I got a fitbit for Christmas, and so far, I've loved it! Its been a big help to see the calories burnt throughout the day and its inspired me to be more active. However, on the days I don't do as much activity as I would like (like today at work was not very active; I had a lot of sit-down stuff to do), I feel like I then have to go kill myself at the gym to make up the difference, and while I have no problem working out, I also don't want to be a gym rat or overwork myself just to keep my deficit where I want it.

Before I had the fitbit, id just go about my day, stick to my calories, do my workout, and everything else just kinda fell into place. But now that I have all these numbers staring me in the face, I feel like if those numbers aren't perfect then its going to mess everything up. I know that's silly and that one off day isn't going to completely derail me, but anxiety is a you-know-what, ya know?

Those of you that have fit bits or other tracking devices -- how do you handle your info?

I use the fitbit zip and love it. My daily goal is 10,000 and I go by the weekly summary (Sunday thru Saturday).

Thursdays are my rest day so it's hard looking at just my routine steps vs. including a workout in the number. So today, I only have 2,235 and it's my 5th day. For the week so far, I have about 44,000 steps (not including today) as I did a little more than 10,000 some days. But I know this weekend I will do way more than 10,000 on both Saturday and Sunday so I will meet or exceed my 70,000 goal.

My first week I got it, I think I did about 21,000 steps for 7 days. Awful! But totally the American average for steps. :/

I find it very motivating even on days I don't meet the daily goal as I know today is a planned rest. Plus...I do some strength training 3-4 days a week that isn't recorded as steps (I hope that makes sense).

I couldn't live without mine now. I hope you start to love yours the same and don't get frustrated.

I also got a fitbit for Christmas! I've used a pedometer for a couple years so at its most basic, it's not much different. Just like with my pedometer, I try not to get too focused on every single day, rather I look at the trend over time. Just like with weight. If you freak about the fluctuations on the scale, every. single. day. you'll go nuts. But if you record that data and view the trend over time, you probably think, "Great, I'm doing pretty well!" That's my experience, anyway.

Did you get the fitbit flex? I don't like the wristband so much. Not my thing, aesthetically. I've been taking out the "bit" and dropping it in my bra. It undercounts steps, especially if I'm taking just a few steps across a small room, but I like not having the wristband.

I battled the same thing.

I changed my steps to slightly more than I do on average (8k) so that way it's achievable. I have a desk job and sit in meetings quite often. It takes working out twice a day to hit 10k for me during the week. It's really demotivating when you don't hit all the green so I made it more applicable to my life. When I'm hitting 8k everyday without effort then I'll move it up a little.

Keeping it achievable works for me.

These things are TOOLS, not JUDGMENT.

I understand the pressure that having a bar in the yellow zone or not meeting a target can cause. If you are finding that your tools are not making you feel good about yourself, then you change the tools.

Maybe you need to adjust the step goal. Maybe you need to give yourself a more ambitious goal for the weekends and accept the limitations on activity in your work week or on certain days. Maybe you need to set a weekly step/calorie/etc goal instead of a daily one, to allow yourself some room for the days that are going to be less active (this is the approach that works best for me).

It sounds like there are some benefits for you...having a higher drive to get some activity in is GOOD. But you can adjust the tools to reduce the demotivating factor of life happening, so that they can really WORK for you.

A hammer isn't bad because someone may choose to hit themselves in the head with it.

If using any tool is hurting you, you can either change the tool, or change how you use it. Or you might decide that the benefits of the tool outweigh and are worth the damage/disadvantages.

Good and bad doesn't have to enter into it.

are fitbits really accurate?? i've heard from many that they are not accurate, similar to the calorie read outs on exercise equipment etc

if they are actually accurate, i would LOVE to have one! what do you guys think?

I use a FitBit one, and I love it. I synched it with MFP, but I usually just ignore the extra calories that it says I can eat because I had a heavy workout day.

When I first got it, I was obsessed about reaching 10,000 steps a day, but now I just use it to give me an idea of how much I am moving. I don't run laps around he house to get to 10,000 at the end of the day any longer.

My husband loves his FitBit. He hits his 10,000 steps most days by walking me to work, then walking out to pick me up from work as well. He also walks to the train to get to his work (it's a 7-minute walk to the train).

I think the thing people don't realize is that you DON'T have to work out like crazy to hit 10,000 steps in a day. If you simply park your car a bit further from work every day, park at the end of the grocery store lot, and so on, you can get to 10,000 in no time with very little thought or concern. Convenience is what makes it so difficult to achieve.

One major change we made was to park the car. We got a car co-op membership (a benefit of living in the city, and in Vancouver in particular) and the closest two cars are about a 6-minute walk from our front door. This means we no longer bother with taking a car to pick up groceries (since it's the same distance walking) unless we're going to Costco. We no longer drive everywhere. My husband never drives me to work anymore; he walks with me. If I'm running late, he walks me to the bus stop instead and I take the bus.

Of course, we have the benefit of living in a city and having that option available to us. But as I mention above, even parking further from the store can make a huge difference.

Walking is GREAT for your body. It can help realign things if you're having back problems, it's relatively easy on the joints, and just about everyone can do it, at their own pace.

Don't worry about "working out" to get the pedometer count up. Just replace part of your regular travelling/commuting with a walk. It works.

I have a Fitbit One and I don't consider it "accurate." But I am happy with "ballpark." One person complained that when she was driving, it was counting steps. Makes sense. When you drive, you are moving your feet...from the gas pedal to the brake. It perceives those as steps. If it makes a difference to you, take the Fitbit off when you're driving. Another thing I noticed. It counts how many times you go up a flight of stairs. Sometimes it doesn't count a flight. And, when I go to Walmart, I like to take my cart and do laps around the store when they're not crowded. When I'm finished, sometimes it added a couple flights of stairs. There are no stairs in Walmart. I like all the reports it gives you online. There are a lot of more expensive trackers. I think it's worth the money you pay for it. It's really something to give you incentive to work harder and longer.

My husband has a different brand step counter and ours are usually in sync when we walk together. I think I get a few more steps as I have a smaller stride. I'd say it's very accurate. I also wear it in the same place every day, secured to my bra strap.

It is reasonably close. I've had a Fitbit for almost 2 years and it does show a slightly higher calorie deficit for me (I import into it food data from MFP) than I actually lose at Weight Watchers. That is, I lose slightly less weight than it would predict. Some of that may be Fitbit's error and some of it may be my error in recording food (restaurant can be hard to estimate or may even be inaccurate even with nutritional data).

But, the big picture is remarkably close. I do wear a heart rate monitor (chest strap) during formal exercise. The HRM talks to Digifit who talks to Fitbit. Fitbit then uses the calorie burn from the HRM. So that helps with accuracy.

Anyway, it has really helped.

To The OP -- I usually do Fitbit goals more in terms of a week and looking at the average more than I do individual days.

I have the Fitbit Charge HR and I love it! I was king of like you, stressing about a daily goal so I changed my daily goal to something attainable. I'd much rather have a weekly goal instead of a daily goal and wish FB would make that an option.

For my daily goal, I just look at calories in-calories out, and make sure that's on target. If I need to exercise a little more because I eat a little more, that's one thing. It's simply exhausting if it's all about a step target every day.

In my opinion the fit bit flex was way over calculating the calories that I burned each day so I returned mine to Walmart and stick to the free apps on my phone

I used a fitbit for a good long while. I liked it and I felt it was relatively accurate although one thing I did not like (and maybe it was a glitch on my fitbit) is that it counted elevation when I was in the train or car. I could walk out my door in the morning with elevation at zero, hop on the highway and by the time I got out of my car is it said elevation 27flights.... uhm no.

Anyway, I stopped using the fitbit and all forms of "accountability." It was causing me too much stress. I wasn't exercising or walking with any pleasure anymore, I only had one purpose: rack up the steps. It became a pointless game of numbers and there was no joy in exercise, ever! Quite frankly I did not WANT to know how many calories I was burning! I mean I did originally, but after a while it just seemed pointless you know?

I'm much happier and freer without it. And guess what, I walk more and exercise more now than ever. As long as I'm doing it because I enjoy it then I don't need to hold myself accountable.