Learn me: Fitbit (or equivalent knockoff)

I changed jobs back in November and my benefits will kick in next month. Insurance is great and very inexpensive compared to my previous employer. They offer a huge discount if you do certain healthy things throughout the year. The biggest of which is counting your steps. Most of the folks there have actual Fitbit brand devices, but are the alternative brands worth a crap? I know some of them do all sorts of stuff (sleep tracking and such), but I really only need a step counter and for it to work with an iPhone. Any suggestions?

In reply to Spoolpigeon:

I have a Fitbit One, and it works fine, talks to my (Android) phone, etc. Sounds like all you need is a pedometer, and you can get those for under $20 all day. They probably won't talk to your phone, though. If that's a requirement, you might as well spring for the Fitbit.

Can you get an app and leave your phone in your pocket?

I got the basic Striiv model on sale for less than $20. It counts steps and minutes well enough and talks with my iPhone. No heart rate indicator, though. It calculates distance and calories, who knows how accurately.
I like the sleep monitor, which gives me a readout of when and how much I moved when in "sleep" mode.

Wife has a Misfit Shine, she really likes it.

The Fitbit Charge is kinda fragile. The rubber band is glued onto the electronics, and starts to peel apart slightly before the end of the warranty. The Fitbit Flex doesn't appear to have this problem, but is very fidgety to charge.

I moved from a Charge to an Android Wear Smartwatch, and the step counts are far, far lower. I'm losing maybe 30-40% of my steps. I have no idea which was more correct.

My dad wore a fitbit for a little while. He walked this path known to be 3.5-3.7 miles long and the fitbit reported something like 4.3. He stopped wearing it after that - what was the benefit? In your case, the Fitbits extra distance figure might help your insurance

I have a garmin. Basic but counts steps and calculates calories burned.

I wish my employer was asking this

In reply to classicJackets:

I like the sound of that!

some general googling shows fitbits to be more than I'm willing to spend, but Misfit and Striiv brands are in the $30-$40 range. eBay has a boatload (pun intended) of no-name Chinese knockoffs too. I just don't trust some things from eBay.

java230 wrote: Can you get an app and leave your phone in your pocket?

I can, but I don't always have the phone on me.

Swmbo has the garmin, I researched and selected the Garmin on her behalf, I looked primarily at the app reviews and content. Garmin recently came out with a full function smart watch that she's expressed an interest in getting.

Does it need to share data with other apps?

If it does, then the Fitbit zip is a simple option that is less than other Fitbit options. Just don't put it through the wash.

If it doesn't need to share data the I would suggest trying Pivotal living for $12: Pivotal living tracker

My mom and sister have the pivotal living tracker and it seems to work well.

My son wants a tracker so I'm going to eventual get him one from pivotal as well.

Free pedometer. I've picked up a half dozen of them over the years at health fairs. Never use them.

For running, my uses a Garmin, and I use an app. Plenty of apps for steps- if you forget your phone, would you not also forget an extra watch? That's what these wrist things are, afterall.

That's the nice thing about my One. It's a tiny little thing, so it just goes in my pocket at the beginning of the day and I don't know it's there, so no forgetting. Of course, the downside is that it's easy to lose and I've done so on several occasions, including a couple of times in the lawn. Fortunately there are bluetooth sniffer apps to help you find them.

Spoolpigeon wrote: They offer a huge discount if you do certain healthy things throughout the year. The biggest of which is counting your steps. Most of the folks there have actual Fitbit brand devices,

And the Lambs keep lining up for the slaughter.

What you do, how you do it and what you do it with is all being data-logged. With an implied threat if you don't comply.

Good to live in the "Land of the free".

I would strap mine to a squirrel and let them figure it out.

NOHOME wrote:

Spoolpigeon wrote: They offer a huge discount if you do certain healthy things throughout the year. The biggest of which is counting your steps. Most of the folks there have actual Fitbit brand devices,

And the Lambs keep lining up for the slaughter. What you do, how you do it and what you do it with is all being data-logged. With an implied threat if you don't comply. Good to live in the "Land of the free". I would strap mine to a squirrel and let them figure it out.

It's a private transaction between a company and it's customer, and it's voluntary. If you don't want them to know your activities, I get that, it's why I'd never agree to one of those insurance-company OBD2 tracker things. But nobody's forcing anyone to do it, the government isn't involved, none of that. So I think the "Land of the free" is safe in this case, at least.

I had a Fitbit One. Kept it on my keychain, then clipped it to my shorts when I went jogging. Worked fine for about a year and then it no longer would hold a charge. Not a good outcome for a device that costs about $100.

We have a similar program where I work and I no longer use a step counter since the Fitbit died. The program tracks my visits to the YMCA, though, and I get just as many points for a trip as I did for 10,000 steps. I also get a subsidy on my gym membership. If I accumulate enough points during the year I get a discount on my health insurance the following year and prize money in the form of Amazon gift cards and such. All that amounted to about $1000 in incentives this past year. I'd say it is somewhat motivational in doing the right healthy things, but most of that I would have done anyway. Just nice to get some sort of tangible reward for it.

NOHOME wrote:

Spoolpigeon wrote: They offer a huge discount if you do certain healthy things throughout the year. The biggest of which is counting your steps. Most of the folks there have actual Fitbit brand devices,

And the Lambs keep lining up for the slaughter. What you do, how you do it and what you do it with is all being data-logged. With an implied threat if you don't comply. Good to live in the "Land of the free". I would strap mine to a squirrel and let them figure it out.

Good thing no one is at risk of someone tracking their activities on the internet.

I'm guessing you are off the grid, posting with smoke signals?

I bought Mrs. DX a cheapo pedometer and she found a free app for her phone and has used that ever since with no problems. I ended up returning the pedometer.

jstand wrote:

NOHOME wrote:

Spoolpigeon wrote: They offer a huge discount if you do certain healthy things throughout the year. The biggest of which is counting your steps. Most of the folks there have actual Fitbit brand devices,

And the Lambs keep lining up for the slaughter. What you do, how you do it and what you do it with is all being data-logged. With an implied threat if you don't comply. Good to live in the "Land of the free". I would strap mine to a squirrel and let them figure it out.

Good thing no one is at risk of someone tracking their activities on the internet. I'm guessing you are off the grid, posting with smoke signals?

NOPE, smoke is not me. Drums is the answer. Smoke gives lousy reception after dark and suffers from limited encryption potential due to low bit resolution!

As you can see in the picture, only the finest parallel processor technology will work for me.

In reply to NOHOME:

I can see how drums can have a wider range operating conditions than smoke, but I always have trouble filtering out the spam.

Thanks for all the suggestions, even the tinfoil hat ones.

jstand wrote: In reply to NOHOME: I can see how drums can have a wider range operating conditions than smoke, but I always have trouble filtering out the spam.

I can recommend my spam filter

Am I the only tinfoin hat wearing person here that.

A. Does not want to share the information those things gather with anyone?

B. Feels that those that are wearing them are letting some one else dictate a pre determined life style.

No way I would ware one of those and I can see legal issues with several of the things that they are being used for. I can also see discrimination cases that could put the kibosh on this. Particularly with federally mandated healthcare.

In reply to dean1484:

A) I'm curious, what are the nefarious uses for that data?

Beyond the obvious one of using it to identify people with potentially low levels of activity that may lead to higher insurance costs down the road?

Insurance claims could be used to determine how healthy or Ill someone is, just by looking at costs, number of claims, RX cost, and trends in those data points.

B) What is the predetermined lifestyle that is being dictated?

The programs in place at my employer (current and previous one) and others are normally voluntary, and I have yet to see a penalty tied to not participating or achieving any particular goals.

I can understand wanting to be cautious about what info you put out there for others to see, but I think the number of steps some one takes is more innocuous than other information that is available.

There are so many ways that your activities can already be tracked:
-Internet
-email
-cell phone
-ATM/debit/credit cards
-banking activity
-traffic camera
-security cameras
-facial recognition software
- EZ Pass

Just to name a few, and most of those can reveal a lot more than how far you walked.