If You Own A FitBit You Will Want To Try These 7 Hacks
7 Tips And Tricks For Using Your Fitness Tracker
More and more people are using FitBits.
The FitBit has grown from a base model to over 8 varieties in only a few years as it has gained in popularity. It’s no surprise that these activity trackers are so popular as they can do many things from tracking steps and measuring heart rates to even tracking your location and where you roam.
The only issue with these trackers is that they almost do too much for the consumer. There are many things FitBits can do that you probably don’t even know about. If this is the case, then have no fear because we are about to clear some of this up for you.
The following article is for those of us that use FitBits on a daily basis. These tips and tricks will help you maximize the use of these trackers in ways you may not have even thought were possible. After reading these, you will have a better understanding of what this gadget can do and how you can better use them get the best possible outcome for your fitness goals.
See the article below and be sure to share this with all of your friends who own one of these activity trackers.
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1. Save That Fitbit! If you find yourself accidentally popping off your Fitbit band, here are a couple fixes for you! Keep the end in place with a BitBelt (they also make Bitbelts for Disney Magic Bands, mental note!), hair tie or clasp. Personally *I* use the Bitbelt, they are affordable and easy to use.
2. Bzzz Get Up! If you have a desk job, watch a lot of TV, need help remembering a daily task or are simply starting out with your Fitbit, you can use the alarms function on your Fitbit throughout your day to help with your goals.
Your tracker will vibrate any time you have an alarm set. If you know you will be at your desk from 9am to noon, try setting a few reminders during that time and stroll around the office each time. Set a couple to remind yourself to drink water, remind you to get more steps in, take your pills, pick up your daughter from preschool- ahem- or anything you need to remember!
To set an alarm, open up your dashboard on your Fitbit app, tap the picture of your Fitbit (mine says Flex because that is the kind I have). On the next screen you will see you can select alarms and customize them to remind you to do anything, any time you need it. Note that setting alerts will drain the battery slightly faster because you are requiring the tracker to vibrate more but I think it is worth it!
3. The Trick is to USE It! Remembering to wear and use your tracker was one of the challenges I faced as a new Fitbit user. I found these tips for remembering helpful.
My own tip for this is to charge your Fitbit is while you shower! If you are like me and wear your Fitbit 24/7 then that is the best way to minimize taking it off! Another tip from a reader is to plug your charger into your car charger and charge it while you drive! I have not tested this and cannot confirm whether or not that kind of charger is appropriate but it would be pretty awesome if it worked!
4. Get Paid to Workout! Woot! Yep you can totally head to Fit Studioand get paid to do what you are already doing! UPDATE: Fit Studio is no more, but you can try GymPact or Healthy Wage as well!If that’s not your thing, these 6 walking apps offer other ways to be rewarded for using your Fitbit. They allow you to put your money where your steps are, challenge friends and family, earn money, donate to charity and even earn Walgreens points!
RELATED: How To Get To 10,000 Steps Each Day
5. Mesh with Other Health Apps. If you are an Apple products user interested in a healthy lifestyle, chances are you might use app like Health on your phone that don’t already sync with your Fitbit. Dont’ fret, you can use this app to sync your Fitbit with other Apple Apps like Apple Health.
Regardless of what phone you have, you can also easily sync your Fitbit with My Fitness Pal, Weight Watchers, Spark People, Strava, Withings, RunKeeper, EndoMondo and more!
6. Keep Charge! Get the most out of your battery by disabling all-day sync. Wearable shows you how at the bottom of this super helpful post on How to Get the Most from your Fitbit Flex.
7. Better Switch to Sleep Mo-zzzzzzz If you are like me and you often fall asleep as your head hits the pillow, you probably wake up often and realize that you forgot to switch to sleep mode. Oopsies poopsies! If you don’t want to mess up the weekly and monthly averages though, you will want to make sure you add it manually. You can see how to add sleep manually- and how to adjust the sensitivity of the sleep tracker- on Fitbit’s own Sleep Tracking FAQ page.UPDATE: For us Flex users, the need to tap to reach sleep mode is no more! The latest software update gave your tracker the ability to automatically detect your sleep. You’ll see your sleep pop up the first time you sync to your app each day. But you should still check it out to keep tabs on the accuracy in case you need to adjust the sensitivity.
8. For when it’s REALLY Lost. Use a return address label to add your email address and wrap it around the tracker body. This way if you lose it outside of your house a good Samaritan can contact you to return it!
RELATED: 8 Genius Ways High Technology Can Make Parenting Easier (Love the Fitbit idea!) 9. Make it a Game! Wokomon is for those of you out there motivated by video games. Your steps convert right into this little game and make it super fun to get your step on!
10. Track Your Food. There are lots of apps out there to help you track your food, but did you know you don’t even need a separate app? You can track your food intake right inside your Fitbit app! From your dashboard, scroll down and tap the Calories Eaten section to reveal the Food page. At the top right hit the + symbol to add food. If you have a goal weight entered in your profile it can help you find a goal for calories. Nice!
11. Hack Your Step Count. If you are finding it hard to reach your step goal get this free Printable Fitbit worksheet to help you get there!
See the full list of hacks at lalymom.com
To your health and wellness!