Sell me this.

[Sin Ogaris]

Ok, so I exercise regularly, I go to the gym four days a week and ride my bike to and from work (and basically every single other place I go). When looking into fitness bands in the past they all just feel like a device that benefits those who don't exercise much rather than those that do.

For anyone with the device, and also exercise regularly, what are the benefits of having this, over not having this?

 

[cvflowe]

I exercise regularly but I don't manage my caloric intake well. So I like using the band in conjunction with my fitness pal (they work together). Also, I like the GPS tracking as well for distance tracking. Finally, I get calls, emails and text while I'm working out. Now I can look on the band and decide if I need to take the call.

 

[mush10]

The big selling point for me is GPS on the device. I am looking at this as something that can replace my Garmin Forerunner with additional functionality. Also love the multi platform support.

Sent from my Xperia Z3

 

[TheZuneLune]

Do you like to look at data or would you like to make your current exercise regiment more effective? Heart rate monitoring can effectively help you target certain zones to help you reach your fitness goals, whether it is to lose weight, increase your pace/speed, or other. The other sensors will give you similar feedback for other purposes.

One thing I don't see people discussing as much as how this can be used to give quantitative feedback to your doctor via the Health Vault. Imagine being either to upload or print out results on your stress, sleep, an heart rate to give to your cardiologist.

 

[Sin Ogaris]

The notifications thing sounds good, as I don't have my phone on me when I'm at the gym (it status in my bag and I use wireless headphones) and pulling my phone out while biking isn't a good idea.

I like the idea of calorie intake but so far I've yet to utilize a system that makes food intake easy (I eat sandwiches a lot which involve input of each ingredient and also getting able to guesstimate the amounts of the ingredients).

GPS is handy too. I've still got time before I can get it (who knows when it'll come to Australia) so I'll keep checking back and if anyone has some more insights.

Ideally, I want something that will allow me to get a better indication of calories and how my exercises are helping with weight loss (my main goal).

 

[greyskytheory]

I'm a huge fitness buff and to be honest if you want something to give you in depth metrics of multiple facets and aspects of your workout then this is not the device to buy. Go buy a rugged, durable high end fitness watch from Suunto, Garmin, Polar etc which will give you an enormous amount of in depth data on your workouts. The benefits of having a fitness band, mainly the Microsoft Band is the ability to have a device that will track your overall daily activities which will provide you a look at your daily activity, calories eaten, calories burned and sleep in a holistic fashion. For the purpose of overall monitoring of your daily routine the device is amazing. I use it in conjunction with mu Suunto Ambit and HR monitor. I use the Band and WP App to look at my overall daily activity as well as a summary of my workout for that day. When I want to look at deep info from my workout I look at the info from my Suunto. I see no negatives to owning a high quality fitness band like the Microsoft Band.

 

[Sin Ogaris]

Thank you everyone, now its just a matter of time for it to release here (and hopefully handle cycling metrics a bit better by the time it does, but currently no fitness bands do cycling well so I'm not holding my breathe).

 

[realwarder]

Thank you everyone, now its just a matter of time for it to release here (and hopefully handle cycling metrics a bit better by the time it does, but currently no fitness bands do cycling well so I'm not holding my breathe).

If we were to wear it round our ankles it could have a nice cycling mode. You just wouldn't be able to see it

 

[OliverLx]

I bought it as a perfect notification device for my cellphone . and it works really great for this task!
And maybe I will start with sports because of this new wonderful gadget...