The popularity of wearable technology, such as smartwatches and earbuds, has exploded over the past decade. A popular wearable to come out of this boom isfitness trackers, ranging from traditional bands to rings. One popular and well-known fitness tracker company is Fitbit. This article looks at what Fitbit is and what devices and services it offers.
What is Fitbit?
Fitbit is an American fitness tracker company founded in 2007 in California. Fitbit released its first device, the Fitbit Classic, in 2009. It was clipped onto the body to count steps and other basic information such as floors climbed and calories burned. The device could be synced with a computer. Fitbit released a few other clip-on trackers in the subsequent years and released a watch-style tracker in 2014 alongside an iOS and Android app to sync data.
In 2016, Fitbit released the Fitbit Blaze, its first smartwatch and its first device with a color screen. In 2021, Google acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion after about two years of review by regulatory bodies around the world and backlash from Fitbit users concerned about their data. Today, Fitbit sells several devices and a subscription service called Fitbit Premium that runs through the app. Fitbit is integrated with Google’s Pixel Watch andPixel Watch 2to provide extensive health-tracking functionality.
Fitbits have evolved from simple pedometers to full-fledged health data tracking devices. Instead of just tracking steps and floors climbed, Fitbits track heart rate, sleep, blood pressure, and more.
What features do Fitbits offer?
Modern Fitbits have more features than their predecessors that help you keep track of your health. SeveralFitbit trackersprovide a varying range of these options.
Health metrics
Fitbits include several features to give you metrics to track your health. These features include oxygen saturation (SpO2), skin temperature, breathing rate, heart rate variability, and resting heart rate. These metrics help you track your health over time. If one of these metrics is outside your normal range, it alerts you that you are sick or need more time to recover.
Heart rate tracking
Heart rate is an important metric for a person’s health, and Fitbit helps you keep track of your heart rate. It has a proprietary technology called PurePulse that helps its devices accurately track blood flow, which is a way to measure heart rate. By tracking heart rate, Fitbit can help you better track your workouts, sleep, and stress and get a better picture of your health and wellness.
Manage stress
Stress is an important factor in a person’s wellness, and Fitbits are equipped to help you measure and manage it. Fitbits include all-day body-response tracking and help you visualize trends and abnormalities in your stress levels. This tracking is turned into a Stress Management Score that helps you quantify and visualize your stress level. The devices also include mood logging with suggestions to help if you’re not feeling your best.
Sleep tracking
Rest and recovery are some of the most important steps in exercising. Fitbit helps make this a priority through sleep tracking. Fitbits have heart rate sensors and motion detectors to track the quality of your sleep. It uses this information to track stages of sleep every night and produce a sleep score that illustrates how well you slept. you may set a sleep schedule with reminders to verify you get to bed on time and can wake up at an optimal time with less stress using Smart Wake and a silent alarm.
Active Zone Minutes
Fitbit’s users are likely concerned about working out optimally. Fitbit created a feature called Active Zone Minutes to meet this need, which tracks your time at elevated heart rates. You get Active Zone Minutes whether you’re intentionally working out or not and have goals tailored to you based on factors such as your age and fitness level. Fitbit also provides progress reports, so you can see where you’re at during the day, notifications when you enter elevated heart rate zones, and celebrations when you meet goals and milestones.
What is Fitbit Premium?
In addition to trackers, Fitbit sells a subscription service called Fitbit Premium. Fitbit Premium gives you more insights into your health and wellness through granular metrics such as stress and sleep score details. Having Premium also gives you a Daily Readiness Score that lets you know how ready your body is for more physical activity and recommends how many active minutes you should aim for each day. Premium accounts are given a sleep profile that provides you with an animal that sleeps similarly to you with more details about your sleep habits.
Fitbit Premium also includes guided workouts, mindfulness courses, and recipe and meal hacks that are only available to Premium users. These workouts include everything from warmup routines to HIIT cardio and strength classes from a variety of fitness and wellness brands such as Aaptiv and Calm. Recipes and meal hacks are made up of short videos with instructions on how to make the advertised dish.
Here are the features Premium users have access to that free users do not:
If you have a Premium account and an LTE-compatible watch, you have access to Safety Signal, which includes features such as Emergency Sharing and Fall Detection. Fitbit Premium is available for $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
Get fit with Fitbit
Fitbit provides a line of fitness trackers with numerous features to help you better understand your health. It also provides a premium service that gives you deeper insights into your health and provides workout, wellness, and recipe videos. If you get a Fitbit and run into an issue,contact Fitbit customer support.
