Living the Fitbit life

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/30/140630fa_fact_sedaris

by eroo • 12 years ago

116 74 12 years ago

kator3• 12 years ago

My wife and I are avid fitbit'ers. We used to walk about an hour every day before we got them so it wasn't like we became fanatics when we got them but things have changed in some very subtle ways:

We can get the same amount of walking in even when we travel to a new city, we used to slack off sometimes when we travelled because we didn’t have a “route” to follow. Now we just go and often walk until we get to 1/2 our goal and turn around. Meanwhile we get to see so much more of the city we’re visiting. Our last trip to London we had so much fun we walked 8 miles out before we realized we needed to head back to the hotel.

We bought them for my Mom and Dad. My dad who is “Seventy something” walks me into the ground every day. He is on the west coast and we’re generally on the east coast. Every day he would beat me by 2,000 or more steps. I thought maybe my dad was taking advantage of the time zone advantage he had over me. To test this I stopped syncing for a couple days and then sync’d “all at once” and I managed to beat him. When I confronted him with this data he laughed and said “What else is an old man to do then to walk his son into the ground!”

My best friend has one also and he often loves to taunt me when I’m a bit behind. When we travel we usually smash his weekly records into the ground and the taunting goes the other way!

I’m an avid MMORPG player and since getting a fitbit it has slowly taken place of leveling toons or getting that next cool piece of gear. I have managed to make my life more of a game and enjoy the benefits of being more active while feeding that competitive part of my brain that want’s to win.

The only thing we love more is we have a Withings WiFi scale, tracking our weight along with activity and intake (Lose It! App for iPhone) makes for a pretty nice trifecta of tools to help meet personal goals. It also makes it easy when I slip up, I can look back “Ohh yea I really slacked off that week because of x, y or z”.

I have lost several of these and always replace them immediately. For a time my wife and I actually kept one in her travel case because we lost one when we were traveling and were crushed that we couldn’t replace it the very same day. We gave that one to one of our daughters and needless to say she’s in love with it.

Funny story: I lost one in New York city on a rainy night in December of last year. When I figured out it was gone my wife and I retraced our last walk and we found a fitbit in the rain but it wouldn’t turn on. I assumed the rain got to it so I took it home in hopes of reviving it. When I got it dried off I plugged it into the charger and it pops up “Hello Frank”. I laughed so hard I couldn’t stop laughing for ten minutes. My name isn’t Frank. We never found mine, I hope Frank found mine and reloaded it on his account. I’m still using Frank’s FitBit (Thanks again Frank) and happy to say it’s been a good companion in my day to day life.

jgrahamc• 12 years ago

Great story about the tech.

Now...

What actual benefits have you seen? For example, weight loss, increased muscle strength, blood pressure, heart rate?

kator3• 12 years ago

I lost 35 lbs my wife lost more but she would not want me to say the number!

After Hurricane Sandy we had to walk up and down 36 flights of stairs because our building lost power. We made 36 flights very quickly and my heart rate (Heart Rate iPhone app) returned to normal very quickly. (Sorry not going to share too much here lol). If we had tried this before we would have been DOA half the way. We made several trips up and down over the course of a couple days and we had to walk from downtown to mid-town for many things because so much of the area was without power.

alexfoo• 12 years ago

What actual benefits have you seen? For example, weight loss, increased muscle strength, blood pressure, heart rate?

This is the bit I'd be interested in. Some data to correlate the improved "fitness"[1] (or at least increased activity) with improvements in other metrics.

I'll be gathering such data sometime soon as, altohugh I'm reasonably active, I'm aiming for an Ironman triathlon in 2016 and I'm a long way off being in the right shape for that right now. Whilst I aim to lose the 20kg or so I need to lose I'll be gathering data including: HR (whilst exercising), weight, cycling power output (PowerTap hub).

Although my exercise regieme will vary there will be certain exercises I do every week:

* An hour of 5-a-side football (compare distance covered and average HR)

* A couple of specific training routes on the bike (time, power output, HR avg, segment times)

* Running (time, HR avg, etc)

Having the data to play with is a good motivator in itself!

1. Very hard to actually measure or even quantify.

swalsh• 12 years ago

I get a discount on my health insurance premium from my company.

eitally• 12 years ago

The biggest benefit of the technology/data is the motivation it provides to continue being active. If that doesn't motivate you, then there is no value... unless you share the data with a physician who finds value in it, which seems increasingly likely, but not yet common.

eastbayjake• 12 years ago

I lost about 10 pounds with FitBit then gained it back after taking a startup job. (I blame free lunches and not the device.)

I echo others' comments that better calorie tracking would be great. The biggest problem with their dashboard is duplication: it's overwhelming to have 30 different brands of croutons to choose from when logging your lunch. I think a curated list would be better than an expansive user-generated list.

varelse3• 12 years ago

In late 2011, when I won a fitbit in a white elephant party, I came to the awful realization I only walked 4,000 steps per day. Over the next 2 months, I gradually upped my steps to 20,000 steps a day and lost 13 pounds.

I am now known as the fitbit fascist by my friends because whenever someone kvetches about their weight, I offer to buy them a fitbit. I have followed through on this twice. In both cases, the victims wore their fitbits for several months and then gave up on increasing their daily step count, removing their fitbit so they'd stop being reminded that they were only walking 2,000-3,000 steps per day rather than do something about that.

Figure out why that happens and I think you'd drastically increase how to increase the mass market appeal of quantified self wearables like this.

JeremyNT• 12 years ago

My anecdote: it allows much better estimate of calorie expenditure for use in weight management.

I've lost almost 60 pounds over the last two years, a bit over half with the use of Fitbit. I find the data from Fitbit let me know how active I really was which enables me to more consistently hit my weight loss goals. This generally meant either eating less or going out and exercising more to hit my daily budget.

My wife uses Fitbit in the same manner.

Fitbit isn't a panacea, but it is a piece of the puzzle. On its own the benefits are small, but it is very helpful as a component in a larger health strategy.

aeroevan• 12 years ago

My wife and I are also slightly obsessive fitbit'ers.

We use fitbit's aria smart scale and like to use trendweight.com to track our weight trends. I've lost over 15 lbs over 6% body fat, and my wife has lost more as well.

whence• 12 years ago

How does the scale measure BF%? My impression was that calipers were really the only way to do it accurately without expensive equipment.

Kiro• 12 years ago

How come you got the Withings scale instead of the Fitbit one?

lotyrin• 12 years ago

I use the same products (Fitbit, Withings, Lose-it) and in my case because the Fitbit scale didn't exist at the time.

eroo• 12 years ago

Once we start seeing reliable metrics for other common vitals, I'm optimistic we'll see massive benefits from data insights. With a large enough sample size and the right vitals, I'm hopeful we can find highly correlated early predictors of some massive events: e.g., does 20 minutes before a heart attack have a reliable signature?

Is there any boilerplate legalese for open sourcing that kind of data?

bluedino3• 12 years ago

I can't wait for a device that can measure how many calories you've eaten. The possibilities for that would be endless. Beeping after you've hit your goal/limit for the day?

evanlivingston3• 12 years ago

I tend to just pay attention roughly to what I eat, and not eat foods that are generally bad for me/empty calories. However on some days I'll consume twice the amount of "recommended daily calories" for an adult my size. Yet I remain an 140lb adult male.

There are no hard/fast rules for calorie consumption, and I don't believe a calorie counter will help. In-fact, it is the precise quantification of food that leads to poor diets/eating habits.

EDIT: My fear is that focusing on only a small part of nutrition will further harm the nutrition of individuals. If we place too much attention on calories other things can be overlooked such as vital fats and acids or minerals. I'm trying to make the case that increased awareness and education of food and the human diet/nutrition is more important than counting calories. As someone points out below, there are many situations where calories are not labeled. In my case, I'm aware of what food is decent, and what food is junk and this allows me to forgo strict quantification of the food I consume. I know that food from most food chains is generally junk. This extends beyond the nutrition of the food as well. Food chains typically source their food from the cheapest distributors, and these are often the same distributors that end up distributing massive quantities of contaminated foods.

Here's another case. I could potentially consume 5 sodas in a single day and remain under my caloric restriction, but I would have consumed a ton of empty calories. A calorie monitor is not able to help in this case, but my own awareness of health and nutrition keeps me from doing this.

The issue of health is far larger simple quantification of a few metrics. It is within any individuals ability to determine for themselves general effects of the food they are consuming.

For some of the best arguments contrary to my own: http://www.foodpolitics.com/tag/calorie-labeling/

angdis• 12 years ago

There is actually a new company, Proteus (http://www.proteus.com/), which has addressed a similar problem. Basically, they've developed a way to make a drug pill "smart" by embedding a tiny disposable transmitter in the pill. It uses stomach acid to create an "in-situ" battery and then transmits a unique ID to a receiver patch worn by the patient. Something like this perhaps could scale in the future if we could "pepper" FOOD with such nanotransmitters (eg a populate a food item with a certain density of transmitters to indicate calories).

mvanvoorden• 12 years ago

If you eat the right food, you don't need to count any calories and can just eat until you had enough.

I start my day by drinking a cup of coffee with 60-70 grams of grass-fed butter (Bulletproof Coffee) and it made me lose 15 kilo's over the last year. It puts your body into 'fat-burning mode' and I found out by experience it's true. Also, I drink no more soda or fruit juices, and limit my overall sugar intake to barely nothing (but still I will never say no to any offered pie/cookies/chocolate at social gatherings). Oh and I lost weight and got more energy without exercising any more than I did (which is close to nothing).

Do away with light or low fat products, especially margarine, and embrace bacon and grass-fed meat. Make about 60% of your food-intake be fat, 20% veggies and 20% protein, and limit carbs like potatoes to once a week, and you will never have to count any calories again.

For info, I advise to look up Bulletproof diet, and you don't have to buy any of the products/books offered, on the website is also explained for free what to look for if you don't feel like spending any money on his overpriced products :)

joelrunyon• 12 years ago

A better approach is to stop counting calories altogether and realize that by simply focusing on calories rather than how your body processes & utilizes food is a completely outdated way of looking at nutrition.

JshWright• 12 years ago

e.g., does 20 minutes before a heart attack have a reliable signature?

No.

It depends on what causes the heart attack, but it's generally either a clot that dislodges from somewhere else and lodges in a coronary artery, or a new clot that forms suddenly. Neither of those events could be predicted (other than the general prediction of risk factors). For that matter, it also depends on what event you consider the 'heart attack'. Is it the occlusion of blood flow, or the resulting ischemia? There will be a time lag between those as well.

Detecting a heart attack shortly _after_ it occurred would also be useful, and likely much easier to do (detect cardiac enzymes, etc).

bluedino3• 12 years ago

> “It’s a Fitbit. You synch it with your computer, and it tracks your physical activity.”

Is it sync, or synch? The 'h' really bothers me for some reason.

btgeekboy• 12 years ago

It's an abbreviation for "synchronize." Both Webster and Dictionary.com note that it can go either way.

morgante• 12 years ago

Both are correct, though I believe "synch" is slightly British.

collyw• 12 years ago

That explains why I automatically type "sychdb" instead of "syncdb" every time I want to update my Django app.

devindotcom• 12 years ago

New Yorker style seems to be synch, but they're a bit idiosyncratic when it comes to these things, requiring diaereses in words like cooperation for instance.

tannerc2• 12 years ago

I'm fairly active — running on a treadmill for 20 minutes then lifting weights for 30 every day of the week, walking nearly everywhere, only using stairs, etc. — but I can't bring myself to use these types of trackers.

I eagerly ordered the SE Nike+ band when it was announced, I used it for maybe a week before giving it away to a friend. Perhaps it wasn't as interesting to me because there was no way to compare my numbers (no personal friends used similar devices).

The idea of personal fitness trackers still intrigues me (it sounds fun), but in reality the moment you discover your "number" as an average, it's easy to lose interest.

jcromartie2• 12 years ago

You're not the target market for these things. They are motivational items for people who don't exercise every day, but want to.

VLM• 12 years ago

"They are motivational items for people who don't exercise every day, but want to"

More precisely, metric optimizers or those who like grind games.

My chronological experience with my fitbit was exactly the same as my experience with EVEonline and a couple other MMORPGs.

They work, and work well, and the exercise trackers are doing a good thing, but only for a small susceptible segment of the population.

I still carry the thing in my pocket and charge it and glance at the weekly emails, but when it breaks, I'm all done. Still going to walk after meals and go on weekend hikes, just like I've done for decades without keeping track.

TarpitCarnivore2• 12 years ago

Something like the Basis Band may be a better choice for you. It has issues with tracking your heart rate during intense activities, but I think with what you're doing it should still work. The points of data it captures blows away anything else on the market is doing. Unfortunately their future is a bit in limbo since Intel bought them.

tannerc2• 12 years ago

Thanks, I haven't heard of Basis before reading your post. Though your last sentence makes me wonder if its' worth pursuing or not. Any alternatives you know of?

anonova• 12 years ago

I had a Fitbit Force for a couple of weeks before falling victim to the the rash/skin irritation problem [1]. It got quite bad, and my doctor had to prescribe a topical steroid for it to go away.

Fitbit handled the situation rather poorly. There were hundreds of users complaining about the problem in their community forum, and it took months for the company to initiate a recall. What annoyed me the most was that during this process, they claimed that there was nothing wrong with the product, and that if there were one, it was due to a nickel allergy. I know, with confidence, that I am not allergic to nickel. This was still their conclusion when they posted the final voluntary recall [2].

I now have a minor scar on my wrist, and I can't recommend any of their products. This isn't because they're bad but how badly the customer service was during that period. I hope they can recover from that slip up, but I don't see myself buying anything Fitbit anytime soon, especially with so many other nicer fitness bands being released.

[1] https://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/Fitbit-Recalls-Force-Ac...

[2] http://www.fitbit.com/forcesupport

halviti• 12 years ago

Everything I have read seems to suggest that the problem is not with the product and more with the individual and what happens when you allow something to cover your skin and never take it off for a long period of time. The larger surface area of the force being the biggest problem.

I don't think a recall taking a few months is extreme, as an investigation into what is causing a medical problem might not be the easiest thing in the entire world, not to mention the fact that it just takes time to investigate period. I'm also sure that the decision to stop selling them entirely and to ask everyone to return them, likely to have them never be sold again, is not something that is often decided at a moment's notice because someone complained on an internet forum.

jamesRaybould• 12 years ago

I love my fitbit and wear it pretty much religiously, it tracks how much I move in a day and how much I sleep, but 2 things irk me about it. It is constantly broadcasting my location via bluetooth LE. You have to have an internet connection to retrieve any data from it.

As a software dev I'd love to get my raw data out just to see what fun an interesting things I could do/see with it. When I have asked in the past they have turned me down flat saying that they don't provide access to the raw data because people could "figure out how we calculate our raw data and algorithms, so this data is all proprietary"

Yen• 12 years ago

There is one open-source project that manages synchronizing a fitbit to their service. Apparently, one used to be able to get data from listening to this communication, but they now encrypt all data coming off of the device.

I got a Jawbone Up24 for my birthday, which seems to be a similar device. I'll see how easy or difficult it is to get data off of that. (I think it's designed to sync via bluetooth directly to a smartphone, which then syncs to their service, so there might be some more wiggle room on communicating to the device).

alecdbrooks• 12 years ago

It looks like Jawbone has a reasonable-looking API [1]. Alternatively, you can set up Beeminder [2] to collect the data (or for Fitbit) for free and then use Beeminder's API [3].

[1] https://jawbone.com/up/developer [2]: https://www.beeminder.com [2]: https://www.beeminder.com/api

ejain2• 12 years ago

You can minute-resolution step counts through their Web API.

If you're interested in raw accelerometer data, why not just write an app that uses the accelerometer in your phone?

kator3• 12 years ago

Great point about the Bluetooth LE.. I've been doing some BLE investigations recently and one of my apps showed both my Fit Bit One and My Wife's. I've been thinking maybe I could use this to automate some stuff around the house.. ;-)

"Supposedly" it randomizes the BDADDR but it seems everytime I look it's the same for both devices.

mmagin• 12 years ago

Privacy concerns are one of the reasons I went for the Garmin Vivofit -- it only powers up the radio when you activate sync by holding the button (necessary to achieve the one year battery life).

srik• 12 years ago

saying that they don't provide access to the raw data

This was exactly why I'm awaiting Misfit to fulfill on their promise to open up Shine's data. I will trade my fitbit in right away.

ejain2• 12 years ago

I've been wearing a Fitbit One for almost two years now. I'm not too interested in the motivational aspect, but use the data to back up health-related decisions.

For example, I was able to use the data to confirm that getting exercise late in the evening doesn't affect my sleep (so no need to change my gym routine).

I ended up building an entire service to support these kinds of analyses (zenobase.com), hoping to find enough people who care more about data than badges :-)

naveen99• 12 years ago

I just got into fitness 3 weeks ago. Fitbit seems interesting. There is a ton of info on http://reddit.com/r/fitness Also http://stronglifts.com Tons of youtube videos on fitness, for example by pendlay Myfitnesspal is very useful also for free. I have already lost 3 lbs and am actually eating more than when I was a couch potato. I am also trying to apply discipline I am learning for fitness in my work and home life also. Love it.

craigching• 12 years ago

I had heard about "10,000 steps/day", was curious, so asked for one for Father's Day (just over a week ago).

After one week, being a software engineer for over 20 years now, it gets me out of my chair once in the morning and once in the afternoon for 10 minutes each, just a walk around the block + some change if I walk for lunch. I don't quite get 10,000 steps with that and I have two young children so it's hit or miss if I can get out after work with them, but I do get 20 to 30 minutes of activity per day that I didn't before. Totally, 100% worth it so far.

gadders2• 12 years ago

I wish someone could invent a FitBit equivalent for strength training, rather than cardio.

thesehands• 12 years ago

presumably this could be done fairly easily using some RFID on the weights and sensor tracking in a wristband or ankleband to identify the activity.

gadders2• 12 years ago

Good point. I was wondering how they would measure "effort" or pressure on the bar. It's not as easy as just counting steps. RFID could work. I wonder if there is a sensor that could check muscle "activation" as well.

unsigner• 12 years ago

Wonderful article, but it's major effect on me is more curiosity about the iWatch. I hope it does cycling and weightlifting better than the current crop of devices - I'm definitely NOT going to drop my 30 km/day of cycling to walk more.

Tyrannosaurs2• 12 years ago

I have (but no longer wear) a FuelBand.

My experience was that I found the data initially interesting (mostly that the idea anyone was under the Nike "average" staggering - I have a desk job and don't consider myself massively active but easily hit it most days) but the problem I had was that in a busy life I found relatively little room to flex what I was doing in any substantial way.

My week day routine essentially goes - get up, get ready for work, get kids up, leave, drive to work, work, drive home, get kids bathed and into bed, tidy house, get dinner, eat... and by that time it's about 9pm and I've either got to do whatever jobs need doing or relax. In itself that routine is relatively active outside the desk job (kids...) but there isn't a lot of wiggle room.

My commute isn't easily changable (I live in a rural location so anything other than driving is out), I can sometimes get out and go for a walk at lunchtime and I try to do walking meetings if possible (maybe once a week) but generally speaking my day is my day and I can't really change much.

As a result measuring it didn't feel like it had much point - the number was the number and it was relatively rare I'd look at it and think I could have done better.

tptacek3• 12 years ago

I have roughly similar problems; for instance, I could walk more by taking public transportation instead of driving, but that would add overhead disproportionate to the benefit (I'd lose about 1.5 hours out of every day, and a huge amount of schedule flexibility).

But: can you do things like park further away from work?

When I lived in Ann Arbor, I was walking distance from the office. I really miss looking forward to that walk (listening to music and clearing my head for an hour a day), and I was definitely healthier then than I am now.

jasonkester• 12 years ago

Sounds like you're flirting with the answer. Eventually, you hit a point where your health becomes more important than 10 billable hours a week.

I made this leap this year, explicitly cutting down to 4 day weeks and making fitness a priority again.

The previous 3 years were my least healthy on record. Two separate month-long flus and that annual six-month cold thing that never seems to go away. Coincided nicely with committing to a 40hr/week contract.

I'm 5 months in to this now. A bit less billed than this time last year, but not a sniffle in all that time.

Tyrannosaurs2• 12 years ago

I spend 8 or 9 hours a week commuting - that's the biggest waste for me. I don't dislike it - I listen to podcasts, mull things over ahead of getting home (which really helps with not taking problems home) and so on - but I can think of so many better ways of spending that time including on my health.

Ideally I'd live closer to work but I like living rurally and that's not ideal of IT jobs. As I work in management remote working is a relatively limited option, at least for most of the opportunities around here.

Parking further away is possible but really I'm just adding more time to the commute - 15 minutes walking rather than 3 minutes driving. If I could free up that time I'd probably be better off just taking it off as a 30 minute chunk and going for a walk a lunch.

Walking meetings have been a good solutions - I have a few informal one to ones which can be done walking in the nearby park. Similarly I'll sometimes do calls where I'm not expected to be taking notes or doing anything else on my mobile phone.

tptacek3• 12 years ago

Does anyone have a sense of how accurate the M7 step counter is on the iPhone 5S? Is there a point in having a Fitbit if you basically always carry a 5S around with you?

I've been watching the step counter on the phone over my trip to the UK and I'm surprised how motivating it is.

Living the Fitbit life

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