The only good thing to come out of last fall’s Samsung cellphone recall saga was that I received a free Samsung Gear Fit2 with my phone as a pre-order promotion.

I had to give back my Note 2 because of the recall, but Samsung never asked for the watch back. (Could you imagine?)

This was also around the time when my Fitbit died for the second time, so I was in the market for a new watch anyway.

After about six months with the Gear Fit2, I am still happy with it and do not miss my Fitbit at all.

One notable difference is that the Gear Fit2 doesn’t have any of Fitbit’s gamification aspects, so there’s no app with a leaderboard. (Not one that I use anyway).

I used to check the Fitbit leaderboard frequently, but I have no idea why. My friend list consisted mostly of couch potatoes and a handful of marathon runners, so rankings didn’t dramatically change often.

Three Samsung Gear features that I love:

1. Alarms: I use my watch’s vibrating alarms instead of my cellphone now. Michael loves this because I no longer wake him up when I start my super-early schedule.
2. Nudges: My watch vibrates and fat-shames me when I’m inactive for more than 50 minutes at a time.
3. Charging: One of the worst parts of my old-school Fitbit was that I had to remove the device from the wristband to charge it. This inevitably caused the wristbands to wear down and break over time. The Gear just plops directly into the charger with no disassembly required.

Checking my Samsung Gear Fit2 watch on the Katy Trail in Dallas.

The problem

Although I have a great watch that also happens to track my activity, I’ve also gained weight while using it. Apparently fitness trackers don’t help people lose weight, and may actually backfire.

My case, I am more active now than when I was younger and thinner. However, I don’t monitor my diet as closely, hence the weight gain.

Not porking-out and drinking fewer calories are on my priority list for this summer.

The Texas heat will actually make this easier because all I want is water when it’s 100 degrees outside. 🌞