37 Comments on “FitBit Update”

1. Just wait until you lose your fitbit or you break it. Then the real panic sets in. You are doing all that exercise and it’s not being recorded. Oh, the horror. It’s amazing how fast you work to get a new one.

   My name is Greg. I have a problem with my Fitbit.

2. Getting old does indeed suck. Big-time. But as far as I’ve been able to tell, it still does beat the heck out of the alternative.

   Thanks for taking care of yourself, however you go about it. You’ve got all those contracts to fulfill, after all. And there’s probably a few fans who’d be annoyed if you kicked the bucket prematurely.

3. I’ve been wondering about your FitBit experience. I recently received a FitBit Charge HR as a birthday present to help me keep an eye on fluctuations in my heart rate in addition to activity, sleep, and all that jazz. (I have dysautonomia.)

   I thought I’d read someplace that if you leave the FitBit at home, the phone app is supposed to take over to log your steps—assuming you didn’t leave your phone behind as well; or, it might be the opposite of that, which doesn’t really help. But I’ve been there.

   About how much time are you going between charges? I’m getting about three days.

4. yes, well, getting old does suck….and so, to that, I say, “I might be getting older, but I refuse to grow up.”

5. This a contract requirement, right? To make sure you don’t weasel out of your obligations with the lame old “fatal heart attack” excuse.

6. My wife starting wearing hers 24×7 (except for charge time) as it tracks sleep time and quality of sleep as well (at least that’s what she tells me). The feedback she gets has caused her to increase her steps and exercise and he’s now averaging 10K steps per day and a pound of weight loss each week.

7. Hi, this is Joe Kockelmans and I do agree with you that getting older sucks. I turned 50 in July and am experiencing minor health issues … though they seem to be accumulating. I’m glad that your FitBit is working well. I’ve never heard of it, but I do understand the gist of how it works. Good luck with your exercise goals. :-)

8. I keep my fitbit ultra in my pocket with my keys and whatnot.
   And yup, nothing worse than going up and down a couple flights of stairs without your fitbit counting them for you.

9. Do you do any of the challenges? My sister and I almost constantly have one going (typical trash talk: “Sit DOWN already!”) and we’re putting our sibling rivalry to good use.

10. I am a fitbitaholic. Hi, Carol. Hi, John. Hi, Greg.

11. the fitbit is cool and all but if you buy a Misfit shine, you never have to worry about leaving it in the other pants. no cool factor to show your friends, just constant monitoring of motion (no HR though)

12. “All that moving around for nothing.” — I think the same thing. :D

13. I never am without my fitbit. Sleep, walk, type – I take it off for showers and when I have to charge it. And the great thing is – cycling counts as steps! 12,441 as of now!
    Recording what I eat is more problematic though, because I eat at the canteen and they don’t tell us how many calories exactly are in each portion.

14. Beats the alternative

15. “I think it’s helping?” If you have to ask…
    Regardless, losing the pound a week is good. Maybe the simple fact of possessing a FitBit makes you more health-conscious in general, and serves to motivate in other ways (subconsciously of course) – which is a valid purpose for owning such an object in the first place.
    I know this is not a revolutionary idea which may be why no one was stupid enough to post it until I came along. So here ya go.

16. Yeah…….but…….What about the kittens?

17. I’m 46 and I started “running” for the first time in my life three weeks ago. By running I mean I walk a bit and then run a bit, pursuant to the instructions of the couch to 5k app on my phone. I don’t have a fit bit or a scale, but my wife tells me I look smaller than I did. Meanwhile, I continue to do my “running” after dark or before sunrise so people don’t see me flopping around out there. It’s painful and humiliating. Yes, getting older sucks.

18. Yeah…….but…….What about the kittens?

    I want to know also. I can’t always pop in at Twitter.

    As to

    the steps don’t count

    You need to get rid of that thinking. Steps count whether or not a piece of technology is counting them for you. Technology is great but sometimes it’s really bad when we decide its in control and only the technology matters. Big brother is now. He tracks your every move. LOL

19. Wait until you go to the BIG CITY and wear it. I was in NYC for the day and found I had walked 7+ miles and had done 22 flights of stairs. Yes, I walked the stairs in/out of subways and in the MET but was it worth it. As of today – 0 flights and .56 miles as I am at work and just sitting and writing code.

20. It was once written, “The problem with aging is not that it’s one damn thing after another – it’s every damn thing, all at once, all the time”. Uh… I’m sure someone can remember who wrote that!

    But yeah, walking helps, the body’s built to move. My goal is 10k steps/day and I exceed that most days. Combine that with eating whole grains & plenty of veg, and it helps forestall the “every damn thing” part.

    I use Pedometer on my iPhone. The progress bars go green to reward me. Saves having to use one more device as I already have the phone in my pocket. May your progress be useful and good.

21. I’m going to be 79 next month. And I still say getting older beats the alternative.

22. I am 60 and have been dieting most of my life, on and off. Losing weight when you are in your 30’s and 40’s is MUCH easier than when you hit my age. I can look at chocolate and gain weight. Glad you are doing it now and exercising. Alas I exercised all my life and yet it didn’t stop me from injuries that now prevent me from doing a lot of what I did. It’s not fun being saggy!

23. I lurv my FitBit One, Wear it 24/7 except to charge. I currently do 12-15k steps a day. I started in the 6-10k range in 2013. :) They are addictive little things!

    Kittehs!

24. Reminds me of the gas mileage readout in my newish car. It has encouraged me to be a more economical driver, but it also can be a source of frustration. If I have to accelerate harder than usual, say because traffic is unusually heavy, I now find myself thinking, “Dammit, all these bastards have wrecked my mileage for this tank”. Technological self-monitoring: it’s a little weird.

    Every time you put up one of these exercise/weight loss posts, I find myself wondering why you don’t get a bike. Rural Ohio would seem like the ideal place to get a decent road bike and really put some miles on it. I hope I don’t need to add that you obviously don’t owe me an explanation. But I’m curious.

    On a slightly related note, I hope Athena’s still powerlifting and if she is best of luck to her for the upcoming season. (It is upcoming, isn’t it? High school PL didn’t exist when I was a kid.)

    I think we can all agree that getting older sucks AND it’s better than the alternative.

25. Enough FitBit…we want KitBit!!!

26. Try a lower carb diet! You don’t need to exercise as much. I recommend “The 24 hour Diet” by Peskin — lower carbs during the week and have as many as you want Friday night, Saturday and Holidays. You get out of the habit eating bread and don’t want as much … I’m down from 187 to 165 after a year or so of this.

27. Use the Fitbit as a kitten collar on days when you’re feeling lazy or ill. I’m not sure how many kitten BOINGS count as a human step, but you could be the one to find out!

28. I dunno. I got years on you, but somehow, somewhere, like Lord Ickenham I’ve retained the fresh unspoiled outlook of a slightly inebriated undergraduate. If you woke me up suddenly and demanded to know how old I was I’d probably mumble, “Hrm? 25?” (I was, as a matter of fact, still an undergrad at 25, so there’s that, too.)

    But, yeah, there’s the body as well as the mind, and exercise is the one and only fountain of youth that works. It becomes fun after a while, once your mind finally grasps how much better you feel.

    And I don’t know about old age sucking. Ill health sucks, no question about that. But old age? By itself? For me the main effect is I no longer give the tiniest hoot what anyone else thinks. Which is very liberating. I love it.

29. Getting older sucks.

    Well, YMMV [1] of course. However, looking ahead a wee bit on your timeline, my 50s totally rocked. Best full decade so far, bar none. The 60s are shaping up to be even better in most ways.

    [1] Yes, that’s a FitBit reference.

30. I got a fitbit for my birthday, and while I dunno if it’s going to be helping me with losing some weight that I’d like to kick — though I also got a walking-desk treadmill, whee! — the instant addiction to SEEING THE NUMBERS GO UP EEEE! Yeah, that. I had a panic when it stopped syncing properly last night, and I had to power-cycle my ipad for it to restart syncing.

    I have only had it a fortnight or less, and already I am addicted! *facepalms, giggling*

31. I bought the cheapest Apple Watch mostly for this purpose, back in late September.

    Within a couple weeks of wearing it on my left wrist, my left thumb had gone numb.

    I stopped wearing the watch at all about a week ago, and the thumb is still numb but seems to be getting better, slowly.

32. One thing I wish those had – a way to tell it that no, exceeding your step goal by 50% is *not* a good thing, because you’ve got physical limitations and you got the thing to make sure you don’t push yourself too hard. And suggestions to climb steps? If only!

33. “Getting older sucks”? At 71, I want to say that, as far as I know, it still beats the alternative.

34. You give intermittent fasting a try. IF changed my eating habits for the better, changed my life…

35. Ronaldmcissac:

    Yeah, that’s not gonna happen for me.

36. The Things should be named Fitbit and Bitfit.

37. I have had the same problem with the Google Fit app on my phone. I am glad that it is encouraging me to exercise more. And like you, I like knowing how many steps I average in a day. But now I feel like if I walk anywhere without my phone, I am not getting credit for my exercise. That’s not fair!

    I know that it is silly. But it is difficult to fight that mindset.

    Thank you for sharing.