fitness monitors with HR attachment? offline use?

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2/7/13 5:49 P

Thanks! That's very helpful. And you're right, the fitness monitors don't have GPS.

Edited by: HOOKTONTRAVEL at: 2/7/2013 (17:51)

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2/7/13 2:05 P

Oh, what I described works fine without a smart phone--I only recently got one myself. But it does involve internet access--just like logging food on Spark does. The fitbit does store your data for 7 days so your archive is fine if you sync within that time. By the way, in your situation, I would look for a now-discontinued Ultra if you can find one on sale to save money. The big difference, as near as I can tell between the one and the ultra is the one can use bluetooth to sync through certain smart phones and the one had vibrating alarms too. I am still using an Ultra and it works fine. You would need to bring your base station with you when charging your fitbit and uploading the data. The calorie burn and other stats on your fitbit device would be strictly based on teh fitbit tracked steps until your sync. Manually logged activities are not factored in until after you log them and after your fitbit and fitbit.com account sync. So I guess it depends on how up-to-date you want all the information to be.

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2/7/13 1:58 P

I use a fitbit and there are a lot of other websites/services/apps that can sync with it. This won't be as helpful for you since you don't have a "smartphone". I use a heart rate monitor app that can sync with fitbit called Digifit and the app syncs with a bluetooth heart rate monitor strap.

You can manually log exercise to fitbit, and you can manually log it using the data from your heart rate monitor. I use to do this before I had a hrm and still do for water exercise (as I don't swim or do water aerobics with my phone).

Fitbit does not use GPS, I don't think any of the fitness monitors do either? The sensors in fitbit are strictly accelerometer--that is why it is so small. The bodybugg/bodymedia have accelerometers and also sensors for body temperature and perspiration and something else? I don't believe they use GPS either. I suspect many people would be uncomfortable wearing GPS all day, I would anyway.

People do frequently use phone GPS apps or devices that sync with fitbit for distance activities like cycling. I know a lot of users who do distance activities use Garmin heart rate monitors. I just use a regular Polar Hrm or a phone app + HRM. There are a lot of options, it is fairly common for fitbit users to use the fitbit for general activity and walking and their hrm for other intentional exercise. Manually logging the activity would work fine with whatever device you prefer.

I am not sure about the other monitors as I have been happy about my fitbit/hrm combo. I do read reviews and am curious, but I haven't used them to know how easy it is to manually log activity or to sync with a heart rate monitor.

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2/7/13 12:00 P

I've been checking out things like bodybugg, fitbit, bodymedia fit, etc. Some of them (with GPS, accelerometer , and altitude, as well as ones that monitor sleep) sound great. I've been reading posts on here as to which ones people like better and why.

But as far as I can tell not ONE of them will mesh with a hr monitor, which i'd like to add in when i'm doing active exercise. (I do a weight lifting class that no doubt burns calories but isn't going to tell an accelerometer much, nor will time on an elliptical do anything for GPS...and swimming? how does that work with a fitmonitor)
Also, it is hard to tell how the systems work to monitor your info. i use SP okay, but I don't have a smartphone (nor will I). There are times where i'm living/working places and don't have internet access. Do any of these have software that comes on a disc or is downloadable so I could maintain monitoring on my computer without connecting to the internet?
It sounds like i'd want to have one system for monitoring my exercise (leaning towards a new balance with GPS & hr, that I could wear swimming since I do that at least once a week) in addition to the 'fitness monitor.' and that none of them really can be done offline. I probably need to get some average calorie uses and books of foods and do things with paper and a notebook.

so -- any fitness monitors that have sleep monitoring, GPS, etc AND can be matched with a HR monitor,
and any that can be used OFFLINE?

I guess that's what my questions boil down to.

Thanks for any thoughts and info.