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    LettucePrayKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 10:49pm

    Whatever. Fuck these people and their fucking gadgets. I'm not here to throw shade on you if fitness isn't your thing. So move along if you watch HoC while eating a tub of tres leches cake. Life is short, I'm glad you found your way to forget we are all headed to the grave.

    But as far as the fitness crowd - you know who the real fit people are? The ones that don't need all that stupid shit. The ones that wake up and go running in whatever shit allows them to move, Chuck Taylors if they have to because they can't find their sneakers. We don't need to change into workout gear to go for a walk or dress up like Lance fucking Armstrong to go for a bike ride. We don't need to wear $150 Lulusemen tights to do 15 half-assed crunches at the local YWCA, and we certainly don't need a tracking fucking device on our wrists to tell us we are active today. You don't need to optimize every breath, step, and shit you take with a dumb-looking gadget. Just get out there and give it an honest effort. Work your ass off and get to the brink of quitting several times, but stick through it because you are a fucking warrior. Then go home, rest, and repeat the next day.

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      MEtheBarbarianLettucePray
      2/16/15 10:53pm

      I'm sure you have enough muscle from patting yourself on the back. No one is judging committed atheletes, but not everyone has the time or will to be one.

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      LettucePrayMEtheBarbarian
      2/16/15 10:57pm

      That's fine. I thought I made that clear. But the people who show up with these fancy gadgets are the ones we stop seeing at the gym about 3 weeks after they sign up. Motivation comes from within.

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    MEtheBarbarianKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 10:37pm

    Whatever. It may not be totally accurate but the $50 I spent on my fitbit was worth it. It 100% shames me into walking more. Judgemental numbers do so much more for me than they should. Do whatever works for you. All I know is that getting to the step goal becomes an obsession with users and it gets you moving more.

    I'm also curious about the data of the clip on one I have vs the wristbands I've always felt like arm movements don't seem like they'd be very accurate.

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      MouthyFishwifeMEtheBarbarian
      2/16/15 10:42pm

      The shame factor of those things is no joke. I lost mine and actually ended up replacing it because seeing how goddamn low those numbers were now that I work in an office terrified the shit out of me. Not having them shoved in my face multiple times a day made it easier to be in denial.

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      VodkaRocks&aPieceofToastMEtheBarbarian
      2/16/15 10:42pm

      YUP! It's been doing wonders for me. :) Might be a stupid psychological thing but it works

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    KateKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/17/15 2:37am

    I read the mother jones article and didn't bother responding because a million people had already chimed in about how the study is actually saying that your phone does as good of a job, not that the fitbit is bullshit. If you couldnt think of one reason that someone would prefer a slim, light band over carrying their cell phone in their hand, I don't know what to tell you.

    It's just so shitty. A lot of people, myself included, found something that works for them (and isn't a crash diet. It's something that just encourages you to walk more. Speaking of science, it wants you to move more) and because it's popular of course you need to publish a judgey article with a click baity headline and a half baked understanding of both the study and the device.

    Full disclosure: I have a fitbit (and the scale by the same brand) and when people ask me what I've been doing to lose weight (45lbs now!) i talk it up because I give 45% of the credit to this thing. The other 65% is a couch to 5k running app and so much hard work.

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      LadyologyKate
      2/17/15 2:48am

      Hey, there's a cool couch to 5k "plan" on my Pacer app on my iPhone. Can you speak to which one you use?

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      fluffy kittenfaceKate
      2/17/15 6:04am

      Thats fantastic! Congrats on your hard earned sleeker form. Ive lost about 60 by making better food choices and moving more. I would never judge anyone for losing weight unless they were using crack cocaine or meth for that purpose. And even that would be out of deep concern. Ive seen Requiem for a Dream too many times.

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    VodkaRocks&aPieceofToastKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 10:40pm

    Yea but my jawbone stays on me at all times, as opposed to my galaxy S5 which is usually only on me when its in my purse. So there is that

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ETA: Whatever floats your boat. Ive lost ten lbs since using my tracker as well as myfitnesspal to track food so that is some good bullshit

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      Cabernet SauvicrunkVodkaRocks&aPieceofToast
      2/16/15 10:45pm

      the scanner thingy on myfitnesspal is legit.

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      A Farce to Be Reckoned WithVodkaRocks&aPieceofToast
      2/16/15 10:47pm

      likewise! I love my jawbone. It's reminders to drink more and eat fiber essentially led to what I can only believe amounts to crapping out 10 lbs in two weeks. I'm not complaining.

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    erasablepoemKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 11:12pm

    I don't understand the point of this article.

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      NotOkayerasablepoem
      2/16/15 11:18pm

      If anything, I've become inspired to buy a Fitbit!

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      erasablepoemNotOkay
      2/16/15 11:33pm

      I have one and I love it! Get the charge hr!

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    ojaKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 10:41pm

    Nothing here seems to say that the Filbit is "bullshit." Convenience is a good thing. The last sentence also makes no sense, it seems to imply that we should focus more on healthy habits instead of on exercise...exercise is a healthy habit.

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      valkoroja
      2/16/15 10:53pm

      I said the exact same thing without realizing so many others had as well haha!

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      ojavalkor
      2/16/15 11:09pm

      We truly are a hive mind.

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    LadyologyKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/17/15 2:34am

    This is not even close to what the study actually demonstrated.

    This insane and utterly false headline is why this website has an atrocious reputation for its science reporting. I laughed at how incompetent the reporting was in that Mother Jones article, but seeing it regurgitated here days later on a site I actually care about is extremely disappointing.

    A number of devices were tested at 500 steps and 1500 steps twice each by each participant by a number of participants sufficient to produce statistical power. The upshot was that wearable devices did not perform *better* than smartphone applications, on average. And one wearable device - the Nike Fuelband - performed abominably (Mother Jones reported this as "wearable devices had as much as a 22 percent variation" when in fact a single device did. Great job, morons at Mother Jones). Actually, the data for both 500 step and 1500 step counts were much tighter (far smaller error bars) for the Fitbit Flex and the Fitbit One than for any of the smartphone apps. After reading the paper in my latest JAMA, I'm now inclined to actually buy a FitBit. The next time I run into a friend with one, I will congratulate him or her on owning a device that performs well and is easier to use.

    This study at UPenn was part of a continuing body of work to assess whether wearable devices will impact the overall activity and fitness of the public. The conclusion is that: they will not, and they are not absolutely necessary. I concur with both of those points.

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      SamsClubWhoreHouseLadyology
      2/17/15 4:47am

      I tend to be a skeptical of the wearables revolution so I was intrigued when I saw this headline but even I think the entire Jez interpretation is bulshit.

      Here's a better way to hate on wearables: they measure an activity that is not really directly related to fitness but might be at best a proxy for it. Racking up many tens of thousands of leisurely steps is only beneficial in so far as that is not time you spend eating donuts. From a caloric standpoint you're better off just not eating the last bite of whatever it is you're having assuming you believe in the outdated calorie in-out model of the human body. From a physical stressors as medicine to the body perspective it doesn't even register since walking is not a stressor for most people.

      However such devices can be a proxy for fitness and other healthy behaviors. You may now be more likely to actually consider doing stressful exercise or having a slightly better diet because the thing on your wrist becomes a reminder to pay attention to your health and fitness.

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      LadyologySamsClubWhoreHouse
      2/17/15 1:41pm

      It isn't that Jez's "interpretation" is bullshit. It's obvious that no one at Jezebel read the article, so there is no "interpretation." They regurgitated an incompetently written Mother Jones article at us.

      As to your comment, if your point is that wearable devices won't change the world, I agree. Wearable fitness devices are like calorie counts in restaurants: they help already healthy people get healthier, and the already healthy appreciate them the most. And like calorie counts, I want them around. I don't really understand this business about a wearable device being a string around one's finger to eat a salad now and then; anecdotally, everyone I know with wearable devices is fitness obsessed and outrageously healthy already, and they just enjoy tracking their progress and sharing it with fellow weekend athletes on social media. My entire family may buy FitBits soon for the following reasons:

      • My brother doesn't carry his phone while he runs outside at 5am each day, and he'd like a way to track his distance, speed, and possibly his heart rate. He's a combat veteran who still adheres to a "military athlete" training program.
      • At 65, my fitness enthusiast father is very concerned about tracking his heart rate. He is too tall to grip the heart rate monitors on the treadmill while he jogs each day. He's also an insomniac, and now that he's retired, his carefully constructed sleeping patterns have fallen apart. He wants data to inform new ways of working around his sleeping problems.
      • My 68 year old mother is hypertensive, controlled on a combination diuretic and ARB regimen. She also exercises daily with a personal trainer. Her medication can leave her prone to episodes of hypotension, and a heart rate monitor could clue her in to a potential problem by signaling tachycardia (abnormally high heart rate, which via a reflex mechanism is the physiological compensation for low blood pressure). She also enjoys brisk walking outdoors in the hilly area where she and my father live. She currently wears a digital pedometer at times but would much prefer a device like a FitBit. Brisk walking is a highly appropriate exercise for a woman approaching 70 with increasing arthritic stiffness and episodic sciatica.
      • I fucking want one.
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    Queen of BithyniaKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/17/15 12:06am

    I find myself sort of puzzled at all the media outlets I've seen credulously covering this study as though it meant anything at all.

    Dear morons in the mainstream media and apparently also here in the Gawkerverse: most people don't have our smartphones on us all day long, which sort of misses the point of the fitness tracker — assuming we even have a smartphone with that particular feature; for people who (apparently unlike you) have a phone that's more than a year old, but want a fitness tracker, a $100 FitBit makes a lot more sense than an $800 iPhone upgrade or similar.

    I literally can't understand why anyone thought this research was worth reporting on at all — why would anyone possibly think it's worth remarking on that the same technology does the same thing and works just as well when it's in a phone as in a wristband? And that on top of the slightly alarming fact that just about every new media outlet apparently has at least one staffer who is allowed to write things who lacks the capacity to even imagine that anyone might possibly not have their phone in their hand at every given moment.

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      MaddrjeffeQueen of Bithynia
      2/17/15 12:14am

      Also the sample size was fourteen people... So there's that.

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      LadyologyQueen of Bithynia
      2/17/15 2:47am

      This PI has been involved with determining whether the advent of wearable devices will improve the health of the public. The conclusions of multiple studies by this investigator have been: a self-selected population already invested in its health uses them so they're unlikely to improve public health in general, and they do not perform demonstrably better than smartphones at counting steps (and specifically the Fuelband performs...disappointingly). Who cares? Well, insurance companies and CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). This body of work suggests they shouldn't subsidize them. :(

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    MouseatethekittyKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/16/15 10:43pm

    I never check my steps on my phone. I never remember to. I actually remember to check it on my fit bit though. And because I chevk them more often now I have doubled the amount of steps I do in a day. Plus I'm obsessed with seeing my sleep patterns in the morning. Fitbit for life and totally unapologetic.

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      LadyologyMouseatethekitty
      2/17/15 2:51am

      I don't have a FitBit, but I use the Pacer app on my iPhone. I get so irritated when I realize I'm running around all day probably burning loads of calories, but I keep setting my phone down on my desk or in my purse or on the treadmill tray at the gym. Pacer is utterly useless unless I'm specifically out to take a walk with my iPhone in my hand, and then I get pissed that I have to carry a stupid iPhone rather than just listen to podcasts on an iPod shuffle that's clipped to my shirt. What are we supposed to do, go back to those dumb iPod armbands?

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      MouseatethekittyLadyology
      2/17/15 5:52am

      pedometer maybe, never found one that is accurate enough for me though.

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    ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILDKaryn Polewaczyk
    2/17/15 12:43am

    Your FitBit Works Fine But Doesn't Necessarily Outperform Free/Cheap Phone Apps, Says Science

    FTFY

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      Mr. Ogre of the Atlantic Canadian Ogres, of course.ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ : Riot GRRR is RUNNING WILD
      2/18/15 11:55am

      Much better.

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