After reading this guide you will know the following: what is Fitbit, how it works, and how to set it up.
What is Fitbit?
Fitbit is a health and wellness company (a property of Google) that makes trackers and smartwatches known as Fitbit. These smartwatches and activity trackers go on the wrist like regular watches to track activities including swimming, walking, running, cycling, and more.
To use the watch, you need to set it up with your iPhone or Android. To do the set up you need the Fitbit app, which displays health and fitness metrics as collected by the wearable devices.
Users can subscribe to the Fitbit Premium Plan at a given fee for deeper insights into their health and wellness. With the plan users are allowed access into in-depth insights of their sleep patterns, stress levels, and more. In addition, the plan nutrition information without forgetting workout videos.
Fitbit devices are of various types: some are rectangular and small and focus mainly on sleep and exercise tracking whereas some are more like smartwatches larger in size and square in shape.
What Does it Do?
Fitbit is the perfect workout friend. With the watch you can track your progress live. When strapped the watch monitors the distance covered, calories burned, steps, heart rate, sleep, and more. The touchscreen display functions as a watch and some models connect to your phone to use GPS, play music, texts and emails, and calls.
Features it Offers and How they Work
1. Activity Tracking
On all Fitbit watches and trackers you get an accelerometer who purpose is to monitor motion, which aThe help of algorithms that are made to check for specific movement patterns. Also, there are watches that add altimeter sensors to determine when the user is going up or down the stairs. As the user moves the watch calculates distance, steps, calories burned, and floor climbed. All these data can be seen in the Watch app on the paired phone or a summary on the watch’s face.
2. Sleep Tracking
When you sleep, Fitbit begins to record your sleep patterns with help of the onboard heart rate sensor and motion detectors. The following day the information collected is delivered as Sleep Score in the watch’s app. With this data you know how your sleep was last night, count the hours you slept and your types of sleep, which include REM, deep, and light sleep.
3. Heart Rate Tracking
Provided it’s on, the watch will always display your heart rate reading. Heart Rate readings on watch are derived from the blood volume in the wrist, which is monitored by PPG technology and this decides how many time the heart beats per minute.
4. Exercise Tracking
You are supposed to have 150 minutes of moderate activity each week according to NHS. By default , Fitbit sets you weekly target at 150 Active Zone Minutes. As you work out throughout the week, your efforts will tallied up by tracking Fat Burn, Cardio, and Peak activity. Every minute spent in Fat Burn Zone earns you 1 Active Zone Minute and for each minute spent in the Peak or Cardio Zones, you earn 2 Active Zone Minutes. Your heart rate and how hard you work out determines the statistics you see on the tracker.
5. Other Metrics
Newer smartwatches and trackers can provide more health data to help you tube into your health a little bit more. In most cases to get these additional metrics you need to become a Fitbit Premium subscriber. Metrics only available for Premium users include SpO2, heart rate variability, and breath rate tracking.
6. Access to the Fitbit app (free version)
Anyone who has the watch and doesn’t have the Watch account you can create one for free. In the free watch app gain access to free insights including weekly step totals, analysis of how well you slept over the past seven days, and more. In addition, with the water and food logging features you stay on top of your hydration and nutrition goals.
How to Set Up Fitbit
After buying Fitbit what follows is setting it up. Fortunately, it is easy to set up and use the watch. Use the steps outlined below to set up your Fitbit:
Step 1: On Your Phone, Get the Fitbit App
Fitbit is free to download from Apple Store (iPhones) and Google Play Store (Android).
Step 2: Power On the Watch
Charger your Fitbit (if needed) and then turn it on. The watch will ask you to connect to the watch app.
Step 3: Set Up Your Account
Open the app on your phone and tap Join Fitbit. Select your Fitbit device. Next, set up your profile by tapping the Profile icon in the app and then enter details such as height and weight to accurately determine your calorie burn. This is also where you set your fitness goals to keep track of a given metric.
Step 4: Use the Watch
It is now time to try out features offered by your new Fitbit smartwatch or activity tracker.