Why (and Why not) Fitbit Could be the Device for You
One device that has massively increased in popularity in recent years is the Fitbit. A Fitbit is a fitness tracking device, which looks like a watch (pictured below).
When many people think of a Fitbit they usually think about tracking their steps, but it can also be used to track heart rate, sleep patterns, or your food and water intake. It can also set timers or activity reminders so you move from your desk, show text message notifications, or track other activities throughout the day so you can see how many calories you burned that day. Fitbit also makes use of a corresponding application on a mobile device to show you the data the Fitbit device collects. Both my parents, my sister, and my brother have a Fitbit and have been trying to get me on board with the device. I figured now with all of them in the house, now would be the perfect time to do a research study into their Fitbits.
The Device(s)
My family uses 3 different Fitbit models: my dad uses the Charge 2, my sister has Alta HR, and my mom and brother have the Inspire HR. I tend not to note any differences between their Fitbits because they all use them for the same basic functions: step counting, activity tracking, heart rate activity, and sleep pattern tracking.
All of the devices are used regularly by their owners and they have been in use for around 1–4 years. The Fitbits in the household are charged every 3–4 days and charge for around 3 hours each time. According to my research online, the battery can last up to 5 days, but there is no guarantee and these devices are not new as mentioned before so that’s not a terrible battery life at this point. Remembering to charge the device is easy enough with it’s low battery warnings, but figuring out when to charge it can be an issue, as the device will not pick up any activity while it sits connected to the wall.
Each device has a band to wear on your wrist. This band can be changed out for a different size or different band style, so the band could be narrower or wider depending on what you are looking for.
For a quick hardware comparison, I have created the following table:
The Positives
My family absolutely adore their Fitbits. They love having the ability to track their daily activity, especially my sister. We go to the gym together and she monitors her heart rate during our cardio session so she likes to see how different exercises impact that and what gets her to sweat the most. My parents and brother like it as it gives them a goal to move around more throughout the day and they get very excited when they meet their goal or exceed it.
They also love the watch functionality as they have all struggled to find a watch they like and wear them all the time. There is also the advantage of not needing to charge every single day. With 3–5 days of battery life, that will get them through a good chunk of the week and that’s nice in terms of having one less thing to charge at night. Finally, they are able to track their sleep patterns. This is really great for my parents and sister as they are the most likely to get off a consistent sleep schedule; using their Fitbit gives them a sleep score and the times they went to bed so they can better manage their sleep schedules and stay on a normal schedule.
The Issues
One of the most common issues I hear from my family members is that it is difficult to find a good time to charge their Fitbit. They want to count their activity or their steps, but they also like to track their sleep so it doesn’t make sense to charge it while they are sleeping either. My sister usually charges her Alta while she does her laundry and that seems to work out well, but my parents run into more difficulties to find a time for charging as they are at work and don’t want to deal with another cord.
Another issue with the Fitbit is that in order to track steps, the user’s arm needs to be moving. In general, this is not an issue but on an elliptical or stair stepper that doesn’t happen. People tend to hold onto the hand holds for both devices and that makes it so the Fitbit doesn’t register any activity during that period of time. While recently my siblings have been going outside more for their activity, on rainy days they use the elliptical and they need to manually enter that activity using their Fitbit app to get the activity time measured by their devices.
A third issue with their Fitbits is the tap feature on their screens. My sister and my dad have had their Fitbits the longest, recently I have been noticing their Fitbits are not as responsive as they used to be. Either of them will double tap their screens to view their clocks and the Fitbit will not register the trigger until they repeat the action. There is also another action where you can turn your wrist and the Fitbit will register the action to show the clock again. Both my dad and sister’s Fitbits have become less responsive to this action and it can take up to 5 attempts before the Fitbit shows the clock. While these are not brand new, it shows some of the accessibility features will not stand the test of time though I would expect that with all devices as hardware will fail.
The last major issue and concern is with the security of the device. It was revealed a couple of years ago that Fitbit was tracking the locations of their users running paths in conjunction with an application called Strava, the app would then recommend the paths to other users; you can read more about this story here. This revealed the location of military training routes and some workplaces have restricted the use of the devices because of this. Fitbit has worked to resolve this issue by not making Built in GPS a standard feature across their devices, after the release of the Charge 2 (the one my dad has). He went into Settings to turn that off when he got the device as he is very security minded and doesn’t allow access to his location on any device, unless he is using Google Maps.
Conclusions
For me, my biggest take-away is that I do not want to own a Fitbit. When I look at the features I would regularly use, like step and distance tracking or setting timers, I realize I have those features on my phone. While they may not be as accurate as the Fitbit, I am happy with the results I have been having using my phone. It also means I don’t need to worry about charging another device or figuring out when the best time to charge the Fitbit would be, which is manageable, but nice not to worry about.
In general, I think a Fitbit or similar device would be a great investment if you have a concern you want to monitor like making sure you get in the appropriate number of steps, amount of activity, or even your heart rate. I know many people who have Fitbits or similar devices who love or rave about them and their help in monitoring their health which is what you want to hear.
