Fitness / Activity Tracking "Watches" (Fitbit, Jawbone, etc.) Recomendations

Anyone have experience with any of these? Looking for something for my dad. He doesn’t have a smart phone though so it needs to have a screen and be able to act as a stand alone unit.

Fitbit Flex I have when it first came out. Battery life is meh but the app makes it the best part even though it comes with the USB dongle to pair to a laptop or PC.

Yeah a lot of these things focus on apps and social aspects which don’t mean anything to my dad.

The one I’m looking at now if the Garmin Vivosmart because it vibrates when you’ve been sitting around to long, lol. My dad needs a health nanny.

Does he own a smartphone?

Nope. He’s practically off the grid… and on the golf course exclusively, lol.

The Garmin one is pretty good. I love the battery lasts a year in it and can see your daily activity on it. It is also pretty cheap compared to others in the market and more standalone.

So you basically want a pedometer that has alerts…

“Hey Josh…Josh…guess how many steps I’ve taken…”

That would be an improvement for him, lol. Yeah I’d like something that implies “hey, you’re unhealthy. Maybe you should get off your ass and walk a bit.”

really any android smartwatch can do this, they dont need a smartphone though it really diminishes the ability of the watch. plus there are nice golf apps for smart watches that tell you your swing speed and such plus tell you distance to the hole

That’s an interesting idea. I’ll have to look into it this week.

I just bought the Fitbit Charge and bought the GF the Fitbit Flex (she wanted a pink one).

So far, it’s pretty cool. I like that its a simplistic watch, which is really why I bought it, but then the app and vibrating alarms are really neat too.

Got one of the Fitbits for my mother for Christmas…she loves it so far

People say these are like the new live strong bands. I wear mine since I live around my computer and can sit for hours on end. Studies are showing that moving a little bit each hour is better than sitting for hours straight and then working out for 30 minutes at night every day.

I don’t realize how idle I am until I put one of these on. I saw my first day have like 2,000 steps and was like, holy fuck I am lazy. The contests are pretty fun. I like seeing how some of my active friends do and try to get at least 6,000 at first and grew up to 9,000-10,000 a day now that its warmer.

I think a watch with a screen makes the most sense. I use the Jawbone UP24 with an app but alas, no screen. Your Dad could manage the Jawbone from a browser window if he has a computer. It has the activity coach vibrate reminders, sleep logging, steps etc. It also sync’s with My Fitness Pal so if the user is logging it’s diet, the app/website shows the activity + nutrition.

I did a lot of research on these around xmas… reluctantly ended up with a fitbit charge HR. 24/7 HR monitoring was a must as this was for my father. Fitbit also lets you export your data and do with it as you please(ie: give to dr.). I really wanted the https://www.mybasis.com/ but their software was really lacking and did not give you an export feature.

Bumping this thread because over that past 2 years I’ve had nothing but great customer service from Fitbit. It’s quite remarkable actually.

Just today I had an order cancelled because I’m using my BCBS Wellness Card (yes, you can buy Fitbit stuff with your BCBS Wellness card) and it has a maximum of $250.00. My order came to $250.07 and BCBS declined the card. So I called and asked to pay the remaining .07 with a different card, but instead they said they’d just eat the .07 and ship it anyway. It’s only .07 but now-a-days I wouldn’t expect that level of “common sense” from a company.

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