together they measure calories in vs. calories out. I lost 18 pounds over the first 4 months and have kept it off.
I wasn't aware that it can automatically distinguish between the various activities and I've had a problem with the bicycle mode. I would manually tap for the bicycle mode but once I stopped riding there was not always the option to pause and end. So I would ride my bike to my exercise class and Fitbit would show my exercise class as still riding my bike.
I've read that Fitbit is the most accurate at measuring sleep but I question that as sometimes it's way off.
Thanks for the response. How do you know it's way off? I can't tell one way or another
The reason I think it's sometimes off is if I get up at night to go to the bathroom it can take me a long time to get back to sleep and I don't think that's reflected correctly in the total.
However since getting a new pillow last week due to upper back pain I am meeting my 7 hour goal.
There is some discrepancy with the measured distance of a favorite trail run loop I frequent. Of the six episodes I've recorded, they're all different. Range is 3.21 miles to 3.58 miles.
Perhaps it doesn't always sense when I've started since I let it initiate on its own.
Also, average heart rate is slightly inconsistent, ranging from 123 to 144. Of course, one would expect some variation here but this could be a bit greater than normal.
Today I happened to check pulse rate during a run and it read 191.
For me, this seems like definitive proof the watch will occasionally spit out values that aren’t valid. Im fairly sure my pulse at that time was approximately the same as it was reading a couple seconds later around 140. Uphill stretch going fairly slow, allowing enough time to glance at the readings.
For the most part the watch does provide accurate and valuable feedback, just ignore the wild anomalies.
I use mine to track steps. I've noticed some strange readings recently
with my heart rate. my resting heart rate is around 62. Recently I checked it just before my aerobics class and it was 91. It never got over 105 during the class so something is off there.
I keep getting offers for a deal on the Charge 6 but not sure.
Is the FitBit charge or a Garmin watch worth it for tracking basic metrics like steps and such?
They do the job, for sure!
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