Fitness Trackers

[Wilksey]

I'm a bit confused with the latest batch of fitness trackers that are on the market.

A few years ago the Wife wanted one and I got her a Jawbone Move Up, which is a little round doobery that goes on a belt clip, and it worked very well, non rechargeable battery, but accurate.

Anyway, as some of you might be aware Jawbone went tits up and their app no longer works properly, so I decided to look for another one for her and all of the belt clip mountable trackers seem to be very very few and far between, all of the older models of FitBit (one) and Misfit Shine are either very hard to get or are discontinued and the new ones are wrist band only.

I settled on a Garmin Vivofit 3, which you can get a belt clip accessory for, she had the wrist band for a few days before the belt clip arrived and we noticed that something as simple as drying her hair (whilst sitting down) counted 140 odd "steps".

The VivoFit 4 does not have a belt clip accessory, it appears to be wrist mount only, which is bizzare as wrist ones are far too inaccurate, you scratch your arse and you've walked half a marathon.

Why do manufacturers not release more belt clip products and why do people settle for this inaccurate rubbish?

I don't know what testing they do on these things but I can't see how shoving a bracelet on can accurately count your steps (proven that it doesn't), yet a belt clip moves with your legs so is more accurate (measured more accurate).

The Jawbone Move Up still registers the most accurate, belt clip arrived today so will have to see how accurate that one is!

[Halcyon]

I settled on a Garmin Vivofit 3, which you can get a belt clip accessory for, she had the wrist band for a few days before the belt clip arrived and we noticed that something as simple as drying her hair (whilst sitting down) counted 140 odd "steps".

The VivoFit 4 does not have a belt clip accessory, it appears to be wrist mount only, which is bizzare as wrist ones are far too inaccurate, you scratch your arse and you've walked half a marathon.

Why do manufacturers not release more belt clip products and why do people settle for this inaccurate rubbish?

I don't know what testing they do on these things but I can't see how shoving a bracelet on can accurately count your steps (proven that it doesn't), yet a belt clip moves with your legs so is more accurate (measured more accurate).

I can see why the belt clip models are generally more accurate, however I'll share with you my experience with the Fitbit Charge 3 (which is a new wrist-worn model not long released).

I've used mine for about a month now and whilst it does log false steps, I find the error rate to be quite low each day. I spend about 3 hours each day in the car and the usual driving-related movements add up about 10-20 false steps per day.

Doing all my other usual activities such as using the computer accounts for even less falsely registered steps.

On any given day only about 1-2% of steps logged are false positives. To combat this, I've increased my step goal from 10,000 to 10,200 per day.

[aargee]

Yes well, my Fatbit is terribly inaccurate, then there’s this...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-05-17/10000-steps-is-it-enough/8532768

[Red Squirrel]

I'm actually curious how does the fitbit even work?  Does it rely on a combination of heart beat and your arm movement as when you walk your arm tends to go back and forth, or is it more advanced than that?

[nctnico]

Is there any tracker which is usefull for swimming in an irregular pattern (IOW: you don't have to set the length of the lane or turn abruptly)?

[Halcyon]

I'm actually curious how does the fitbit even work?  Does it rely on a combination of heart beat and your arm movement as when you walk your arm tends to go back and forth, or is it more advanced than that?

I'm yet to see a proper tear down of the Fitbit Charge 3 but they generally have an optical sensor with LEDs which rests on the wearers skin. This sensor measures heart rate and blood oxygen levels (the same as the sensor that clips onto your finger if you're in a hospital or ambulance).

As for detecting movement you'll find at least a 3-axis accelerometer and a barometer. My guess is that it's a little more complicated than just measuring the movement of your arm, it probably combines that with the "thud" of each step as well. Data from the barometer is used to determine when you're climbing stairs and how many levels you're accumulatively climbed that day.

Some models have an in-built GPS receiver (for tracking distance) while others like the Charge 3 don't (you can enable it to use your phone's location information if you choose to). Without GPS/location information, it uses your stride length (which you input into the application) and the number of steps taken to calculate distance travelled.

Calories burned are based on a number of factors including activity type/intensity and heart rate. Calories at rest are also taken into consideration (as the body still burns energy even when you're asleep), so it basically calculates how much energy you expend in a 24 hour period with or without exercise.

Is there any tracker which is usefull for swimming in an irregular pattern (IOW: you don't have to set the length of the lane or turn abruptly)?

The Fitbit Charge 3 is the only one I've used, but is designed for swimming (it has a built-in swimming profile which I assume alters the way data from sensors is interpreted for the duration of the activity). That being said, I personally haven't used it in the pool yet.

[Bud]

and we noticed that something as simple as drying her hair (whilst sitting down) counted 140 odd "steps".

I had one which credited me a few hundred steps for sitting in front of the computer moving the mouse for half a day