For the past few weeks, I’ve been playing with the Fitbit. So far, I like it. It’s clear that on work days, I do not move enough, so it has inspired me to start going for 30 minute walks at lunch time (don’t worry, I still eat my lunch, just while working, which… isn’t ideal, but better than nothing).
One thing that I like with the Fitbit that frustrated me about the Weight Watchers ActiveLink is that I can’t accurately check where I am on the ActiveLink throughout the day. The Fitbit gives me clear readouts and I can sync it to my phone, which I love. Of course, the ActiveLink has other features that I wish the Fitbit had (like the ability to wear it swimming), so it’s really what works best for you.
But the point of this post isn’t to talk about the Fitbit. Instead, I wanted to talk about the fact that I’m trying a different approach to weight-loss. I’m going back to careful calorie counting. But this time, I’m doing it on the Fitbit website, where I can see an estimate of my calories burned versus the calories I take in. I know that none of these calculators are perfect, but I feel like at least the Fitbit is measuring my movement, which has to count for something.
It will be interesting to see where my eating goes awry. Because clearly something is going wrong. I’m going to try this out for a while and see what happens. If nothing else, maybe I’ll end up with a more balanced diet. Even though the popcorn and wine dinner works for Olivia Pope, it’s probably not going to work for me.
(And if you don’t get the reference, you are clearly missing out on an excellent show.)
I’m loving my FB too (although for some reason I had a hard time remembering to wear it last week…oops). I absolutely love the Dashboard where I can set up the tiles to show me exactly what I want to see in one glance!!!
I’m using the link between MFP and FB to my advantage. MFP has a much better food bank than FB, and since they “talk to each other” it works out really well. I was reading the FAQs and the only tricky thing is to make sure you keep tracking your activity only on FB, not MFP, otherwise you double up.
Just an FYI – I wore my FitBit through all 6 weeks of my swimming lessons no problem, just had to pop out the insert and make sure the band was dry (used a Qtip to get in the corners) after getting home from the pool.
I like your walk at lunch idea – it’s still too hot here to do that without coming back drenched, but I need to figure out a way to get some more movement in during the work day.
And I need to start watching my calorie intake much more closely as well…surprise, surprise that we’re once again in a similar situation!
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Do you have the Flex, Jenny? I have the One, which I don’t think I can swim with.
I haven’t even thought about using the MFP food bank. Do you just log all your food there?
I just ordered one and it should arrive today. I saw it in the Road Runners catalog over the weekend and looked it up online. I’m looking forward to it letting me know when I’ve been sitting too long. Any suggestions on using it? Also, which one can you swim in?
I think you can maybe swim in the Flex, which is the one that goes around your wrist. I wear the Fitbit One, which is a clip on. I like that I can have it clipped under my clothes or in a pocket and no one is the wiser.
Ahhhh, yes. I have the Flex and was thinking you did, too. I get it now. 😉
And yup, you can link your MFP account to your FitBit account. I use MFP to log all my food (because of the expanded options) and FitBit to keep track of my activity. FitBit will import your MFP food into your dashboard so you can still see your in/out. I works really well!
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