Review: My addiction to the FitBit One

Did you know that you’re supposed to take 10,000 steps each day? Easy enough, right? If you work an office job like I do, start using a FitBit and you’ll be shocked and how little you actually moved.

I started using a FitBit One the week of Thanksgiving. I quickly found that, if I didn’t run that day, I was lucky to hit 3-4K steps. When the weekends rolled around and I ran a lot of errands, I could get in 10K (or close to it), but that was it. Once I started running again, those days usually got me to at least 8K and typically hit 10K.

I’ve worn the FitBit every day for over two months and I don’t plan to stop. Here are my pros and cons of the FitBit One:

PROS

• Motivation! Being aware of how little I move makes me move. When I’m close to reaching my daily goal, I really amp it up. When I brush my teeth, I pace up and down the hall and do a few laps on the steps to get more steps.
• Speaking of steps, the FitBit also tracks flights of steps, calories, and miles. I’m pretty good at getting steps in, so I compete with myself to try to get more.
• The dashboard and app are awesome. I can quickly see where I am for the day, plus look at past days, make fun charts, and more. I can see hours, minutes, or lifetime totals. (See top pic.) I may check it a little compulsively …
• It syncs really well with MyFitnessPal, which I use for tracking what I eat. I love when I go running and then it shows up as calories burned in MFP and I don’t have to do anything!
• It stays charged for a really long time. I can usually go about two weeks without charging it. (Apparently the bracelet versions have super-long lives.)

CONS

• The FitBit One is a little bulky. It’s the pod that clips on, so I normally wear it at my waist. It’s a little tricky when I wear a dress or something more fitted on top because it looks like it’s 1995 and I’m wearing a pager.
• The sleep tracker isn’t great. It can only track movement, so I can be perfectly still but wide awake and it would track it as asleep. I sleep pretty well, so this isn’t a huge concern for me, but I do like tracking everything.
• Where are all of my friends?? For some reason, no one who I’m friends with (on Facebook) is using FitBit, so I don’t really have many people to follow and compete with.

People always want to know if the FitBit helps with weight loss. I started around the holidays and I wasn’t working out much, so I didn’t see a big difference until I ramped up my nutrition and fitness in January. I started back with MyFitnessPal and my half-marathon training on Jan. 6 and have lost 2 lbs in three weeks. It doesn’t work on its own, but in combo, it’s an amazing motivator!