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Fitbit in the wild!
Sep. 22nd, 2016 04:03 pmAs noted previously, I ordered a Fitbit Charge 2 (thank you, lovely work fitness credit) and it arrived on Tuesday. Which means I've now had a couple of days to play with it and assess it.
I have to say, it's a very nice, stylish item. The band I ordered it with is a nice shade of purple and feels very sturdy. It's a rubbery material that's sweat resistant, so great for everyday wear and working out. If I feel fancy, there's a leather strap I can order to make it look a bit posher for other times. The actual watch/tracker part is a nice size--not oversize on my wrist, but big enough to allow a fair bit of information to show up, and it looks rather less industrial than a lot of fitness tracker/smartwatches I've seen.
You can customise the readout on it, to do anything from showing a dial clock only to displaying time, date, steps, and heartbeat, and several combos in between. Tapping it allows you to view other stats, like floors climbed, calories burned, and how many times you've met a 250+ step minimum in the hours you track that. I rather like being able to see all that without whipping out my phone!
It's possible to set it to remind you to get off your ass and walk around a bit, if it gets to 10 minutes to the end of the hour and you haven't met your 250 minutes. Very handy, particularly if (like me) you're liable to get absorbed in a task for three hours and forget to move. It only does it for the hours you're tracking minimum steps (I have it set for 8 til 8) so you don't get reminded at night. I'm very impressed with the interface, I must say.
The Fitbit also gives me quick links to tracking certain types of exercise as I do them, and you can customise which exercises you have shortcuts for. When you're in an exercise mode, it will show you how long you've been exercising, calories burned, heartrate etc., which is all rather useful. It even tells you whether your heartrate is in a particular zones, which is incredibly helpful.
One of the reasons I wanted to get the Charge was for the heart rate data. I knew that, lately, the exercise I was doing wasn't working for me as well as it had been and I was pretty sure that being able to see my HR and know where I needed to push it to would help. I'm also a terrible nerd, so I was incredibly curious about my resting heart rate and those kinds of details.
(I like data. I like being able to see my stats improve over time. It motivates me to do more.)
I've done two exercise bike workouts since getting the Charge, and having that "Hey, I need to push my HR up to here, maybe some more resistance will do it" guide has already pushed me to work harder. Both times, I got my HR up into my target heart rate zone and it felt a lot more like I'd had a workout than when I was just pootling along maintaining the speed/resistance that I'd been using as my guide for the last six months.
It's interesting to me to see that my resting heart rate is lower than I expected and, overall, I seem to be fitter than I'd realised. I know that I've been doing the whole "getting fitter" thing for a couple of years, but I didn't have much data to show it was actually working.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the device, and I'm fascinated to see what new and cool data I'll be able to collect and get motivated by :-D Watch this space?
I have to say, it's a very nice, stylish item. The band I ordered it with is a nice shade of purple and feels very sturdy. It's a rubbery material that's sweat resistant, so great for everyday wear and working out. If I feel fancy, there's a leather strap I can order to make it look a bit posher for other times. The actual watch/tracker part is a nice size--not oversize on my wrist, but big enough to allow a fair bit of information to show up, and it looks rather less industrial than a lot of fitness tracker/smartwatches I've seen.
You can customise the readout on it, to do anything from showing a dial clock only to displaying time, date, steps, and heartbeat, and several combos in between. Tapping it allows you to view other stats, like floors climbed, calories burned, and how many times you've met a 250+ step minimum in the hours you track that. I rather like being able to see all that without whipping out my phone!
It's possible to set it to remind you to get off your ass and walk around a bit, if it gets to 10 minutes to the end of the hour and you haven't met your 250 minutes. Very handy, particularly if (like me) you're liable to get absorbed in a task for three hours and forget to move. It only does it for the hours you're tracking minimum steps (I have it set for 8 til 8) so you don't get reminded at night. I'm very impressed with the interface, I must say.
The Fitbit also gives me quick links to tracking certain types of exercise as I do them, and you can customise which exercises you have shortcuts for. When you're in an exercise mode, it will show you how long you've been exercising, calories burned, heartrate etc., which is all rather useful. It even tells you whether your heartrate is in a particular zones, which is incredibly helpful.
One of the reasons I wanted to get the Charge was for the heart rate data. I knew that, lately, the exercise I was doing wasn't working for me as well as it had been and I was pretty sure that being able to see my HR and know where I needed to push it to would help. I'm also a terrible nerd, so I was incredibly curious about my resting heart rate and those kinds of details.
(I like data. I like being able to see my stats improve over time. It motivates me to do more.)
I've done two exercise bike workouts since getting the Charge, and having that "Hey, I need to push my HR up to here, maybe some more resistance will do it" guide has already pushed me to work harder. Both times, I got my HR up into my target heart rate zone and it felt a lot more like I'd had a workout than when I was just pootling along maintaining the speed/resistance that I'd been using as my guide for the last six months.
It's interesting to me to see that my resting heart rate is lower than I expected and, overall, I seem to be fitter than I'd realised. I know that I've been doing the whole "getting fitter" thing for a couple of years, but I didn't have much data to show it was actually working.
Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the device, and I'm fascinated to see what new and cool data I'll be able to collect and get motivated by :-D Watch this space?
