Got my Fitbit! Advice on how to use it please

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  • I got my Fitbit One for Xmas! I've been wearing it for a day now and slept with it last night. But I have a few questions.

    1. How does it track my calories burned. Does it track the calories I burn through movement only?
    2. How do I place it into the wrist pouch? Does it have to be facing up?
    3. Where do you wear it? Does it have to be facing outwards? It fits into my bra better face in.
  • 1. It tracks your TDEE. Your BMR + caloric burn for the activities it will track (walking/running/stairs).
    2. I have a Flex - someone with a One, help us out! That's the pouch for sleeping? My BFF has the One.
    3. She clips hers on her bra strap, facing out but in should be fine. You can also wear it at your waist. I've heard of some people that somehow put them on their shoes/ankles.

    A caveat: it does not track caloric burn for ANY other exercise. So, for instance, if I do the 30 Day Shred, I log that exercise into MFP as 20 minutes of circuit training and the caloric burn it logs transfers automatically to my FitBit stats on the dashboard because MFP and my FitBit Flex are linked. Likewise, my caloric burn as tracked on the FitBit transfers automatically to MFP.
  • I go it a Flex, so can't help on the in/out/pouch thing, but agree with pupmom on everything else. I really like having it lInk with MFP.
  • Heyo! I've got the One so I can hopefully help a bit. For the pouch, the device only fits securely facing out (so you can see the screen) but you can wear it however you like. You can clip it to your bra facing in or out, clip it to your waist, I even have a friend who wears it on a lanyard around the neck. It's tracking your movements regardless of placement.


    As for the calories, as people have pointed out, it tracks just steps. It doesn't know you're doing crossfit or boxing or such. And it's terrible at tracking biking. I strongly reccomend you sync it up with MyFitnessPal and track actual exercise there. Hope this helps!
  • I love my One!

    It calculates your calorie burn based on your weight, your baseline activity level, and movement. If you link it with your myfitnesspal account, you will "earn" extra exercise calories on active days.

    There's a little slit in the wrist strap to slide it into. Take it out of the clip first.

    I clip mine on the center of my bra. It shouldn't matter if it faces in or out.

    You can have friends on fitbit, too. PM me if you want to be fitbit friends.

    I hope you love it!
  • Ah, take it out of the clip first, that's why it was so awkward getting it in there. After tracking my sleep for one night it said that I was restless 16 times. Is that bad?

    Ok thanks for the info about how the calorie counts work.
  • You'll see what's normal restless for you after a few nights. I range from 1-20 times, but average around 10.
  • Strange, I wore the fitbit last night and checked my dashboard this morning and it says that I did not log my sleep. But I turned it on and saw the stopwatch start counting and I turned it off this morning and the fitbit said I slept for 7.5hrs. So why isn't it registering on my dashboard? WAs it too loose on my wrist??

    It did say though when I woke up that I had already burned 567 calories. Which is a nice pep in the morning

    What is the little tiny USB plug that's small? I have the one with the little wire that plugs into my computer and charges the fitbit, but the little one, what does that do?
  • Your questions are related!

    The tiny usb plug is to sync your fitbit to the website through your computer. It should walk you through setup.

    Your sleep won't show up on your dashboard until you sync.
  • I did the set up, and synced it both to my computer and to my phone. Yesterday it showed me my sleep, today it claims that I didn't log it.
  • Oh, there it is, now it's showing up.
  • It sounds like everyone answered your questions, so all I'll say is welcome to the Fitbit fun! I have a Fitbit Force, and I love it. It really motivates me. I'll look at my daily stats and maybe see I have done 7000 steps so far and it motivates me to push to hit my 10,000. Or - my M-I-L got her Force right after I did, and she's a very active woman and it motivates me to do more, too! And I'm linked up to people all across the world at Fitbit friends, and so I can compare my activity to other people. And you can cheer your friends on!

    Once a week Fitbit sends you a summary report - I actually save those for my doctor. She is always asking, "How are you sleeping? How often do you wake up? How much exercise are you getting? How much water do you drink?" Well, haha, now I can SHOW her by just handing her my weekly summary reports.
  • Quote: It sounds like everyone answered your questions, so all I'll say is welcome to the Fitbit fun! I have a Fitbit Force, and I love it. It really motivates me. I'll look at my daily stats and maybe see I have done 7000 steps so far and it motivates me to push to hit my 10,000. Or - my M-I-L got her Force right after I did, and she's a very active woman and it motivates me to do more, too! And I'm linked up to people all across the world at Fitbit friends, and so I can compare my activity to other people. And you can cheer your friends on!

    Once a week Fitbit sends you a summary report - I actually save those for my doctor. She is always asking, "How are you sleeping? How often do you wake up? How much exercise are you getting? How much water do you drink?" Well, haha, now I can SHOW her by just handing her my weekly summary reports.
    Brilliant lol!
  • I've been using my fit it for a month and I love it. I'm a little confused by a couple of things.

    What are active minutes? Sometimes I feel like I'm active and it doesn't register.

    How are stairs calculated? Sometimes it shows more stairs than I think I've done. Does it count elevation such as hills and elevators?
  • I've been using mine as well. It does count elevation to count stairs so if you climb a hill, it may be possible to have it count as stairs.

    Also, there is a defined active minute, but it is something like x number of steps within 1 minute. I don't know what x is though.