Garmin Vivofit Review

For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying out the Garmin Vivofit!

If you are not familiar with the Vivofit, it is a fitness wristband that tracks your daily steps, and so much more.

When Verizon asked me to review the Vivofit, I didn’t know too much about it. For disclosure purposes, they let me borrow it for two weeks in exchange for a review on the blog.  I assure you that opinions are 100% my own.

Upon opening the Garmin Vivo, I was surprised that the instruction manual was just a few lines.  It came already in the strap, so I just had to put it on my wrist, easy peasy.  From there, I downloaded the garmin express, which allows me to sync the watch and see updates at my Connect Dashboard.  This took maybe 3 minutes and set up was done.

Still confused by the simplicity of the set up, I looked for information on how to charge the Vivo.  I actually had to google “charging the Vivofit” before I realized that YOU DON”T HAVE TO CHARGE IT!  This was pretty much the best news I could have received.  The battery lasts for a year.  The main reason I stopped using my fitbit after less than a month was because I hated having to charge it all the time.

I’ve now worn it for 11 days, and I am really enjoying using it.

Here are my favorite things about the Garmin Vivofit:

• I don’t have to charge it!
• It is also a watch! This is awesome
• It seems very accurate. I typically have my hands in my pockets and it still picks up steps, so it seems to be more than just arm swings. I also don’t think that is inflating the number of steps at all.
• It’s very easy to sync to my connect dashboard
• It was also easy to sync it with my fitness pal for tracking food and water.
• THE SCREEN. I love being able to see time, steps, distance, calories burned and steps away from goal, right from my wrist and not having to have my phone syncing all the time.
• It is totally safe to use in water, even for swimming.
• It’s compatible with heart rate monitors and other garmin products.
• It tells you when you haven’t moved for an hour and signals you to get in motion.

Here’s What I haven’t tried using yet

• I haven’t used the phone app
• I haven’t used the sleep mode
• I haven’t checked out the groups or challenges
• Probably a lot of other things I don’t even know about

Here’s What Could Be Improved:

• The design is a little bulky, I could not wear this to a fancy dinner or an important business meeting. I am using the larger band, since I was too lazy to switch to the smaller band when it arrived already assembled.  Either way, it’s not particularly pretty.
• The screen isn’t backlit. (It is on the newer model)

While being able to see everything on your wrist is awesome, I also like to check in with my dashboard to track my diet, water intake and to compare my steps from day-to-day.

Here is what the Connect Dashboard looks like:

Here is a look at my steps for the week, I forgot to put it on one day.  I typically get in about 8,000 by the time I get home from Barry’s, so I am much less active on days I don’t work out. My steps have ranged from 7,000 to 21,000, which is quite the range. I’m trying to hit 10,000 steps minimum on days I don’t work out, which is pretty easy in NYC as long as it is above 10 degrees.

 

You can sign up for challenges and they give you badges for hitting step milestones.  You can also use it to track your sleep.

The dashboard is very easy to use, you can see the list of options above.

 

 

 

 

I like that you can put in your running records–great feature.

 

 

I’ve been trying to use my fitness pal for calories a bit more and it is very easy to sync the data to the connect dashboard. It’s definitely been a reality check to see that I typically only burn 1500 calories a day even with Barry’s! By the way, I NEVER eat less than 1800 calories a day, so I should definitely adjust myfitnesspal goal to reflect a more accurate number.  I don’t think I’ve eaten only 1200 calories in the last 10 years.

I’ve really loved the Vivofit during my little trial. I’m sad to send it back, but I’ll likely be buying my own soon.

The VivoFit Fitness Band retails for $99.  The VivoFit 2 Activity Tracker (which I didn’t try) retails for $129 and allows you to time and track activity with or without a heart rate monitor and it has a backlit screen.

I definitely preferred the Garmin Vivofit to the Fitbit, as it is much more functional and user-friendly.

If you use one, what’s your favorite fitness tracker?