Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Introducing Fitbit 5
Chapter 1: Understanding Health and Fitness Tracking 7
Introducing Self-Tracking 8
Why Track Your Health and Fitness? 8
Putting numbers to feelings: Monitoring your progress 9
Figuring out what does and doesn't work for you 10
Keeping yourself motivated 10
Challenging yourself 11
Challenging others 12
Figuring out what comes next 12
Performing experiments 13
Breaking bad habits 13
Encouraging good habits 14
Learning about yourself 15
Understanding the Downside of Health and Fitness Tracking 15
Learning about Health and Fitness Tracking Metrics 17
Steps taken 17
Distance covered 19
Floors climbed 20
Active minutes 21
Heart rate 22
Calories burned 23
Sleep time 25
Chapter 2: Choosing a Fitbit 27
Understanding the Different Fitbit Types 27
Clip-On 28
Wristband 29
Watch 30
Reviewing Fitbit Trackers 31
Ace 31
Aria 2 32
Charge 3 33
Flex 2 34
Inspire 34
Inspire HR 34
Ionic 35
Versa 36
Zip 36
Deciding on a Fitbit Tracker 37
Figuring out what you require in a tracker 37
Comparing Fitbit activity tracker features 39
Chapter 3: Getting Started 41
Charging Your Fitbit 42
Getting the Fitbit App 43
Signing Up for a Fitbit Account 44
Connecting Your Fitbit Device 47
Removing a Fitbit Device from Your Account 49
Taking a Tour of the Fitbit App 49
Customizing Your Fitbit Account 51
Configuring the Fitbit app dashboard 51
Configuring your online Fitbit Dashboard 52
Customizing your Fitbit profile 53
Adjusting Fitbit app settings 54
Setting Your Health and Fitness Goals 56
Setting your initial goals 56
Adjusting your goals 58
Working with Your Fitbit 59
Setting your Fitbit's wrist placement 59
Navigating your Fitbit's interface 60
Pushing your Fitbit's buttons 61
Getting app notifications on your Fitbit 62
Syncing your Fitbit 64
Using apps on your Fitbit watch 65
Chapter 4: Getting Social 69
Setting a Fitbit Username 70
Adding a username to your account 70
Setting your username as your display name 71
Connecting with Friends 72
Sending a friend request to your contacts 72
Sending a friend request to your Facebook friends 74
Sending a friend request by email 75
Sending a friend request by using a Fitbit username 76
Handling a friend request 77
Cheering or taunting a friend 77
Messaging a friend 80
Challenging friends 81
Posting a message to your friends 83
Setting Up a Family Account 84
Creating a family account 84
Adding a family guardian 85
Inviting others to the family account 86
Handling a family invitation 86
Creating a child account 86
Joining In the Group Fun 89
Joining an existing group 89
Viewing group posts 89
Responding to group posts 91
Posting a message to a group 91
Part 2: Tracking Your Health and Fitness 95
Chapter 5: Tracking Your Daily Activity Levels 97
Setting Activity Goals 98
Setting your daily activity goals 98
Setting your main activity goal 99
Left, Right, Left, Right: Counting Your Steps 100
Monitoring today's steps 100
Viewing your steps history 102
Staying Regular: Setting Hourly Activity Goals and Reminders 104
Checking your hourly steps 105
Setting up hourly reminders to move 106
Monitoring today's hourly activity 107
Viewing your hourly activity history 108
Viewing your stationary time 108
Earning Active Minutes 110
Understanding metabolic equivalents 110
Monitoring today's active minutes 113
Viewing your active minutes history 114
Going the Distance: Measuring How Far You Walked or Ran 115
Setting your stride length 116
Monitoring today's distance 118
Viewing your active minutes history 119
Moving on Up: Tracking Floors Climbed 119
Monitoring today's floors climbed 120
Viewing your floors climbed history 121
Achievement Unlocked: Earning Activity Badges 122
Viewing your badges using the Fitbit app 122
Viewing your badges using Fitbit.com 123
Chapter 6: Tracking Your Sleep Patterns 125
How Does Fitbit Track Sleep? 126
Understanding sleep states 126
Checking out sleep stages 127
Calculating time asleep 128
Figuring out sleep quality and sleep efficiency 128
Setting Some Sleep Options 129
Setting your time asleep goal 129
Setting your sleep sensitivity 132
Turning off notifications during sleep 132
Tracking Your Sleep 133
Tracking time asleep 133
Viewing your time asleep history 135
Eyeballing your sleep schedule 135
Reviewing your sleep stages 136
Working with Your Sleep Log 142
Logging a sleep 143
Editing a sleep 144
Deleting a sleep 144
Setting a Silent Alarm 145
Setting an alarm on a wristband tracker 146
Setting an alarm on a watch 146
Handling a silent alarm 147
Turning off an alarm 148
Deleting an alarm 148
Chapter 7: Watching Your Heart Rate 149
Understanding How Your Fitbit Reads Your Heart Rate 150
Beat-itude: Working with Your Heart Rate 151
Checking out your current heart rate 151
Tracking your resting heart rate 152
Are Fitbit's heart rate readings accurate? 154
Turning off heart rate tracking 155
Zoning Out: Working with Heart Rate Zones 156
Determining your maximum heart rate 156
Understanding heart rate zones 157
Setting up custom heart rate zones 160
Chapter 8: Keeping an Eye on Your Body Composition 163
What's All This about Body Composition? 164
Weight 164
Body fat percentage 164
Body mass index 165
Lean mass 166
Setting Up Your Aria 2 Scale 166
Setting the Aria weight unit 168
Configuring your Aria user settings 169
Inviting others to use your scale 170
Setting Body Composition Goals 170
Setting weight and body fat percentage goals by using the Fitbit app 171
Setting weight and body fat percentage goals with Fitbit.com 173
Weighing Yourself with Your Aria 174
Ensuring Aria accuracy 174
Weighing yourself on the Aria 174
Reassigning a weigh-in to another user 175
Tracking Your Weight, Body Fat, and BMI 176
Viewing your weigh-in history in the Fitbit app 176
Viewing your weigh-in history by using Fitbit.com 178
Working with Your Weight Log 178
Logging a weigh-in 179
Editing a manual weigh-in 180
Deleting a weigh-in 181
Part 3: Using Fitbit to Meet Your Goals 183
Chapter 9: Getting Fit 185
Setting Your Fitness Goals 185
Setting an activity goal 186
Setting an exercise goal 186
Understanding Your Cardio Fitness Score 188
VO2 what? 189
Checking out your cardio fitness score 189
Improving your cardio fitness score 190
Getting Your Fitbit Ready to Track Exercise 190
Configuring Fitbit to automatically recognize exercises 191
Setting up exercise shortcuts on your Fitbit 193
Setting up cues 195
Configuring exercise mode settings 197
Setting up interval training 199
Tracking Exercise Sessions 202
Tracking exercise on your Fitbit 202
Tracking a walk, hike, or run with the Fitbit app 204
Working with Your Activities Log 206
Viewing your exercise history 207
Logging an exercise 208
Editing an exercise 210
Deleting an exercise 210
Chapter 10: Losing Weight 213
How to Lose Weight the Fitbit Way 213
Setting a Weight Loss Goal 214
Setting a weight loss goal by using the Fitbit app 214
Setting a weight loss goal with Fitbit.com 215
Specifying Your Food Database 215
Specifying a food database by using the Fitbit app 216
Specifying a food database with Fitbit.com 217
Setting Up a Food Plan 217
Setting up your food plan by using the Fitbit app 218
Setting up your food plan with Fitbit.com 219
Logging the Food You Eat 220
Accessing your food log 221
Logging food by using the Fitbit app 221
Logging food with Fitbit.com 223
Scanning food by using the Fitbit app 224
Editing a logged food item 226
Deleting a logged food item 227
Tracking Your Food Plan 227
Tracking your daily calorie deficit 228
Tracking your overall weight loss 229
Chapter 11: Developing Healthier Habits 231
Healthy Habit #1: Sitting Less and Moving More 232
Healthy Habit #2: Exercising Regularly 233
Healthy Habit #3: Maintaining Your Ideal Weight 235
Healthy Habit #4: Setting Up a Sleep Schedule 236
Healthy Habit #5: Drinking Enough Water 240
Calculating a water goal 242
Set a water goal by using the Fitbit app 242
Set a water goal by using Fitbit.com 243
Logging your water intake 243
Tracking your water intake 244
Healthy Habit #6: Reducing Stress 245
Part 4: The Part of Tens 247
Chapter 12: Ten Troubleshooting Techniques 249
General Troubleshooting Techniques 250
Restarting your Fitbit 250
Updating your Fitbit 251
Resetting your Fitbit 251
You Can't Configure Your Fitbit 252
You Can't Update Your Fitbit 253
Your Fitbit Won't Sync 254
Your Fitbit Isn't Receiving Notifications 255
You're Having Fitbit Battery Troubles 256
Checking the Fitbit battery level 256
Your Fitbit's battery life is too short 257
Your Fitbit isn't charging 258
Your Fitbit Displays the Wrong Time 259
Your Fitbit Can't Connect to Wi-Fi 260
Your Fitbit Device Can't Access GPS 261
Troubleshooting GPS with a Charge 3 or Versa 262
Troubleshooting GPS with an Ionic 263
Your Fitbit Device Was Submerged in Water 263
Chapter 13: Ten Ways to Improve Privacy and Security 265
Protect Your Account with a Secure Password 266
Changing your password by using the Fitbit app 266
Changing your password on Fitbit.com 267
Check Devices Logged In to Your Fitbit Account 268
Checking logged in devices by using the Fitbit app 269
Checking logged in devices on Fitbit.com 270
Control Which Data Can Be Seen By Friends and the Public 271
Customizing privacy settings by using the Fitbit app 271
Customizing privacy settings on Fitbit.com 272
Beware of Suspicious Emails Supposedly from Fitbit 273
Block or Remove a Fitbit User 274
Blocking or removing a friend by using the Fitbit app 274
Removing a friend on Fitbit.com 275
Lock Your Fitbit Device 275
Locate a Lost Fitbit Device 276
Delete Fitbit Data and Activities 277
Deleting data using the Fitbit app 277
Deleting data on Fitbit.com 278
Erase All Your Fitbit Data 279
Delete Your Fitbit Account 279
Chapter 14: Ten Ways to Connect to Third Parties 281
Share Fitbit Data on Strava 281
Connecting Fitbit and Strava by using the Strava app 282
Connecting Fitbit and Strava on the web 283
Share Fitbit Data on Weight Watchers 284
Connecting Fitbit and Weight Watchers by using the Weight Watchers app 284
Connecting Fitbit and Weight Watchers on the web 285
Share Fitbit Data with MyFitnessPal 286
Connecting Fitbit and MyFitnessPal by using the MyFitnessPal app 286
Connecting Fitbit and MyFitnessPal on the web 287
Share Fitbit Data with Other Apps 287
Export Your Fitbit Data 289
Export an activity as a TCX file 290
Export all your Fitbit activities 290
Connect Fitbit to Alexa 292
Connect Fitbit to Window 10's Cortana 293
Get the Weather on Your Fitbit 294
Listen to Audio on Your Fitbit Watch 295
Connecting your watch to Wi-Fi 295
Uploading playlists to your watch 296
Controlling audio on your watch 298
Pair Bluetooth Headphones or Speakers 299
Glossary 301
Index 305
