Anyone else with a Fitbit - want the encouragement of a Fitbit friend?

[nidarosa]

I bought a Fitbit Flex a while ago thinking it would benefit my Camino training in that it measures distance and also is a visual reminder around my wrist that I need to walk more. Sadly with a freelance deskjob I have to make sure I make my deadlines first and foremost, and take time off when I can, not when I want. The result: I have set my daily goal at 10kms and very rarely succeed.

So I thought, if there are others out there who have a Fitbit and who are struggling to get the kilometers under their belt in preparation for their Camino, would you like to be 'Fitbit friends' for a bit of gentle competition and encouragement? As I understand it we just need to know each others' email addresses to see each others' daily or weekly number of steps, no other personal information is needed or divulged. It could spur us all on! I am fully aware that I will be bottom of the rankings most of the time but I also know that anything I can measure, gets done, especially if I know someone else will know if I have done it or not.

If you would like to have a Fitbit friend, please send me a PM/start a Conversation and I will send you my email address. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, just as long as you have a Fitbit account!

 

[clearskiescamino]

Already added @nidarosa

 

[nidarosa]

I now have two Fitbit friends already - and I am lagging terribly behind them both! But I have set aside Saturday for a long wander around the zoo, so watch this space ...

 

[peregrina2000]

I bought a Fitbit Flex a while ago thinking it would benefit my Camino training in that it measures distance and also is a visual reminder around my wrist that I need to walk more. Sadly with a freelance deskjob I have to make sure I make my deadlines first and foremost, and take time off when I can, not when I want. The result: I have set my daily goal at 10kms and very rarely succeed.

So I thought, if there are others out there who have a Fitbit and who are struggling to get the kilometers under their belt in preparation for their Camino, would you like to be 'Fitbit friends' for a bit of gentle competition and encouragement? As I understand it we just need to know each others' email addresses to see each others' daily or weekly number of steps, no other personal information is needed or divulged. It could spur us all on! I am fully aware that I will be bottom of the rankings most of the time but I also know that anything I can measure, gets done, especially if I know someone else will know if I have done it or not.

If you would like to have a Fitbit friend, please send me a PM/start a Conversation and I will send you my email address. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, just as long as you have a Fitbit account!

Hi, Nidarosa, I don't want to take this thread off topic, but I have a Fitbit question. A friend told me that Fitbits send all sorts of information out there to cyberspace and to the Fitbit people. Now she is no more of a tech expert than I am, but was relaying what she could remember about a conversation in which she was warned about getting one for privacy reasons. I'm not a privacy fiend, but would like to hear what the experts think about the fact that someone will have access to a whole lot of information about your habits and your condition. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[SYates]

Here is an interesting article around that topic: http://www.motherjones.com/politics...and-garmin-selling-your-personal-fitness-data
SY

 

[nidarosa]

Hi @peregrina2000 : I totally understand that reluctance to share personal and private information. However for the two people who I have now connected with, I can only see their number of steps in the last week, a very simple graph of their activity in the last month and no other info - weight, food, sleep pattern or anything else. As for what info the Fitbit site knows about me, I don't feel too worried - I give them very little info to start with even though they recommend their users add things about medical conditions, heart rate etc. I take the band off in the evening, use it only during the day and have not added personal information on their site. I am also very conscious about my privacy settings.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi @peregrina2000 : I totally understand that reluctance to share personal and private information. However for the two people who I have now connected with, I can only see their number of steps in the last week, a very simple graph of their activity in the last month and no other info - weight, food, sleep pattern or anything else. As for what info the Fitbit site knows about me, I don't feel too worried - I give them very little info to start with even though they recommend their users add things about medical conditions, heart rate etc. I take the band off in the evening, use it only during the day and have not added personal information on their site. I am also very conscious about my privacy settings.

Hi, nidarosa, thanks, but I'm not talking about sharing it with your friends, I'm talking about all the others who have access now that this data is recorded by fitbit. Is that a concern? That's what SYates' link is about.

 

[bystander]

Read this review:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/15...ss-tracking-heart-rate-monitoring-super-watch

Note in the penultimate paragraph it says the fitbit "can" (not that it does) send data to the company's website.

Looks to me a dirt great clunky device to be carting around!

 

[peregrina2000]

I find it sobering that the head of the CIA's technology division (quoted at the end of the article SYates linked to) said that you can be 100% positively identified by your gait if you have used one of these things. I am not a fanatic about this, but it is all a little creepy.

 

[nidarosa]

@peregrina2000 : I understand, I just thought I would add that info for the benefit of the people who might be considering adding friends to their Fitbit account while I was at it. I want to assure them that I can't see any of their personal info.

The reason I am not overly worried is that I do not give Fitbit any information I think of as personal or private - all they will know is that I walked X amount of steps on a given day, I don't use GPS so they shouldn't be able to tell where I walked, the wrist band is really not that accurate that I am worried about my gait or stride being used against me - it is on my left hand and I type a lot, so I guess the movement from that could impact on the result. (I will try this out and see.) I could - but choose not to - add information on how much water I drink, info on medical conditions, calorie intake, foods eaten etc. so I really don't know what fun I am to them. For those who choose to add that kind of information I just hope their data is safe.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

https://www.fitbit.com/privacy

 

[clearskiescamino]

If the CIA, FBI or even fitbit themselves can find a purpose out of how many steps I walk in a day, then I want to clap them on the back.
It's totally safe.

Ps @nidarosa you have a little catching up to do

 

[nidarosa]

I do indeed! I blame the deadline.

 

[Scott Sweeney]

You can only share what you put out there..

Fact
Name Scott Sweeney
Born 1952.
Email address

If you so paranoid, perhaps the close living of the Camino is not for you!

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola Nidarosa - I have had my fitbit for about 6 weeks and am still coming to terms with what it does and doesn't do. One aspect I am not impressed with is that 99% of the "foods" listed are US based so its almost impossible to accurately record what I eat. One of the real reason I bought it was to track my sleeping habits - number of hours sleep each night and time I wake during the night. The results are "interesting".
As for recording my steps - its about what I thought. Not always making the daily 10,000 -but I swim most days and ride my bike 2 or 3 times per week so this makes up for those "unders"!
Not sure that I am prepared to join your group (at this stage though). Cheers.

 

[nidarosa]

@Saint Mike II : You are very welcome to, as I am constantly at the bottom! This is due to an impending deadline though so I trust I will improve my standing at some point *fingers crossed*. As mentioned I only use it for steps and nothing else, so I'm afraid I can't help you with the food side of things.

 

[FelixBC]

Hello! I've been using a fitbit for about 6 months, lagging behind lately. I'd love a camino fitbit friend. Walking from Sevilla April 6, Easter Monday.

 

[uk_pilgrim]

If anyone is interested in seeing a pilgrim's fitbit data from their Camino there is a good link here: http://santiagodecompostela.co.uk/counting-steps-fitbit-data-camino/