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How Does Fitbit Work: What Can A Fitbit Do?

How Fitbit work is a question anyone new to using Fitbit will ask. How this activity tracker works is simple, below is how.

How Does My Fitbit Device Count Steps Take?

Fitbit accurately counts steps as you move up or down, forward or backward side to side with the help of built-in axis accelerometers: the accelerometers are 3.

Fitbit also features complex algorithms that detect motion right from the feet. From the motion, it detects a Fitbit is able to determine whether you are walking or running.

How Fitbit Works Without A Phone

To work with a Fitbit you must have a Fitbit account. You need to be online to set up a Fitbit account, the internet connection is always from the parent device.

Setting up the Fitbit account is so easy and will use a minimum of your time. Once the setup is complete, Fitbit begins collecting data about your activities and stores them locally.

An automatic sync happens when you are about 30 feet from the parent device.

Make sure the Fitbit has a built-in GPS integration for this to work. The Fitbit App supports parent devices running on Android 7+, Windows 8+, and Apple iOS 12.2+.

If you choose to use your laptop or PC, the program to install is Fitbit Connect which is compatible with the macOS and Windows 10.

Also, read Can You Use A Fitness Tracker Without A Smartphone?

How Does Fitbit Track Heart Rate

Fitbit uses PPG, Photoplethysmography technology to monitor the amount of blood flowing through the wrist plus the number of times the heart beats each minute.

How Does Fitbit Track Sleep

Fitbit will use a motion detector and a heart rate monitor to monitor your sleep throughout the night.

The stats are released on your dashboard as a sleep score. From the score, you get to judge whether the sleep was good or not.

How Does Fitbit Track Exercise

The default weekly target on Fitbit is 150 Active Zone Minutes. The fitness tracker will use your effort to track peak activities, Calories burnt, and cardio.

1 active Zone Minute is awarded for each minute you spend in Calorie Burn Zone. 2 Active Zone Minutes are awarded for each minute you spend in either peak or cardio zone.

Other Metrics Fitbit Tracks

Fitbit is also able to keep track of additional health metrics. The more health metrics you have the more you get to tune your way of life for better health.

Additional health metrics you will find on some Fitbits include Skin temperature, Oxygen Saturation, Heart Rate Variability, and Breathing Rate tracking.

All these metrics are under the Premium Membership which is available for purchase. You can also connect Fitbit to Samsung Health app to get fitness metrics.

How Does A Fitbit Track Flights Of Stairs?

All Fitbits feature built-in altimeters that make use of atmospheric pressure to track the number of floors you climb by users.

Use Of Altimeter: Each time Fitbit detects an elevation of at least 10 feet, it translates it to a floor climb.

Talking of elevation gains, Fitbit is not the best since they incline workout equipment like treadmills.

How Does Fitbit Calculate My Daily Activities?

Most Fitbits feature built-in GPS. When the GPS is used to monitor fitness activities, the device automatically uses the GPS data to determine distances covered while running, walking, cycling, or jogging.

In case the GPS signals are poor or waste lost, a Fitbit will automatically start tracking your movement via steps until the GPS signals are back.

How Does Fitbit Store Music Locally?

The ability to store music locally is a recent add-on to Fitbit watches. All Fitbits support offline music plays.

You can load music to your Fitbit in various ways that include Pandora, Deezer, Spotify, and Personal music, we briefly explain them below.

Personal Music: You get to load songs you have licensed from your PC or laptop to your Fitbit through the Fitbit App.

Spotify: To enjoy music through Spotify you will have to add the App to your Fitbit. Although Spotify is yet to support offline music playback on Fitbit watches you get to stream your favorite music. You may also want to know which Smartwatches support Spotify.

Pandora: Use the Fitbit App to connect to Pandora and your favorite playlist will automatically sync. With that, you get to enjoy music offline with no need to bring the parent device along.

Deezer: Like Pandora, connect Deezer with the Fitbit App and your playlists will automatically sync. Deezer also allows you to listen to your favorite songs offline.

Does Fitbit Work Without Internet (Completely Offline)?

Basically, Fitbit does not need any internet connection to track your daily workouts.

Fitbit can still track your activities and work as it is supposed to even if you were in the middle of the Pacific where there are no network signals.

The only connection a Fitbit cannot work without is Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a communication channel that will connect Fitbit to the parent device and other devices like Bluetooth headsets.

The main reason why Fitbit uses a Bluetooth connection is to sync fitness data to the Fitbit Web Servers.

When syncing any data to the Fitbit Server the presence of Bluetooth is crucial thus a parent device must be nearby. A parent device can be your smartphone.

Even after linking the two, the parent device and Fitbit, without an internet connection syncing of data to the Fitbit servers can never happen.

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