Fitbug Orb review

Fitness trackers are all the rage at the moment, lots of my friends have them and they are a firm favourite amongst fitness bloggers. Fitbug got in contact about reviewing their Fitbug Orb, I was very intrigued to see how it could change my approach to fitness and if it would be easy to fit into my daily life. Fitness trackers range hugely in price from the MovBand at £27.99 (this is a basic one and only measures steps) and they can be over £100 for the more fancy models. The Fitbug Orb comes in at £49.95.

The main benefit that comes from wearing one of these trackers is the motivation it gives you. Tracking your steps each day is a great way to understand how active you are and how you can work on moving more. I found that trying to reach my initial target of 10,000 steps a day was really motivational, I wanted to exceed my target each day and see how many calories I could burn just by taking the stairs and adding a brisk 20 minute walk to my daily activity.

How easy is the set up? 
The Orb is really easy to set up. You register your Orb on the website using the number on the back of the box and then link it to the Fitbug app using bluetooth. If you want to link your Orb to your computer directly you can buy a dongle. There's only one button on the Orb which sends information to the app when you press it, you can't go too wrong with just one button. All super easy.

Wearing my Orb 
The Orb can be worn around your wrist like a watch, clip it on to your clothes or wear it on a lanyard. I wore mine on the clip which I clipped to my bra and it stayed in place all day. When I wanted to track my sleep activity I wore it on my wrist.

Tracking with the Orb
I've used my orb for just over a week and I've not really had any problems. I couldn't get it to track my sleep for the first few days but after reading the FAQ on the website I figured it out. I've tracked my steps and aerobic activity everyday and have been pleasantly surprised. Despite having a job where I sit down for most of the day I get a lot of steps in walking to the bus stop, going to yoga and doing some shelving in the library. I think the step tracking seems pretty accurate, I wore my Orb with a pedometer for one day and got similar readings. I didn't track my calorie intake with the Orb because I follow a mixture of the Weight Watchers and 5:2 diet plan so didn't want to track my food twice but this feature would be really useful for someone trying to monitor there activity and calorie intake.

Overall thoughts on the Orb
I think the Orb is a good price, it's cheaper than some competitors and great if you are new to fitness tracking and want to give it a try without investing too much money. I liked the emails I got, giving my tips each day and giving my new goals to work towards. I also liked that I could wear this under my clothes where nobody could see it. Some trackers that you wear on the wrist really aren't that dainty so I liked that this could be hidden away.
You can't log food or exercise from within the app which might be a negative for some but I just added any non-step activity on the website at the end of my day. There's no need for re-charging with batteries lasting for up to six months, I know you have to charge some other brands by USB which I know I would forget to do some days. 

Studies have shown that in the first four weeks of membership the most inactive Fitbug members increase their daily activity by an average of 265 per cent. Data shows this improvement is maintained over 12 months, indicating that the improvements are long lasting. I think this would be a great little device for someone just starting to get into the world of fitness. It definitely motivates you to get more active. Seeing your stats everyday and seeing if you could beat them is a definite incentive.

 Have you tried the Fitbug Orb or any other fitness trackers?