Want to buy an activity monitor, what do you use?

That is interesting you mentioned being tired in the morning. I was thinking since I am not heavy any longer I don't have sleeping issues but.....  What did you do to limit, stop the moving around to sleep better?

Garmin is the same brand as my GPS.  Thanks, I will check it out!  OH, does it sync up with food tracking apps?

Thanks again

Back in September, I did a lot of research and review reading, and I decided to go with the Jawbone Up24.  Overall, the Jawbone seemed to have better reviews.  I really like it.  The only real negative is that it has no screen at all.  You have to check your progress in the app.  But the app is really well designed, and it gives good information.  The positives are the design, the app, accuracy, and water/sweat resistant (you can shower with it, but not swim).  

Thanks wcdaniels,

I had heard of jawbone but not read any reviews!

I used the fitbit for a long time, until I sent it through the washing machine. I LOVE LOVE LOVED that little gizmo. but since I didn't have the money for a new one, a groupon came out for the jawbone and I have been using that for 3 months. Its not bad, but I do prefer my old fitbit to the jawbone. the jawbone you can only use with the iphone or smartphone, the fitbit you can use on the computer and smartphone, which I prefer. also the layout of the info is easier to understand with fitbit.

Hi twinmom914,

It's important to me to be able to read where I am and what I have accomplished. I remember having an old one when I was a gym rat and by the time I hit enter 7 times to get to the screen I wanted I had cooled down too much!

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on this

I cannot compare to other devices, but my husband and I both have fitbits.  He is a regular swimmer, in a kind of swimming club, and although some people seem to be ok wearing their fitbit while swimming, others of his swim companions have ruined theirs in the pool.  So he takes his off to swim. But it is fine to wear it in the shower, etc. 

The fitbit sends nice little summary reports to your email.  It give you little buzzes and blinking lights to celebrate your work each day.  Wen you are close to a steps goal, it sends you little messages to your mobile device to encourage you to do just a bit more to reach your goal.  The lights on it also let you see how close you are to your activity goal whether you have your mobile device near or not.

The fitbit integrates well with other fitness apps. I use My Fitness Pal to track my food, and it was easy to set things up for the two apps to talk to each other.

I really like how you can set alarms.  It buzzes your wrist.  I have two alarms set...one to remind me when I want to get ready for bed, as I tend to stay up too late and get involved in things, then get too tired, so it buzzes me to remind me, wherever I am. The second alarm is set for waking up.  This is great because I use earplugs at night, meaning I do not hear regular audible alarms...so I love the wrist buzzing alarm of the fitbit.

The fitbit shows movement during sleep. This has been really really interesting to see.  It led me to get a sleep study, and I learned that I have sleep apnea.  The fitbit info is not even close to a real sleep study (no fitness monitor would be), but it can show you some patterns in your conscious and unconscious behaviors...really valuable.  It also shows graphs of your sleep over time, so you can really see if you are getting enough sleep on a regular basis.

One of my (and hisband's) very favorite things about the fitbit...the ARIA scale.  You set this up to connect to your wireless network, and then it automatically records your weight and BF%, which you can see in numbers and graphs in your app.  It is really great to have this data kept automatically, and the visuals are really nice so you can see trends over time.  And it is so effortless!  Up to 8 people can use one scale, and it recognizes each person and keeps everyone's weights private from everyone else...unless yiu want to share for motivational reasons.  I really really love this feature.

I also like how it looks and feels on my wrist.

Good luck choosing!