Review of FitBit One Wireless Activity Tracker

If you're like me, you've tried pedometers, eating plans, and tracking every single morsel you've eaten. Unfortunately, if you are also like me, you have given up when life got too hectic and all that "tracking" seemed like work.  It's really hard to stay fit and lose weight when you have no idea what you're eating or burning, so I was stumped on how to fit the time in to track my actions accurately.

The FitBit One was a tool that a friend of mine had claimed help her lose a bunch of weight.  I also knew that this friend used popular monthly weight loss plans in the past and did OK with them.  I figured that the FitBit was yet another trend, but offered to review it on the blog.

I set up the little device with ease (you'll need internet) and began watching the tracker count my activity steps.  It did so by doing it in the same way a pedometer did.  It also tracked my "stairs climbed" (which on a normal day is zero in our one story home.)  It tracked miles walked and also showed me a snapshot of how far I was at meeting my goals for the day with a little digital "flower" that grew larger as I made it closer to my goals each day.  This part, so far, was impressive and easy.  But I still needed to track my food.

Tracking food in the program was similar to tracking with apps like MyFitnessPal.  You had to look up your food and select a portion size.  Then, calories are automatically counted.  Yes, it took time, but the reward was that I could "sync" my FitBit at the same time and see how many more calories I got for the day according to how much I had already burned.  Some days, this meant that I could eat bunches of food -- if I was active and forgot to eat, for example.  Other days, I was nowhere near meeting my fitness goals because I was on my butt blogging all day -- so no extra snacks for me.

My favorite feature of the FitBit One, however, is the sleep tracking.  By setting it to sleep mode, you get to wake up the next morning to a report that included how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up, how long you slept overall, and the percentage of time you spent in bed alseep (as compared to tossing and turning.)


This showed me that I was getting much more sleep that I thought I was, and that the reason I was likely tired was because I stayed in bed too long.  Luckily, the FitBit One also comes with a silent alarm.  You can set it to vibrate at a certain time each day to wake you -- without waking the sleeping toddler who crawled into bed next to you.

Overall, this little device is fantastic.  Now that I'm pregnant, I likely won't use it to track calories as much as to make sure that I'm moving enough.  I think that the sleep features are amazing, and I recommend this tool for anyone looking to improve their overall health -- not just those looking to drop pounds.

Find out more at the FitBit website.

*I received this sample to facilitate a review.  Opinions are 100% my own.


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