Fitbit...Fitness In Retirement

Good day everyone

As of this evening Mr Kandy will finally be retiring after a very long time in work (18-65)

We do quiet a bit of walking when Mr Kandys knee problem doesn't give him grief so after having a conversation with him the other day he says that for a retirement Prezzie from me he would like possibly one of those Fitbit gadgets that are like a watch and record all manner of different things on it,or so he has been told by his work mates

Can any of you fitness buffs out there please give us an idea of what one to buy if you have one of these yourselves and what you think of them.He was having a look round the net last night and there seems to be quite a few to choose from and some seem quiet expensive which I assume is because of the different things they do

He has one of those bits on his phone that tracks the steps he walks but it means having to carry his phone with him which he does sometimes if he is on call out and to take photos with.

Any info will be most great fully received as it seems to be a minefield of all the different types and what they do but I don't want to spend a fortune on something that isn't going to be much use and only basic...

Thanks in advance..Kandy

 

I bought a cheapo step tracker, currently residing in the odds and sods bowl, all I can say on the type I had, they want charging all the time, so if it`s charged by a watch battery, better, the strap was easily undone, every time I removed coat or something, not easy to read display without glasses.
I have a simple pedometer on my phone, I do carry it when I go out walking, good enough, I did install run keeper, it works on G.P.S. very efficient, but after I had established it was a mile around the perimeter of my dog walking field, and it could be paused when I got home, until next walk, so my total mileage per day, dog walking only, was somewhere between 4-5 miles, I again uninstalled, again drained battery and also caused "lagging" on my phone, just checked and apparently did 4.2 miles yesterday.

 

No advice, but couldn't miss the opportunity ...

Mr Kandy!!

 

I worked in Currys over xmas and these flew off the shelves, out of the Fitbits I would get a charge hr.. more expensive but monitors a lot more than the fitbit flex. I think the Surge is over priced tbh and the demo one was really slow. And the only other fitness watches that stood out were Alcatel one touch, doesn't need charging so often and looks much nicer like your classic watch and then there was a Garmin make, much more expensive but the bee knees. There was a vivoactive, vivosmart or vivofit, one even measures golf courses.. technology changes so quickly though so I don't know if there are newer versions. It all depends on what you would want it to do..some even monitor sleep!

 

I have both a Fitbit Charge HR and Flex. The Flex was £40 just over a year ago in the sale. It's a basic tracker which counts steps and measures how you sleep. It can vibrate as a silent alarm to wake you up. You take the small chip out of the wristband to charge it and the only thing you can see on the display is flashing lights- telling you how much % of your goal steps per day you have done. It needs one charge a week. You can buy all manner of wristbands for it if you want to change your style!

The charge HR is a bit more technology packed, on the screen you can see the time, steps you've done, your heart rate, how many floors (Staircases!) you have climbed, calories burned and distance walked (based on steps). As well as measuring steps it measures your heart rate. It requires charging about once every 3 days.

They are both brilliant devices- you can team up with friends on the FitBit app on smart phones and challenge them, over a day, weekend or working week, and you can see all the stats of what you've been up to as well! They both sync by Bluetooth to a phone or they both come with a Bluetooth sync to plug into a USB on a computer or laptop.

I got mine as we had a walking challenge at work and I wanted to try and get fitter as well. It's really good motivationally. I would recommend FitBit to anyone! Flex is good if you want something cheap but the Charge is fun if you like looking at stats and want to use it like a watch too! Please ask away if you have any questions... Or if you want to get a Fitbit and add me as a friend, send me a message!

 

We bought a dog, and he lets us know if we haven't walked far enough.

 

Many thanks for all your comments and will make sure that Mr Kandy reads these messages

We don't normally go out and buy the latest Gadgets but it was just something said in a conversation and with all the talk these days in monitoring ones health and sleep patterns had a thought to get one as neather of us sleep well so it would have been interesting to see what our sleep patterns were like and to see if we can improve on our fitness levels even more although at the moment with Mr Kandys knee problems we can't March along like we used to

Thanks for the retirement wishes @"M" he had a lovely send off and right up until the last few days his boss was asking him to reconsider as they are going to be in the soup a bit now that he has gone but as I pointed out to Mr Kandy that you only have one go at this life and I think it is important to finally spend some quality time together plus it will give a younger person a job