Fitbit is an American company specializing in the sale of smartwatches and Fitness Trackers, devices designed specifically for workouts and health, available in versions for adults, children and the whole family. Among the features of Fitbit there is the monitoring of heart rate, the detection of sleep stages, the calculation of calories burned and payments from mobile, with NFC technology and Fitbit Pay app. Here are the models on the market, prices and a guide to the main features of Fitbit trackers.
What is Fitbit
Fitbit is a company based in San Francisco, USA, founded in 2007 by Eric Friedman and James Park. The company deals with the marketing of devices for the world of fitness, capable of making certain measurements such as the number of calories ingested, steps taken during the day and hours of sleep. Over time, health features have been added, including, for example, heart rate monitoring, via HR sensors that detect the pulse from the wrist.
The American company now produces several mobile devices, including mainly fitness trackers and smartwatches, with models for adults, children and family collections. It also makes available various accessories, including the Aria 2 smart scale, Fitbit Flyer headphones and a fitness workout app, Fitbit Coach. The app is compatible with Android and iOS, however it charges €43.99 per year, which includes access to qualified instructors, audio files and personalized video exercises.
How Fitbit Works
Fitbit is an integrated system developed by the American company of the same name, which involves the purchase of a mobile device and the integration of the appropriate app. Once you have purchased a smartwatch or a Fitbit fitness tracker, you must download the application and follow the guided procedure for configuration. After activation you can take advantage of many advanced features, including goal planning. With Fitbit, you can record your sleeping hours, to analyze your weekly performance based on the values you set, check the number of steps you take each day, for example to go to work or walk the dog.
You can also count your daily calories, to insert such data into weekly nutrition sheets, create workout calendars, displaying for each day the exercises to be performed and the goals to be achieved, or use the tracking service for excursions and outings with friends.
Sports workouts can be shared with your contacts, via SMS, email or social networks, you can participate in multimedia competitions with other Fitbit members, receive notifications about your workouts, measure your dehydration level, heart rate and much more.
All Fitbit smartwatch models on the market
Fitbit devices can be divided between smartwatches and fitness trackers. Among the most successful products is the Ionic smartwatch, available at a price of €269.99, a device that allows you to view personalized exercises, track distance traveled and number of steps with GPS, listen to music from your Deezer playlist and monitor your heart rate with PurePulse.
The smartwatch is water resistant, compatible with swimming and Bluetooth headsets, mounts a high-resolution touch screen display, with NFC technology for mobile payments with Fitbit Pay.
Another latest device is Versa, a rather inexpensive smartwatch that has thrown down the gauntlet to the Apple Watch. There are three different models in the collection, the basic version of Versa, Special Edition and Lite Edition.
They feature a battery with 4 days of battery life, water resistant screen up to a depth of 50 meters, heart rate monitoring, sleep and workout tracking, compatibility with several apps, audio file playback and real-time notifications.
The Versa Special Edition brings additional features, including streaming music playback and viewing workouts directly on the display via the Fitbit Coach app, with over 15 different workout modes for running, swimming and many other sports. The smartwatches can be fully customized, with leather or hybrid fabric straps, or by opting for a stainless steel case. All models allow access to the Fitbit community, over 10 million people to share workouts, challenges and tips.
As for the retail price, you can buy the Versa smartwatch for €199.99, choosing between black, peach/aluminum and silver gray colors, while the top of the range Versa Special Edition presents a price of €229.99, with two aesthetic variants in lavender fabric and pink aluminum case, or with anthracite fabric strap and graphite gray case. The lightened version of the Fitbit smartwatch, Versa Lite Edition, is available at a cost of 159.99€, in white/silver gray, lilac/grey, magenta and light blue colors.
All Fitbit Fitness Tracker models on the market
In addition to smartwatches Fitbit also produces Fitness Trackers, devices similar to smartwatches but slightly less complex, with a few less features than the more sophisticated models such as Versa and Sonic.
Between the flagship products there is Fitbit Charge 3, the most advanced fitness tracker ever made by the American company, available on the market with a price of 149.99 € and colors graphite gray and black, rose gold and blue, gray with ice white strap, or with aluminum case rose gold and lavender fabric strap. This sports tracker offers several features, including wrist heart rate monitoring, analysis of calories burned during the day, sleep tracking, distance measurement and step counting.
There is also a panel from which to manage compatible apps, such as Fitbit Pay for mobile payments, Fitbit Coach for personalized workouts and over 15 exercise programs for swimming, yoga, biking and running in real time.
For health there is Fitbit Alta HR, with heart rate monitor, OLED display and notifications from social profiles, such as WhatsApp and Facebook, priced around €144.99. The company has also developed a fitness tracker for children, Fitbit Ace 2, indicated from 6 years old and up. The device has a water resistant structure, up to 50 meters deep, autonomy of 5 days, sleep monitoring, pedometer and parental control system. However, it is not yet on the market, in fact it will be launched in the summer with a cost of 70€ approximately.
Finally among the Fitness Trackers there is the device for the whole family, Fitbit Inspire, which allows you to connect various devices to the same account, to monitor the results of their children and partner, training together but setting different goals. Fitbit Inspire’s features include heart rate detection with PurePulse and HR sensor, workout mode with personalized exercises, social notifications, sleep stage monitoring and calorie burn recording. Purchase price starting at £69.99, with black, lilac and white colorways.
How to download the Fitbit app
When you buy a Fitbit device, the first step is to download the appropriate fitness app, making the app download on Google Play Store, App Store or Windows Store. The Fitbit app is compatible with almost all versions of Android, with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, running iOS from version 10.0 onwards, or with PCs, tablets, smartphones and consoles running at least Windows 8 or Xbox One. Fitbit really supports many different devices, besides of course the devices made by the company itself.
Fitbit setup procedure
After downloading the Fitbit app on your device, you need to proceed with configuring the application and creating an account. Depending on the type of device purchased, you can choose between a personal, family or children’s account, the latter available with the Fitbit Ace device, which allows you to connect various profiles to the same account, download data about your child and monitor certain parameters, such as heart rate during sports activities and positioning via satellite tracking.
The configuration of Fitbit is quite simple, in fact you just need to turn on your device, open the application and follow the wizard to create an account. In this case you need to select the device, tapping on the device name among those proposed in the scrolling menu, then entering all the required information, including an email address to verify your identity. Finally, you just have to choose the type of account to activate, accept the privacy policy and synchronize your device to Fitbit.
To perform the same procedure from a PC, you just have to download the .exe file from the official Windows Store site, install the Fitbit app on your computer, create an account by entering your credentials, or by logging in with your old profile, using the address https://www.fitbit.com/login. Fitbit is compatible with Windows 8 and 10 Home and Pro operating systems, so it is essential to check the version of your system, otherwise you must first proceed with a Windows update.
How to customize your Fitbit account
Once you have installed the Fitbit app on your device you can customize your account, entering some information to create goals, training plans and programs tailored to your needs. For example, it’s important to put in data related to weight, height, gender, and above all, choose some goals to achieve, such as the hours of sleep you want to get each night, the minimum number of steps you need to take every day, or the minutes of running you need to respect during your workout in the park.
Fitbit is also compatible with other systems, including Amazon Alexa, Strava, Runkeeper and MyFitnessPal, so you can connect those apps to synchronize your data and results. An interesting feature is the calculation of calories, which can be obtained automatically through Fitbit and MyFitnessPal, however to ensure greater privacy you can limit access to personal data by setting permissions for each application within your account.
Fitbit: how to calculate calories burned
Every 24 hours Fitbit monitors calories burned, starting with the daily requirement estimated based on age, weight, height and gender selected during account setup. To do so, it takes into account your basal metabolic rate, sports activities and workouts performed, or any other indication provided manually to the application. At the end of the day Fitbit resets all the data, providing new information every 24 hours.
An interesting feature involves the ability to record food, entering within the main panel the calories of each food consumed most frequently. In this way it is possible to create food plans, to monitor the progress according to the established goals, taking into account not only the workouts but also the calories burned. Inside the food plan you will see the daily caloric consumption, the data of the calories consumed and those burned, notifications to understand if you are meeting the selected goals, including a feedback on the macronutrients ingested.
To record a food you can take a picture of the barcode, in fact if the product is present in the database of the application all the nutritional values will be shown automatically. Alternatively, you can enter the food manually from the Fitbit web panel, selecting the item Food Plan > Calories Taken or Burned, clicking on the arrow symbol in the lower right corner and entering the products in your diet.
From the app the procedure is even simpler, you just need to tap the + icon and the item Record food.
How to count steps with Fitbit and measure distances
Fitbit is able to measure the distances covered thanks to the step counting system. This is an automatic feature, which is set when you enter your height, gender and weight data, using your device’s GPS for monitoring. If the step measurement seems to be wrong, you can proceed manually. In this case, just go to a place where you know the distance, such as a park or an athletic track, choose a stretch with at least 20 steps and count them.
Then you need to divide the total distance by the number of steps, thus obtaining the final length. To change it within the Fitbit app, just tap on the account symbol > go to Advanced settings > Walk length > adjust the present value. To count steps Fitbit uses an accelerometer, which through body movement and step measurement is able to provide a pretty accurate figure on their overall number.
Based on the system is an algorithm, which selects each movement to determine whether or not it’s a step. The computer system is continually updated, refining the measurements in complex conditions, such as in the mountains in particularly steep sections or with steep drops. Fitbit uses the device’s pedometer and GPS to calculate the distance and cross-references the data to get an almost exact value of the distance travelled.
How to charge your Fitbit device
Any Fitbit device is sold with its own UL approved charger, so simply plugging it into a standard power outlet will restore the device’s full range. Through the notifications settings you can receive an alert, so you know when you need to recharge your device. The battery life depends on the operating system, the type of device and the features used, however, on average you can have a battery life of about 5 days, for example with the Alta Fitness Tracker.
How to turn off Fitbit
To improve battery performance simply turn off the device, without losing the stored data, which are not deleted. To turn off Fitbit just turn on the smartwatch or fitness tracker, go inside the settings and select the items Information, Stop, Confirm.
To turn on Fitbit, on the other hand, you need to hold the back button for a few seconds. Some devices like Blaze may lose sync, so you may need to restore some data like time. To turn off the Fitbit One you have to press the power button for 12 seconds, while turning it on takes just a few seconds.