We had a look at the 24/7 tracking data produced by a Fitbit Charge 3 as compared to a Polar Vantage V – but how does the Fitbit app show all that data?
Let’s have a look at how steps and heart rate during a day are presented…
App Start Screen
Opening the Fitbit app leads to the overview about the connected tracker (in the upper right corner) and the current day.
I have all available tiles active here except for the one about “Female Health”; unused or unwanted tiles can also be deselected, though.
The heart rate tile, by the way, shows the current heart rate in real time when a tracker is connected.
Detailed Data
Tap on a field (including the data at the top, e.g. of floors climbed during the day), a view of details on that data opens.
Overview
First of all, these views always give an overview of the data for the last 7 days, usually using a bar chart.
Here, for example, is the view of the distance covered:
Steps, Listed
The list continues further down; but let’s change to the data for steps, which we have also already used for the comparison with the Polar Vantage V data:
The stars mark those days/data, where the goal set for that item was reached.
Steps of a Day
Let’s pick one day, and we get to the detailed data for that day:
So, this gives an impression of how active one was on that particular day.
The same thing works, tapping the “Full Screen”-like symbol, in a bigger view – and in the case of steps, that view works in landscape format (but it’s the only piece of data that does that; almost all other detailed data views also allow an expansion of the bar charts or graphs, but remain in profile format).
In this view, one also gets color coding of how active one was.
Basically the same thing also works for the distance, floors climbed, calorie and active minute data.
Daily Heart Rate Recording
The 24/7 recording of heart rate is rather more interesting. It also gives an overview. Or actually, three of them…
Resting Heart Rate in Overview
First of all, one gets an overview of the resting heart rate for the last 30 days.
This overview can also be set into full screen. It remains in profile format, but allows you to swipe back into the past. The data here is displayed as overview for 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, or a whole year.
Here, for example, we have the 1-month overview set to the period used in the comparison:
Cardio Fitness
In the overview at the top, one can swipe further to Fitbit’s estimation/calculation of one’s cardio fitness, as compared to people of the same sex and age group:
My Fitbit app is (probably because of some phone settings) confused between German and English everywhere, by the way.
The full screen view here gives detailed explanations of what this cardio fitness measurement means and how it can be improved.
Time in HR Zones
One more swipe in the overview on top and you are at the overview of how much time you have spent in the various heart rate zones:
The full screen overview here remains in profile format again, but shows the data in a rather more visible format. Same as with resting heart rate, one can again scroll back in time and choose different time frames (1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 1 year):
Daily Heart Rates
Again, one can scroll down through the list (in the overview) and pick single days to take a closer look at that day’s data. Like here:
This shows resting heart rate, time in the different heart rate zones, and calorie expenditure.
The HR graph can again be set into full screen (surprise: in profile format), where you can swipe to other days as well.
Sleep Recording
We should also have a look at the recording of the sleep data, as offered by the Fitbit app. This post has become long enough, and that topic is different enough, that it’s worth an entry of its own…
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