Last year I made a decision to change my habits and lose some weight. Things got off to a great start and I think the My Fitness Pal app helped a great deal in allowing me to track my intake. One area where the app was lacking was in estimating caloric burn. I started researching simple pedometers when I stumbled onto the Jawbone UP Band.
The Jawbone UP Band was substantially more expensive than a run of the mill pedometer but I was drawn in by all of its features. In a nutshell, you put the band on and wear it all day, every day. As it rides on your wrist, it tracks movement and estimates a caloric burn.
When it comes time to rest your head on the pillow each night, a simple button press puts the band into sleep mode and it begins tracking sleep patters. Every so often you pop the Jawbone UP Band into your smart phone and sync up the data.
With all the perks of the UP Band, I decided to bite the bullet and make the purchase. I ordered my Jawbone UP Band for $137 on May 25, 2013. The band arrived a few days later and I was so excited to put it to use.
After a few days of wearing the band, I plugged it into my iPhone and synced the data. The information provided was actually kind of scary. I knew that my desk job resulted in little movement throughout the day but I wasn’t prepared for just how small the number was.
I made some adjustments to my day to day activities and continued to wear my band each and every day. One night, in September of 2013, I was woken up in the middle of the night by my band. It was flashing and vibrating. After a few seconds the band died and stopped accepting commands.
The following day I tried charging, soft resetting, and hard resetting the band. Nothing worked and I was forced to call Jawbone Customer Support. Customer Support was great and a new band was shipped to me right away. After a few days I was back to tracking and syncing.
I’m a bit disappointed to report that my second Jawbone UP Band bit the dust a few days ago. I went through the same troubleshooting steps that I did with my first Jawbone UP Band and came away with the same results. I was forced to contact Jawbone Customer Support once again about my dead band.
Customer Support has informed me that a third Jawbone UP Band has been shipped to me. With my first band lasting just five months and my second band only lasting four months, I’m not getting my hopes up for a third band.
Warranty bands comes with a 90 Day Guarantee. I have a feeling that my third band is going to die outside of my original one year warranty and just outside of my 90 day replacement warranty.
I’m very brand loyal but if I wind up burned by my Jawbone UP Band, I think I’m going to have to switch over to a Fitbit or Nike Fuel Band. Spending $137 on a product that has to be replaced twice within a year does not leave me confident in the brand.
3 thoughts on “Another Jawbone UP Band Bites the Dust”
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Is that like a FitBit? I haven’t gotten/tried any of them. I have considered a heart rate monitor so I could more accurately enter calories burned into MyFitnessPal, but ultimately as long as I’m losing weight, I don’t much care. I keep my intake around the same and whether I burn 200 or 400, I’m happy just knowing a did it. I don’t eat more if I burn more, so it really doesn’t matter to me to know.
That being said, you’re doing awesome. It’s cool see the lbs coming off.
Yeah, it is a lot like a FitBit.
One of the problems I faced was that I set my initial intake based on little activity. When I started hitting the gym and running, I wasn’t making up for those burned calories. After factoring in the burn, my numbers were too low to be considered healthy.
I’ve since adjusted my calories and don’t add / take away for activity. The new number takes working out into account.