I just had my physical exam for the year and despite the hibernation diet and activity level of this past winter I did very well. Great EKG, kept off 9 of 10 lb I dropped last year. My physician strongly recommended I get a FitBit.

Anyhow, he's not the most cycling friendly guy and he said to get a FitBit. I already use Strava and a Sigma ROX Something Or Another cycling computer with cadence and HRM that does not talk to Strava.

So... is there any FitBit or clone that is aware that I'm pedaling away? I would like something with HRM and supposedly import HRM data to Strava... Any thoughts?

I know about the BIG FitBit (Surge?), I'd rather get something w/o GPS if possible. The Surge (?) is way too big also.

The Fitbit Surge is the $250 GPS unit with HRM; the Charge HR is the $150 unit with HRM and no GPS. My girlfriend has had the Charge HR for a few months now. The HRM is accurate most of the day but not so much for more intense exercise like riding uphill.

Why did your doctor recommend a Fitbit to you?

A lot of people (doctors and others) have recommendations like park at the far end of the lot when you get groceries. It'll have you walk an extra 200 feet and you won't get any dings in your paint. But walking really isn't great exercise, it doesn't get your ticker into even Zone 1 and you don't burn many calories. It sounds like you're in good shape and don't have a weight problem, or much of one. Maybe the doc just recommends this to everybody?

That said you might consider not using an activity tracker on the bike, as you're already using Strava and don't want to double county your calories burned. Seems like the best use you'd make of a Fitbit type device would be the rest of the day when you're not on the bike.

If you have an Android phone, Google Fit will use the phone's accelerometer and supposedly sort out when you're walking, cycling, or running and credit you appropriately. I haven't used it and have no idea how well it works. But it's free.

The older Fitbit One goes in your pants pocket and picks up pedal rotations as strokes. The wrist mounted units shouldn't get many steps on the bike but it varies. My Mio Fuse registers no steps unless I hit some very rough pavement, my Garmin Fenix 3 shows a lot of steps from a bike ride.

The doc is a bit on the conservative side - old school is more like it. I have another 20lb to lose. He recommends walking to everyone. My wife is 130 lb, a size 4 and he said she needs to lose another 10lb. Of course by walking. He's not cycling aware, always wants to guilt trip me to ride less and walk more (the ancients invented bicycles for a reason, doc)...

He recommends FitBits to everyone. He has one, everyone in his staff has one. I'm not too worried about double counting; I will probably not use one when cycling anyway. I thought about the Surge but it's too big...

I'll probably get the Charge HR and see what happens. I tried the Microsoft Band also but it looks weird, a bit like something issued by the local parole office but I was quite impressed with the functionality. A real GPS cycling watch would work but it's not an activity / sleep tracker.

FYI, the new GPS cycling/triathlon watches also do activity and sleep tracking. They're a lot more expensive than a Fitbit, though; hopefully the Surge will add some pressure to the market and bring other GPS watch prices down.

The company I work for bought everybody a Fitbit (One) a couple years ago, and every summer each person who walks 12,500 steps a day gets a bonus. It brings our health insurance premiums down. The first year we did this, I got really competitive about it. It took a couple hours a day, and I rode the bike less as a result. Over the course of the summer I actually gained a few pounds, because cycling is better exercise and I spent less time doing it.

Fitbit Charge HR is probably the best bet for you. It'll find your resting heart rate automatically every morning, and chart it over time, which is really nice. The "stairs" feature is useful, too, it'll credit you for walking up hill, adds some context to the steps.

You might want to look into the Garmin Vivoactive too. It's a GPS watch with a cycling mode, activity and sleep tracking, and some other useful stuff. Not the most attractive thing in the world but it's worth having a look at.

The Garmin Vivoactive is great. It syncs with a heart rate monitor and a cadence sensor. In the future, if an app is developed, it likely will sync with power sensors, too. The Fitbit with pulse sensor is iffy, as it depends on the level of your activity and on your skin tone. The technology just isn't there yet at that price point. That said, the Fitbit is now beta testing a cadence feature for its activity monitors. Check out this link Fitbit rolls out update that adds bike tracking to Fitbit Surge | ZDNet

I use a vivosmart and I tested it against my heart rate monitor on a ride. It was way off from the heart rate monitor. I decided to try wearing it on my ankle the next time out and it was a lot closer on calories burned and number of strides taken but didn't pick up any heart rate. I already have a HRM, GPS, do-all system so the vivosmart is just supplemental for me (FWIW)

I know several people who have the Microsoft Band and I have yet to find someone who doesn't like it. That said none of them are riders. And that said the Band does have a cycling app. You do have to care you phone if you want to get you text and emails....not sure I would use that on a ride.

I have a Fitbit charge because everyone at work was getting them. I put it on my ankle when I ride and it comes pretty close to counting every revolution. This morning I rode for an hour at an average cadence of 66. (lots of hills) which equals 3960 strokes. The Fitbit measured around 4100. It does count a lot of "stairs" since it goes by elevation change.

I just was given a Microsoft Band. Love it. The cycling app is very good and graphs HR, Speed and elevation. It breaks it in to 1 mile increments as well. Gives you overall HR average with high and low. Both climb and decent elevations totals with overall. There is a beta SW "Unband" for downloading info from the MS cloud where the data is stored.

I happen to have a Windows Phone which is a plus for me. The only advantage is that I can use Cortana with the band with the phone nearby, otherwise all the functions are available regardless of which OS your are running.

Ooh, clever to put the band on your ankle! Can you tell us more, provide data or graphs? What problems, if any, does this present?

I've worn mine on my ankle on a couple of rides. The only issue I was worried about was catching the Vivosmart on something and losing it. I kept looking down to see that it was still there until about mile 15 and realized it wasn't going anywhere. I don't think it would give you a heart rate on the ankle. I did have my HRM and GPS watch on and the two were pretty close in terms of distance traveled. I don't have a cadence device on my bike so I can't say how accurate it was in terms of steps or revolutions. Hope that helps for now.

No real issues wearing on the ankle, I wear a little higher sock and cover it so I don't worry about it falling off. Data or graphs? None other than the count I provided earlier.

Bumping an old thread because it seems relevant... If you have your Fitbit Surge linked up to your Strava account, how does the activity show up? Does it have the GPS track or is it like an exercise bike activity? And does it then show up in MFP, too?

A year ago, I looked at what was available for activity monitors. DC Rainmaker has extensive reviews of activity trackers. The bottom line is that in the $100-150 range, the HRMs on the wrist bands are horrible!!!!! If you are considering a wrist based GPS, make sure to look at the battery lifetime with GPS on. I would think that you don't get as much battery life as you would with a phone (and you can buy an external USB battery for $30 to use with the phone). I have a Garmin Edge 500 for my bike, so I was looking for fitbit for walking, mainly. I decided on the fitbit one, finally. It is small and easy to wear. When I bike, I put it on my shoe, where it counts one step for each revolution. I checked against my cadence sensor and it was dead on accurate. Obviously the mileage is incorrect, but it does give you a calorie count. My friend has a fitbit one, too, and he the fitbit phone app to count calories and monitor is eating. If he eats too many calories early in the day, he will tough out the food later in the day. He has been doing a lot of hiking to lose weight (down to 250 from 300), but reached a plateau. By counting calories, he has been able to get down to 230, although the rate of weight loss is less than when lost the first 50 pounds.

I lost 30 pounds by increasing exercising (commuting 32 mile round trip to work four days a week) in addition to modifying eating habits. I had to learn that it is OK to not feel full! At lunch I had smaller (reasonable!) portions of food. Dinner consisted of a large salad (watch the dressing!) and some protein on most days. No desserts and watch the snacks. No food after dinner.

The fitbit one also seems to have decent reviews for sleep tracking. I find it to not work for me, as I can wake up in the middle of the night and if I don't move around, the fitbit does not recognize this as interrupted sleep. But I have never worn the fitbit in the recommended location for sleeping.

I look at it this way; accuracy is not as important as is looking at long term trends and relative numbers. While I have not investigated or tried any other apps, the fitbit one and Strava for riding (or even walks!) provide me with the necessary data for managing my fitness and weight.

I've thought about an ankle mount cadence counter. I have wahoo's heart rate monitor and like it a lot. I wish wahoo had a cadence counter I could put on my ankle instead of mount on my bike. I have a couple bikes i use. it could double as a way to keep pants cuffs from getting in the crank.