If you wear your Fitbit every day, you probably like to hit your daily step goal. You can also keep track of your sleep quality and other metrics with the device. But your Fitbit can do a lot more to help you improve your health and fitness.
Check out these tips to reach your exercise goals faster, extend your Fitbit’s battery life, and stay motivated by competing with friends and family. We’re using the Fitbit Inspire 2 with an Android device, but most of these tips will work on other Fitbit trackers and phones as well.
1. Use Your Fitbit as a Stopwatch
Clicking the main button on the side of your Fitbit displays the time followed by your daily stats. Depending on whether you have the latest Fitbit watch model or an older device, the metrics available may vary. They can include steps taken, current heart rate, distance covered, calories burned and floors climbed.
There’s also a stopwatch, but it’s not immediately apparent. To turn on your watch, press the Home button , then navigate to the Timer or Stopwatch screen.
You can find more information on your specific model on Fitbit’s support page. For example, on the Inspire 2, you have to scroll up to get to the timer option. On most models, the Timer app contains both a stopwatch and a countdown timer. Press the option of your choice and start your timer; Note that this will continue to run, even if you back off from it.
2. Keep Your Fitness Goals Front and Center
There are four tabs in the Fitbit app. The default tab is Today, which gives you an overview of your daily step count, sleep cycle, and more. If you don’t like this default layout, you can either tap Edit in the top right or tap and hold any tile – your zone minutes, for example. You will now be able to manipulate all the tiles and personalize your dashboard interface.
You can also remove stats you don’t want to track by tapping the X in the top right. Scroll down to see a list of additional stats you can add. When you’re done, tap Done in the top right.
3. Change your default goal setting
Tap any tracked statistic on the Today screen to see a breakdown of its results. Here you can also customize your goal. For example, tap Steps to see your daily step count. The default goal is 10,000 steps, but if you think that’s too easy for you, tap the Settings icon to change it. Similarly, you can also change your goals for distance, calories, active zone minutes, and more.
4. Set reminder to sleep on time
Tap the Sleep tile on your Dashboard, then tap the Settings icon . You’ll see options to set a new bedtime goal (it’s set to eight hours by default). You’ll also see options to set target sleep and wake schedules.
To set a phone notification for when you need to sleep, turn on the Reminders slider. Then, select the days on which you’d like to see these reminders by tapping the options at the bottom.
5. Challenge yourself
Under Discover > Challenges & Adventures, you’ll find tons of ways to compete with friends and family or earn bonus Active Minutes. You can choose from four different categories.
For groups of 2-30 people competing to reach 35,800 or 62,500 steps. Each race is divided into smaller checkpoints. At each checkpoint, you are either asked simple health questions, you will learn more about that particular route, or you will see real photos from the places you have passed in the virtual adventure.
6. Complete Workout or Guided Program
Under Discover > Workouts and Discover > Guided Programs, you’ll find free and premium exercise routines. Under Workouts, you can filter for different types of workouts, including cardio, full body, or indoor cycling. You’ll find workouts that don’t require equipment, as well as Pilates, yoga, kickboxing, and more.
To bypass the premium content, scroll all the way down to the Free At-Home Workouts section. All workouts come with a video. If you use workout videos a lot, they might make the Fitbit Premium worthwhile for you.
Guided programs last one to three weeks and include educational materials, which are sent to you on a daily basis. For example, if you want to workout more, pick up a program like Full-Body Strong and get daily information and a workout plan.
7. Expand Your Fitbit Network
Fitbit’s community feature is one of the main reasons the app has become popular. Adding friends and competing in challenges really motivates you to go the extra mile. Go to Community > Friends, then tap the plus icon in the bottom right to see three tabs: Contacts, Email, and Username.
The first tab lists your contacts, the second lets you use their email addresses.