Fitbit: Pros & Cons

My first step counter was made by Garmin. It was very cool, my first experience of a GPS based wrist tracker. When I lost interest, roughly a year later, I took a break from the step counting and from eating healthy. I gained a bunch of weight, the highest I had ever been, and then started looking for an app for my iPhone. I found the Lose It app with the orange scale as its icon. That was a game changer for me because I learned all about counting calories in addition to logging exercise. The app had a bar code scanner so whatever I ate could be tracked too. I was successful with that method until I got lazy and figured I didn't need it anymore. The weight, slowly but surely, came back. Then we moved to the US, bought a fitness equipment business and I felt more pressure than ever to at least be healthy. In January of 2020, perfect time for a resolution, I found a knock-off Apple watch on Amazon and I was hooked! The app was free, the watch could control the music I played from my phone, it counted my steps and it recorded my sleep. Things were going well until late May when the glitches outweighed the features. The caller ID that used to show when someone in my contacts was calling, stopped working, every caller was 'Unknown'. The vibrating call signal wouldn't start buzzing until the call was missed AND it wouldn't stop its vibration until I cleared it on the watch itself. With the amount of calls I get everyday for the business, this was a serious irritation so I gave up on my $39 wanna-be Apple watch. NOW, the new gadget is the Fitbit Charge 4... here are my thoughts (it's been 10 days):

PRO: The steps are accurate; you can also manually adjust the length of your stride under settings

CON: If I bounce on the couch or just wave my arm around while wearing the wrist band, the steps increase that way too (this is cheating and I was only testing it out)

PRO: The app is super cool with lots of features, all very user friendly

CON: In order to get through all of the things I want to see, I have to set aside at least 10mins every morning, afternoon and evening to sync and review my stats

PRO: The sleep score is awesome, showing me my heart rate on a graph. What my REM sleep, Deep sleep, Light sleep and Awake times are

CON: Wearing it to bed can be a nuisance, it took me a few nights to get used to it

PRO: There is a community of Fitbit users. You can join chat groups that have their own news feed's and people post recipes, their workouts, before and after pics of their weight loss journey and their goals

CON: Just like with any online chat room experience, even though the only reaction they give you is 'Cheer', there are still internet trolls who ruin things

PRO: You can add 'Friends' and 'Challenge' them on who can get the most steps in the Work Week Hustle or the Weekend Warrior challenge. There is also no limit on how many challenges you participate in (currently, I am in 2 Work Week Hustles and 1 Fitness Bingo Challenge🙌🏽)

CON: When someone becomes your friend they can private message you and I have learned that people are using this method to date or take advantage or just toy with others (NOT cool, so I posted in my chat group what I've been dealing with, see pics below)

PRO: There are Badges and Trophies that you get when you break your own personal records

CON: I need to work harder to get those Badges and Trophies😋

PRO: I haven't lost weight yet BUT I have lowered my resting heart rate from 72 to 69

CON: I haven't lost weight yet

Overall, I am happy with the experience and I am enjoying the Fitbit world, especially now that I figured out where the 'Block' button is for all the creeps that come out of the woodwork.