Fitbit: Health & Fitness 4+

When I first got my Fitbit I used to sync everyday, track my heart rate, calories, compete against friends each week as to who could do the most steps. Now all I use it for is tracking my sleep and as a watch. Sometimes I’ll have the notifications on and have my phone on Bluetooth so I get the message or call notifications, but often I’ll have this switched off as while I’m at work I find being prompted to hit 250 steps every hour a bit distracting. It would be good to have a feature where you can select which notifications you want, so I could see my messages and calls, but not the step reminders.

It’s a great bit of kit and it’s obviously very popular but once the novelty wears off it pretty much becomes a watch. There used to be an incentive as the Fitbit app could be synced with the Lucozade Sport app where you could be entered into prize draws if you hit a certain amount of steps daily and/or weekly, but unfortunately Lucozade have finished their promotion. Perhaps Fitbit could consider partnering with another company to rekindle those incentives. I did far more steps each week and won a few nice prizes too, so it definitely encouraged me to be more active.

I got my first Fitbit in 2014 and still have the Fitbit one as it does all I have ever needed it to do but sadly in the last update as a blind user I access the Fitbit one via the app on my phone sadly in the last update when using the VoiceOver accessibility feature on my iPhone I can no longer read the sections which were read out such as steps floors calories total distance now as I flick along it says today button and a sighted person tells me when you reach the today button there is a drop-down which is obviously a graphic or image display showing your stats but this is no longer readable by the iPhone VoiceOver accessibility which really now does make my Fitbit one redundant I could get a Fitbit watch but being blind could not read the screen anyway so could not use any of the smart watch features from the watch and again if the only way to access that information is by the app then if the latest update is the same then I would not be able to read and hear the stats that I would wish to a very sad day when a piece of kit becomes redundant due to changes made by the manufacturer but never the less I have enjoyed using the Fitbit I do not wish to wear a watch as part of my work means it would get damaged and would not wear it much during the day the ideal option was the Fitbit one which could simply clip to a pocket or belt and gather all that information kind regards Gary

I have a chronic illness and my Fitbit HR is so useful in so many ways. Helps me monitor what’s helping and what is not. Such as how fixing a B9,12 iron deficiency helped my step count and a dip in step count on autumn led me to discover my vitamin D was low. I use so many of the functions such as sleep
Monitor to improve sleep, HR and steps to pace and the logging of food has really helped me keep healthy diet and also lose weight as I’ve not been so active and it’s helped stop calorific snacking. The period app is also really useful. I use this app more than any other and it’s really helped me manage a complex chronic illness. So useful. Best health buy I’ve made and the app is so easy to use. The app is free to try to see if it could be useful before buying a Fitbit, which is what I did. I got a Fitbit HR specifically do I could monitor sleep. If it adds a function to analyse vitamin intake from diet and supplements this would be amazing. It’s the only thing I think is lacking. At the moment it’s focussed on calories and carbs/protein/fat which is great for following keto diets, but I’d really like it to work out my vitamin intake to help me improve my deficiencies more naturally than supplements. Excellent app and device. Highly recommended. Used it non stop over 18 months now.