Fitbit One Wireless Activity Plus Sleep Tracker, Burgundy

I've had this little guy for over a year now - I wanted to get some mileage out of it before I reviewed it - and I'm still a big fan. First - I opted with the Fitbit One because a.) it had high reviews and b.) I wanted something that did both sleep tracking (so Zip was out) and I didn't have to wear in an ugly bracelet on my wrist (so pretty much everything else was out). I usually keep this in my pocket or clipped to my bra - works great in both places. ACCURACY: when I first got it (and a few times since then) I walked around counting my steps then checked with the fitbit -each time it's been within about 3 steps of how many steps I counted out of 50, regardless of if I wear it on my wrist, clipped to my bra, or in my pocket. just now I stuck it on my wrist and shook my hand back and forth vigorously 20 times and it added on 8 steps, so if you really want to cheat the system you can - though it probably will take more effort to shake on extra steps than actually just walk. I haven't had any problems with it adding on a lot of steps after car rides. I had a baby 6 months ago and have found that it counts bouncing up and down to calm a fussy baby as a step, but I'm cool with that - it's pretty much like jogging in place. the floors climbed feature seems fairly accurate - I haven't actually spent a day counting how many times I go up and down our stairs to compare it and it think it sometimes will count walking up a steep hill as a flight of stairs (once again, I'm cool with that), but on days i'm cleaning the house and thus going up and down stairs more often than usual my flight count is significantly higher. whether or not it gets your distance correct depends on how accurately you set your stride length - I think the easiest way to make sure it's set correctly is to go for a walk and set the GPS tracker on your phone if you have one, then once you get to 1 mile on the GPS check and see what your fitbit is telling you then adjust accordingly. SLEEP TRACKER: it's cool, it shows when you're "asleep" (not moving), when your "restless", and when you're "awake" - there are two settings sensitive and normal, apparently normal is if you're wearing it on your wrist and sensitive is if you have it in a pocket or something (because some pajama's have pockets - you know, for when you need to hold stuff while you're sleeping . . .) I set it on normal because I wear it on my wrist. I tried it on sensitive for a while to see if it worked better - it just freaked me out and told me only 1/2 of my time in bed was spent sleeping - I started wondering if I really was tired and not well rested, even though I never felt like I had trouble sleeping before. . . - just read the instructions and don't freak yourself out. Often times it will show me "restless" times during the night when I am definitely awake nursing - I guess there's a certain movement threshold you have to pass to be considered "awake", so it's not 100% accurate in that regard. it also doesn't coach you in sleeping well - just gives you the raw data on what happened during your night. (which has been super helpful with nursing - it's nice to see the trends of how long the baby's sleeping, how often we're getting up, how long we really are up for, etc. without having to have the presence of mind to make note of it while I'm half asleep). you can set goals on the app for how much sleep you're aiming for each night and set goal go-to-bed and wake-up times. putting the fitbit into and out of sleep mode is super easy (you hold down the button till it buzzes) and if you forget to put it in sleep mode one night or accidentally let it run well into your morning it's easy to go in and fix the times on the app. I love the silent alarms - I was skeptical that a little thing buzzing on my wrist would wake me up - but it works great and my husband appreciates how quiet it is. there is no snooze - which is good for me because I'm one of those snooze five times type people - this forces me to set a realistic time to get up and do it (though to be honest, I set a second alarm 10 minutes after the first one just incase. . .) you can set as many alarms as you want and have them go of on any day you want, so if you want to set alarms to remind you to get up an move around every hour or have an alarm that only wakes you up on * Note: I'm not a big fan of the little sleep wrist thing that comes with the fitbit. after a few months the velcro stated pulling it apart. For a while I cut off the top of one of my husband's socks and wore it folded in thirds on my wrist with the fitbit tucked inside- that worked OK but some nights the fitbit slipped out - now I have a cheap 3rd-party silicone wrist band thing made to fit the fitbit in it - it works great. DURABILITY: I have accidentally washed my fitbit twice and dried it once. it survived. And it counted the spin cycle as active minutes. The charge still lasts for a week or more. I don't recommend forgetting the fitbit in your laundry, but it has held up well to the wet and the heat. I wear it while working out and sweat has never seemed to be a problem for it. It's been over a year and is still working exactly the way it did when I got it. Two weeks ago the little plastic piece on the back of the silicone clip broke - I super glued it back together and so far so good. the clip itself would still be somewhat functional without that little plastic piece - it would just have a metal part poking out that could be poky- but you also can buy third-party replacement clips for $5 or spring for the actual Fitbit replacement clip for 3X more if branding is important to you. APP - i Like the app a lot. I've used it both on a Samsung tablet (android) and on an Iphone and both work great. you can set daily goals, see how much of your daily goal you've achieved, get weekly/monthly/quarterly historical graphs, track your weight, amount of water drank, calories, etc. I also like that you can get rid of things you don't want on it - for example I don't track my calories so i took that tile off my app and don't have it sitting there wasting space. in the settings there is a spot to mark if you are pregnant or breastfeeding - I don't know exactly what that does - my guess is it ups your daily calorie allotment - and maybe takes that into consideration when it tells you how many calories you've burned. I don't do the friends and competitions part of it - but there's a platform to connect with people you know and set little competitions or group goals - honestly the idea of me seeing what everyone else is doing and everyone seeing what I'm doing isn't very appealing, but it could be fun accountability if you set a goal with a friend/family IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE: Know thyself. Having this won't inherently make you healthier. I got this because I like tracking things and this gave me a way to gamify my activity - I set goals and I can see exactly how close I am to hitting them each day - which is a strong motivation factor for me - at 8PM if I see that I'm still 4000 steps shy of my daily step goal I'm much more likely to suggest we take an after-dinner walk in the evening. I've been drinking more water because I'm keeping track of it. It helped me track my activity level through my pregnancy and is helping me see how getting back in shape afterwards is going, I'm also glad I'll have this archived so when I get pregnant again I can see how I track compared to this pregnancy. If you're like me it will be strong motivation for you. If your highly competitive getting one of these then competing with your friends on it might work, or having an accountability partner who can see your daily activity may help keep you motivated. If none of those things pique your interest this probably isn't a good investment, but it is a well made product.

I been using this tracker for about 3 weeks now, and I love, love it. Why I love it: -The application interface is beautiful, simple, clean, easy to use, it works perfectly on my computer (iMac), my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1) and my cellphone (Samsung Galaxy S III). Also, the website works great, also clean, beautiful, easy to use. I have entered all my body measurements, body mass, weight, heart rate ( I use a heart rate monitor for working out), blood pressure; all information that can be managed in the website (for body measurements go to LOG > WEIGHT > LOG OTHER MEASUREMENTS.) - You can log other workouts like bicycling, swimming, using the elliptical, etc, etc, online, activities not tracked by this gadget. - You can also set a Food Plan if you wish, that way you can track your calorie intake VS calories burned. - It tells me how many floors I have climbed every day, which made me realize how little I was moving, so now I go up and down the stars at the office just to be more active and to see this numbers rise :D I love it when I get a badge for doing a good job and climbing more steps that the day before, yep, I love this cool lil' badges of encouragement. - A pedometer as we know, it reminds you that we should be walking 10000 steps a day, so after a couple of days using it at the office I realized that all I was doing was to sit like sac of potatoes for pretty much 8 hours every day, awful!, so now I walk, walk, walk as much as I can to complete the 10000 steps or to get as close as possible. Now I take my hour lunch to go outside and walk (even in the snow) for an hour straight, which to me yields about 7000 steps, hooray!, almost my daily quota. We all know we have go be more active, but this little tracker reminds you, with facts and real data, how much real activity we are doing every day, and that is an eye-opener and a great motivator. I want to beat the tracker so I walk to get to the 10000 steps. - I do exercise at the gym 4 or 5 times a week, I mostly do Spinning and some weight lifting, but I needed to add more activities through the day so this gadget is perfect. I been using it at the gym and I noticed that it does count my spinning workout as steps, I mostly ride the bike off the saddle (standing up) so I thought that was making the tracker count the movement as steps, but it does it even when I'm sitting down. That for me is not a problem, I just don't log my bicycle workout of that day online, but it may be a problem for other people trying to have a very specific data from workouts. Sometimes I don't wear it during Spinning workouts and later I just log that information online, with the precise information from my heart rate monitor. - Another surprising thing I found out thanks to this tracker, is that my quality of sleep is not as good as I thought, this shows you your sleep efficiency, time to fall asleep, times awakened, time you were in bed, time you were restless, and actual time you slept, information that we don't usually know. So now, I'm trying to go to bed earlier and definitely feeling better :D - I love the actual gadget, I have the burgundy one, it's so beautiful and sleek, but a little slippery and I fear I can lose it someday, so far I'm being extra careful when handling it, always in its case (except for sleeping, when I use the band provided). - The screen is clear and easy to read, and the button is big enough for me to handle with sweaty workout fingers. - At first I was looking for a wristband kinda tracker, like the many there's out there, but I'm glad I got this one, whatever I'm wearing or doing, I just clip this on my t-shirt of pant's pocket and I forget about it all day, I just keep track of my activities using their app or in their website. My needs right now are quite basic for using this gadget, all I want right now is a reminder-helper-assistant- cool gadget, that helps me realize how much activity I'm doing or not doing, pats me in the back when I do something good and holds me accountable when I get lazy, all in a nice, cool, fun and easy way. This is just pure perfection for me. I'm walking more (from 2000 steps I used to walk to 10000 I walk now) I'm climbing more stairs (from a couple of floors a day, to 40 or more) I'm sleeping an extra hour, and I'm feeling accomplished, energetic and in control, and that to me is absolutely worth it. Thank you Fitbit One, for real.

I purchased the FitBit One for a few reasons: 1. To give me a bit more motivation to get more active during the day, even when I’m extremely tired. (I have narcolepsy with cataplexy and fibromyalgia, which makes exercise excruciating most of the time.) 2. To keep track of what progress I’m making with regards to steps taken, amount of activity I’ve had in a given day, etc. 3. Given my narcolepsy/cataplexy diagnosis, the sleep tracker feature intrigued me. While I know that the sleep data offered by a tiny device worn on the wrist in bed is not going to be anywhere near the level of accuracy of a polysomnogram (professionally-performed sleep study where multiple electrodes are worn all over the head, face, and body), I was interested in seeing how its data would correlate to my own perception of how well I slept during a given night. 4.To hold myself accountable and show me what I need to do better on with regards to exercise, diet, sleep, etc. I’ve had the FitBit One for nearly a month now, and while it is a great little device for some things, there are some ways in which it could be improved. The FitBit One comes with a short-corded USB charging cable to plug into your computer for charging the device. It doesn’t need charged more than once a week, though, and charges very quickly. It also comes with a bluetooth dongle, which allows you to sync the FitBit with your computer. Even if your computer has bluetooth already, you’ll still need to use the dongle to sync the FitBit. You also receive a fabric wristband in which to wear the FitBit for tracking your sleep, and clip with silicone cover to use for clipping your FitBit to your waistband, bra strap, pocket, or any other part of your clothing that will slip into the clip. The wristband wraps around easily and fastens with velcro, having a slot and pocket in which you can slide the bare FitBit for sleep tracking. The belt clip with silicone cover should be removed before putting the FitBit into the wristband. I’ve found the belt clip to be very secure in holding the FitBit, and I don’t know how others had such a difficult time with it unless they were somehow not inserting the FitBit properly, or not fastening the clip onto their clothing and pushing it all the way down so that the clip was secure. The size of the FitBit One is small enough that it will also fit, while in or out of the clip/cover, into the small, inner pockets in most women’s yoga pants. FitBit One as an Activity Tracker: As an activity tracker, the FitBit One seems to be extremely accurate when you’re actually walking. When I look at the screen and take note of the number of steps, then walk a bit, taking mental count of how many steps I’m walking, it seems to update accurately with the proper count. That being said, when you wear this on your wrist in sleep mode, it seems to track steps when none are taken. Essentially, this is due to rolling over in bed, or moving your arm, but it makes your step count very inaccurate if you tend to move quite a bit in your sleep. The FitBit One is limited to counting steps and flights of stairs as it relates to physical activity tracking. It can’t track weight lifting, crunches, swimming (as it’s not water resistant), calisthenics, aerobics, cycling, or anything else that isn’t related to walking or running. However, using the iPhone/Android App and/or the FitBit user website, you can manually track other physical activity that you do by adding it to your profile for the day. I would also strongly suggest adding MyFitnessPal to your apps and websites used, as it has a better library of activities to add. If you do very little walking as exercise, and the other features of the actual device aren’t piquing your interests, this might not be the device for you. But the apps might still be very useful for tracking your physical activity, calorie intake, etc. Apps and Diet Tracking: In addition to tracking your physical activity via the FitBit site and App (and MyFitnessPal), you can also track what you eat on a daily basis. Again, MyFitnessPal gives you a huge added benefit here by telling you approximately how many calories, carbs, proteins, and fats you should aim for on a daily basis. Simply input what you ate, and MyFitnessPal probably has it in the database already. If not, quickly add nutrition info and save it. It will keep track of everything you eat or drink, and keep a list of your most frequently used foods so you can add them more easily. MyFitnessPal even allows you to input your own recipes to find out what the nutritional facts for fats, carbs, protein, and calories are for your favorite family treats. Tracking your weight is also extremely simple on both apps by just typing it in every time you weigh yourself. You’ll get a simple line graph displaying your weight fluctuation over time. And since the MyFitnessPal and FitBit apps sync with one another (as do their sites!), your data will be updated to both, giving you access to more information and insight than you’d get with only the FitBit app. FitBit One as a Sleep Tracker: As a sleep tracker, I’m still skeptical about the accuracy of the FitBit One. I will state that I am receiving a new Jawbone UP tomorrow to compare to the FitBit One, and I’m interested in wearing them both to bed on the same night to see how much they differ in my sleep stats. To set the FitBit One into sleep tracking mode, you simply hold down the small button on the display until it changes to a flickering stopwatch. It’s now in sleep mode. It will start immediately to count how long it takes you to fall asleep, count how many times you wake up during the night, how long you stay awake, and tell you when you woke up in the morning. Hold down the button again to report that you’re getting out of bed for the day. When you next sync your FitBit, you’ll be able to see how long you spent reportedly in bed (from the time you pressed the button to signal you were going to sleep until the time you held it down again to report you were getting up), how long the FitBit thinks you were actually asleep (cumulatively), and how many times it thinks you woke up throughout the night. As I mentioned earlier, this is not nearly as accurate as a sleep study you would get in a professional sleep lab, and should mostly be considered anecdotal. I’d be very interested in seeing how the results from a FitBit compared to the results of a real sleep study when performed simultaneously. All in all, the FitBit One isn’t a bad little device. There are a few things that could be changed to make it a little better, in my opinion. 1. The button on the device is too easy to trip. It’s tiny, it’s easy to press, and it’s apparently fairly easy to hold in long enough to toggle the sleep mode. More than twice in the last month, I’ve accidentally toggled the sleep mode on the device. Once, I was awake and didn’t realize that I had accidentally turned on the sleep mode and it had been running in sleep mode for about 6 hours. It wasn’t a huge problem to toggle sleep mode off, sync the FitBit with my computer at that moment, and then delete that sleep period from my record. However, one night when I was sleeping and had turned sleep mode on, I woke up in the middle of the night and tapped the button to see how long I had been asleep. The sleep mode had some how been accidentally turned off, presumably just by the pressure of my head on the pillow and my wrist under the pillow. I toggled sleep mode back on, and went back to sleep. The next morning when I synced the device, I expected to see two separate sleep graphs. Unfortunately, it only had the latter graph. The former sleep period, however long it was, never appeared. For a person with narcolepsy, this is unfortunate. Often as part of our treatment protocol, we are required to take one or more scheduled naps throughout the course of a day. If we can not store more than one sleep period’s data on the device between syncs, it becomes far less convenient. Also, if the button is that easy to trip, perhaps it should be on the side or edge of the device, rather than on the face. 2. The wristband for wearing the FitBit to sleep is a great idea, but it’s not very practical the way they designed it. The FitBit itself is very smooth, sleek, and has no real texture to it. The slit in the wristband that you slide the FitBit into so that the pocket can hold it has no closure. This has resulted in numerous times waking up with it barely still inside the pocket by about a centimeter, with the remainder of the FitBit hanging out precariously. Adding some type of closure-- velcro, fold-over, anything really-- would secure the FitBit much better. The wristband is 2.5” (6.5cm) wide, and is 9.5” (24cm) in length. The slit for the pocket is 1.25” (3.5cm) wide. The bare FitBit One device (without the clip or wristband) is about 1.75” (about 5cm) long, tapers from 0.75” to about 0.5” (about 2cm to 1.5cm) wide, and is about 0.25” (about 8mm) thick. Given those dimensions, it’s not hard to see why the FitBit would easily slide out during sleep, especially if someone is a fairly active sleeper. Also of note about the wristband: That width measurement (2.5” or 6.5cm) is extremely wide. The wristband has no elastic, so there is very little, if any, stretch or give. Trying to wrap it snugly, but not too tightly, around the wrist and make it actually comfortable is a bit of a chore, especially if you don’t have an additional set of hands to help. And since there’s no elastic, it doesn’t really conform to the narrower part of the wrist *and* the gradually widening area simultaneously. For me, this made it uncomfortable to wear no matter what. 3. Syncing requires the extra dongle for your computer. Seriously, Fitbit, what’s the deal? I have an iPhone. I have an iPad. I have a MacBook. If the FitBit will sync with my iPhone(only with iPhone 4S and newer!), and my iPad (3rd Gen), why can’t it sync with my MacBook Air via the built-in bluetooth? Why do I have to occupy one of the USB ports with a dongle to make it sync? In a world where ultrabooks and netbooks are pretty much ruling the landscape, we don’t have a whole lot of spare USB ports. And since most of them have built-in bluetooth, why not get a software update to the FitBit to make it sync over standard bluetooth? Having to either keep one USB port constantly occupied or keep track of a tiny little USB bluetooth dongle is a bit of a pain for some of us. (Especially when we only have two to begin with!) You have quite a bit of technology stuffed into this little guy. I’m sure you can add that last little bit of oomph to it, too. It’s not a bad device if you want a great pedometer with extra features and an iPhone app that syncs well. I’d definitely recommend the addition of the MyFitnessPal app for the expanded databases. Just make sure you don’t plan to count the sleep tracking data as gospel, and more as a general idea of what your sleep patterns look like. I would definitely say that I’m *not* disappointed with the FitBit overall. If they could just address those minor little snags, I think it’d be a much better device, and much more convenient to use for more people.

I just received the Fitbit One yesterday, so I can't really give as detailed a report as some of the others I've read. I spent a very long time deciding which item to purchase - did I want a Flex? Did I want my heart rate monitored? I think the first thing to figure out is what you exactly want to accomplish. For my needs, tracking my steps, calories burned and sleep is really what I wanted and the Fitbit One had outstanding ratings. As well, I did not want to have to wear anything on my wrist during the day. The clip vs. band was a huge plus for me. Plus the burgundy color is really nice (though where I clip it, no one sees it anyway). I downloaded the free Fitbit app and created an account online as soon as I got it (you have to activate and set up online anyway). It asks for your goals as far as weight loss, in what time frame, steps per day goals, etc. You can make changes if you need to. Based on the goals you set for your weight loss amount and how hard you are willing to work for it (from easy at 0.5 lbs/week to very hard at 2 lbs/week), it will calculate how many calories a day you should be eating and then tell you how long it should take to reach your goal. This is the website or app, not the Fitbit One itself. The Fitbit is small and I barely notice I'm wearing it. The clip is a rubbery material that is very soft, so it is easy to get the One into and out of the clip when you want to put it into the band for sleeping. I clip it to clothes on my upper body as per the instruction recommendations, and I don't remember it is there. You can set a message for when you first start it up, and then you can cycle through various stats, like # steps walked, stairs climbed, miles walked, calories burned, and then it will show the time all on the display. On the website/app, you will get more details about all the areas that are tracked. When you meet a milestone, it has a little "hooray" for you - for example today I met my steps goal. If you want it to track your sleep, you need to put it in the sleep band. I did that last night and it is super easy to get the One out of the clip and slip it into the band. I had to keep the band fairly loose so it wouldn't be uncomfortable - it isn't the softest material - but when I fell asleep I didn't even notice I had it on. In the morning, it gave me details about my sleep pattern and how long I was actually sleeping vs. how long I was in bed, which I think is super helpful. This is a great tool, but like any tool the responsibility is still on the individual. You have to manually enter your food in the online tracker (or in the app), and it will tell you how many calories you've eaten, how many you have left, etc. It will also tell you how many you may have left because of the amount of calories you've burned. But that is all dependent on a person taking the time to put the information in and doing so accurately. For me, that's the hardest part (I've tried food tracker apps in the past). I think once I get into the habit and make it my routine, it shouldn't be so difficult. Synching data from the One to the computer/app is done wirelessly. I noticed it makes it to my app (via bluetooth) much more quickly than it makes it to my computer. Sometimes I have to refresh the computer several times to get it to show the right number of steps, etc. However, there is so much more information in the online dashboard than in the app, and you can get into great detail about your sleep and other things that I really do want it to synch accurately (and quickly) with my computer. My one complaint is that I didn't realize it already came with a clip and a sleep band so I bought them separately. That might be MY mistake, though, so I didn't take any stars off for it. But if you want to buy this, unless you want to have an extra clip and band just in case, you do NOT need to buy them separately. Overall, I'm very pleased with this choice. It was a tough decision but so far so good. I'll update if status after I've used it for awhile.

I bought the FitBit One specifically because I wanted a pedometer that could be clasped somewhere other than my hip. I am an obese female office worker and pedometers in the past have not tracked well, been too visible through my clothes, or easily fallen off. I received my FBO in November 2013 and immediately tested it out around my home and office, areas where previous devices (or manual counting) ensured consistency. To me, it appeared to be quite accurate and I wear it clipped to the middle of my bra, display facing my body. When I change in the evening, it gets clipped to my pajama pants waistband and continues to be accurate and secure. I like being able to set goals in all or few of the various actions that FBO tracks - steps, minutes active, distance, calories burned, etc. I have a goal set for steps and active minutes per day. I do feel that FBO accurately tracks my calorie output -- that is, provided I track any activity that is more than walking (such as weight training or Zumba). I began paying closer attention to calories in and calories burned after having the FBO for 6 months, and my weight loss has fairly consistently lined up with my intake/burn defecit. Another plus: the vibrating timer. I examined my work schedule, and saw that two days a week, I sit at my computer for 4+ hours. I set multiple vibrating timers to remind me to get up - and I don't always listen, but I am way more aware now of how long I stay in one place (it also prompted me to but a sit-stand desk which has helped my posture). While visiting friends with a bi-level home I noticed that the online tracker showed half flights! I loved this because of the hills in our neighborhood being counted as half flights or whole flights. I have an elliptical that the FBO does accurately count steps for. What I don't feel FBO does well when I am on the elliptical is count my active minutes - it frequently does not consider them active. I can't expect the FBO to track my heart rate to know what IS active for my body, though, so I learned after several months that the key is to track my elliptical activity in the app versus as steps. This allowed me to reach active minutes goals and more accurately reflects calories burned. I have only used my FBO to track sleep a few times, maybe a total of 20-30 nights. I know my sleep habits are poor and I didn't need a device to tell me that. This was the one defining factor in comparing to other trackers - the ability to wake me with vibration during a certain depth in my REM sleep cycle. That would be a nice feature, but where the other device had it, it lacked in other areas where the FBO excelled. I love that my FBO syncs automatically when I get home, and also with my MapyMyRun and MyFitnessPal accounts. I don't use either accounts consistently, but I have support networks on both so FBO shares my mileage, active minutes, and weight updates to keep me engaged with my network. In those first few months, I averaged fewer than a depressing 4K steps per day. A work challenge in June really prompted major activity changes for which my daily average has increased to 8K per day. It doesn't sound like a lot to some people, but for someone who spends over 75 minutes commuting and 10+ hours in the office each day, I'm thrilled with the new activity level. I find myself checking FBO during bathroom breaks, and feel motivated to have informal walking meetings, or eat my 10-minute lunch in another building (all connected) just to rack up the steps. I never thought I'd be able to make it work, but somehow it is, and I give a lot of credit to my FitBit One!! **the small rigid plastic piece on the back of my burgundy holder cracked in 2 pieces last week - the second week of August, after 9 months of daily wear. I was only bummed because the exposed metal made it difficult to slide down on and off my bra, so I cut a small piece of duct tape to cover the sharp edges. Still works perfectly, and I don't feel the integrity of the product is compromised or cheap - although I do wish I could buy and glue on just another little cap versus a whole new holder. Oh well, still love this thing!

I'm an avid exerciser and try to eat healthy, because when I don't, I gain weight very easily. I've always grown up overweight. At 5' 3", my highest weight was 155 pounds. That was in 2004. So for the last 10 years, I've changed my eating habits, ate healthy, exercised...and my weight has fluctuated from 120 - 145 pounds in the last decade. This was usually dependent on if I was single and my work schedule. (Which btw, turns out being single is great for your weight!) Anyhow, what always bothered me was I never really knew if I was overeating or if I had exercised enough. Sometimes when you exercise, you feel more hungry, so it's okay to eat. The question, is when can you stop eating? I got this pedometer for Christmas, so I've had it for 4 months, and it's changed my life. I don't actually care that it's a pedometer (the amount of steps I do is an irrelevant number if you ask me), but what I do care about is that I can see how many miles I traveled in a day and that it tells me how many calories I've burned. (FYI, on average I travel 7 miles a day). MOST IMPORTANTLY, the FitBit site allows you to log in what you've eaten and it will tell you if you have overeaten. At first, I thought I wouldn't use this, it seemed too time-consuming to log my food, but after I did it once, I was sold. It gives you a good idea as to how much you can eat. Not to mention, when you log your activity, it adjusts your calorie allotment for that day. If I don't work out, it says I can eat 1300 calories. If I do work out, I can eat around 2000 calories. After 4 months of logging, I really have a better sense of how many calories is in everything I eat, and just how important that extra 30 more minutes of exercise is. For me, I've actually seen results. When I follow my calorie allotment... the majority of the time my weight is on track, meaning I'm either the same weight, or I've lost 1/4 pound or so. If I don't follow my calorie allotment, then my weight goes up a little. For example, yesterday, I decided to eat 2 chocolate chip cookies for dessert, which made me go over my allotted food calories for that day (by 300 to be exact). I weighed myself today and I gained 3/4 of a pound when I had been steadily decreasing. So I can see a direct correlation between my diet and weight, which is a great motivator. In fact, I used to snack on these mini candy bars I have at my house, maybe 3 a day. And I stopped doing that mostly because I know I have to go to the trouble of logging it, and the extra 50 calories each it adds to my det is really not very fulfilling. Since I've started using FitBit, my weight has gone done, from 138 to 130 pounds and it looks like it will continue to decrease. I've learned that in order for me to feel satisfied with the amount of food I eat a day, my daily workout has to burn 600 calories (I run 3.6 miles, 40 minutes of stretching, 40 minutes of Wii Zumba or Just Dance)... if I don't do my workout, then I really have to watch what I eat. It's really amazing how easy it is to overeat. As simple as eating 2 small cookies! By the way, if you love to bake and cook and don't know how to log your food, search for "Calorie Count New Recipe" and you can find the nutrition facts for whatever you cooked by simply putting in the recipe ingredients plus the number of servings; then you can add that new food item to your FitBit account. I used to think my homemade chocolate chip cookies were about 50 calories each. Turns out they're 150 calories each! I love this FitBit. When I reach 120 pounds, I'll post a video on my YouTube channel, XoletteLife. By the rate my weight is going, that could between June- August 2014. We'll see! :)

Okay, FitBit CS claims they have shipped replacement products to us, although the tracing number which they say is USPS is actually FedEx so who knows? So up to 4 stars. Originally, this was a FIVE STAR REVIEW. The high failure rate of these units combined with the run around stall tactics of FitBit customer service brought it down to a THREE. You cannot talk to their customer service, only email and there will be long gaps---often a day---between exchanges. Still, we believe in this product and what it has done for us and are of the opinion that the other companies in this market have the same issues. I bought the first one at BestBuy, the second---for my wife---at Target. This little device has turned our life around! My wife was skeptical at first, but within a day she has become an obsessive convert. She has already done 18 flights and it is only 10:30 AM. I wish the One would sync to a computer without the dongle, but it does sync to phones and tablet via Bluetooth 4.0. The "flight" measurement, i.e., flights of stairs, uses an altimeter so it will register flights if you, say, drive up a mountain or take an escalator. You can manually back them out. The sleep monitor has been very revealing in terms of how long it takes to sleep, and "good" sleep versus restless sleep. The steps will only accurately convert to miles if you have set your stride length correctly. We have found the step measurement to be dead-on. We have tested it against two other pedometers and our own observation,and a GPS. Having said that, I'd be satisfied if it was accurate within 5% and it is more so. It is always interesting to read the 1-star reviews. While way fewer than 10% of the reviewers gave the FitBit One one star reviews, reading a few trash reviews randomly seems to indicate: People got what they ordered but did not know what they were ordering. People lost it, and want to blame the product. With the silicone, "sticky" case it tends to cling to clothing. I'd recommend clipping to the inside of a pocket, or put in in the pocket or clip INSIDE a belt. People cannot accomplish simple tasks requiring minimal manual dexterity. e.g., removing it from the clip case to put it in the night band. Now, if it slipped in and out too easy they would complain. People just are never happy with anything and make a career out of trashing good products because they are psychotic. Anything more technical than dental floss is beyond their ability to cope. People are insanely impatient and do not understand the basic rule of all technology: When in doubt, reboot or reset. Our first one didn't seem to be syncing completely. I Googled, "How do you resent a FitBit One?", and then did so. I deleted it from FitBit Connect (set up new device) and started all over again---must have taken three minutes. It worked fine. UPDATE: that unit, purchased January 8, 2014 DIED on June 4, 2014, I.e., the button no longer turn it on. After a lot of back and forth which was amazingly annoying, i.e., they don't read what you tell them, and a lot of trashing on the "community" they claim to be processing a replacement order. In summary, we both want to lose 8 pounds. I gained that eight pounds five years ago when I quit smoking. (we did that and more!) The FitBit One keeps us focused and motivated on finite goals. I'm already 25% to my goal in the first two weeks. (WE HAVE BOTH EXCEEDED OUR GOALS at five months and are in better shape than ever.) As pleased as we are with our progress, there are a lot of these units that fail---in our case at least three out of 14. Other manufacturers evidently have similar issues. My wife's unit dropped an hour of activity for no apparent reason. Then intermittently the button would not work and when it did the unit would display the version number as if it had been reset. It began to be erratic in measuring activity. One other unit accepts zero input from the button. It is tracking but you cannot "turn it on" to see what is happening. When this item works it is great...BIG BUT!!! We have bought THIRTEEN (NOW 14) and gifted friends, workmates and family. I'm looking at two, Burgundy, that do not work---bad switch, won't turn on, loses activity, and so on. One of the ones we gifted---my wife's boss---failed in three weeks. Dealing with FitBit customer service is annoying. Amazon only does direct replacement for 35 days. If your unit fails---and at least three of the 14 we have bought have failed, maybe more since gift recipients are often reticent to tell you--- my advise is to HAMMER customer service AND the moderators on the "community". They will run you around as long as possible but will probably come around under enough pressure. In our case they claim that they are processing replacement orders for two units. If you bought from Amazon, a screen shot of your order history is an acceptable receipt but rest assured FITBIT will not acquiesce quickly. THEY'RE LEGENDARY FOR THE STALL, and even the biggest supporters admit that in the "community". If you gift, give a gift receipt. Even better, buy from someplace like Best Buy and pay $11 for a two year extended no questions warranty. Or, perhaps buy direct from FitBit and then proof of purchase will not be an issue.

I've used the device for a week. Many things it promises have been delivered; yet some things are undelivered. Fitbit is (apparently) having problems with the sleep tracking part of this little device - or is it their software on the "cloud"? Evidently I did not do enough "due diligence" on how the data would be reported and maintained. It is not done on one's computer/tablet/smart phone. The information is taken from the little piece of machinery and delivered directly to the the Fitbit central servers where one may see it in a "dashboard" of reports - but not in depth ones; that comes at an additional charge. Yes that is correct. This little enterprise is somewhat akin to selling printers so that profits can be made in ink sells. Note I wrote "somewhat". For the time being one may see the results of the data collection at no charge - save and except the more detailed reports that have a cost associated with them. I think have an application not in cloud but one which the owner of the device would have on his computing device would be the better way to go. As it is, the number of steps one takes, how long one sleeps, how many stairs are climbed and if one wishes to enter it how many calories are consumed, how much one weighs and the % fat one has can be entered into the data base on the website. Who has access to that? Of course one can access his own data and can even share it. But yet, it is not under the control (lock & key) of the owner of the information - it is intrusted to Fitbit. The little device seems to do what Fitbit says it will do. The reports, without premium payment, are pedestrian - and some are problematic (the sleep one as an example). Personal information is outside of one's own control. I am sharing this with you - but I really don't want you to know what I do in the way exercise (or anything else really) how fat I am and my sleep patterns. That is too much information that has left my control and is turned over to who knows what. If you don't mind sharing - if you love the Facebook world - if you want to allow others to see your personal information; then this may be a super way for you to "share". Since I spent my mad money on this I will continue to use it. Maybe it will in fact prod me to more activity and a healthier life. But you will never know. One last comment. The wrist band that holds the device while sleeping: works really well. I was quite surprised that it did not bother me - not in the least. Now if the software would only correctly report sleep - some days it shows I sleep all the time (and despite what my employer thinks - I don't sleep "all" the time). Take a look at this one - you may well like. I have recommended to others - with caveats. [I wanted the Fitbit wrist machine - but since the backlog was up to 2 months I bought this one]