RIP Nike Fuel Band

Well I'm not sure it's completely dead but I find it ironic that I was talking about still wearing it even with the arrival of my brand new FitBit and then today it has issues.

This morning before I went to weigh in I thought it's been awhile since I synced the Fuel Band and so I tried doing that on my phone and a message popped up saying it needed a firmware update. O.K I had time for that so I tried to do that on the computer and I got error after error.

First error was 803 which when I clicked help suggested I need a new Fuel Band, say what? I bought it in August last year so it's less then a year old.

So I restarted my computer and tried again. This time I got error 52 and kept getting that error after mulitple attempts. I consulted the all powerful Google and found I was not alone. I tried the tips I found there but no luck so far.

I haven't completely given up and my first instinct was buy another but I stopped myself. This thing is $149 and while now available in Canada from a Nike Store or apple.ca and comes in new colours (white, grey and original black), I did think back to what I said yesterday and the data I get from the Fuel Band is seriously iffy.

One the Nike "fuel" is a mystical formula that only makes sense to Nike. It's dependent on arm movement so if you're out there running or walking away and your wrist with the Fuel Band isn't moving you get really low results for example pushing a stroller or carrying a bag of groceries. It also means if you move your arm around the Fuel Band you can watch the "fuel" numbers rise. There have been days where I was 10 points away from my goal so I just waved the arm with the Fuel Band around.

I do like the little dancing green guy when you hit a milestone...but is that worth $149? For runs I use my Garmin as Nike Fuel Band does not show you distance or pace while you're running, you can't click to find out how far you've gone on the device itself but when you sync it that does show up.  For non-running, like Zumba or weights I wear my Polar. Both the Polar and Garmin have a heart rate strap so better measures my output and gives me a truer calories expended.

The Fuel Band is a guess on your output based on height ,weight and gender, now that's the same thing for the FitBit but the FitBit is a more accurate pedometer as my arms don't need to be swinging and it shows distance in miles. FitBit passed the shake test as there was no steps recorded unless I actually took a step. It's calorie display is also dependent on your height, weight and gender data but I don't really want to wear a heart rate strap all day so for general everyday movement that's totally fine with me.

I wore my FitBit around today clipped to my bra and couldn't feel it at all. That may be another win for FitBit as when you're wearing the Fuel Band it can get complicated wearing things with cuffs especially if their tighter. Now the Fuel Band can be a reminder to move more as it's very visible but I can also wear the FitBit on my waist band or in my pocket.

Nike does have that "cool" element and like I said I'm not completely convinced it's completely dead but I'm not so sure I'd buy a new one if it came to that.

I went to weigh in today and was down .4, I have to admit I was a little disappointed in that as I tracked for 7 days, didn't use all my weekly points and earned 18 activity points this week. My week did start with New Year's eve so had some higher point days and then had to recoup over the rest of the week. At any rate it's a loss.

I was walking through the mall I noticed Payless Shoes had running shoes in their display racks, everyone is getting into the weight loss resolution game. Weight loss is the number one resolution by the way.

Let me ask you all a question, with all of the fitness gear and technology (especially the barrage of ads currently) what's more important to you style or functionality?

Off to Skyfall tonight and dinner with my friend T. Hope you all had a great Saturday.

Hugs!!!