I’m not great at exercising on a regular basis (or even a semi-regular basis), but when I found out I had a slight arrythmea I was motivated to keep better track of my fitness and overall health. We only get one body so we’re supposed to treat it like a temple, right? And no, not a temple worshipping bagels and wine. Enter the Fitbit Charge HR.
Fitbit is a common household name at this point, but most people are rocking their entry level fitness band, the Fitbit Flex. Because I was interested in tracking my arrythmea I opted for the next level up, the Fitbit Charge HR (the HR stands for heart rate). The accuracy of the Charge HR heart rate monitoring system has been highly debated across the internet and I’ll give you the straight truth: this heart rate monitor is perfect for every day life and light exercise, but will fall short when it comes to extreme activity (and extremely sweaty conditions).
To just knock out all the negatives at once, the Charge HR is also not cute. It’s actually not just not cute, it’s straight up ugly. The Fitbit Charge HR has a fairly bulky rubber band and unlike the Fitbit Flex, this band is not interchangeable. Meaning you are stuck with this bad boy. The aesthetic downfall here bummed me out for a while at first, but after a week or two of using it I quickly got over my distaste for its appearance – the Fitbit Charge HR does so much for me that its merit totally outweighs its ugliness.
Like the Fitbit Flex, the Fitbit Charge HR tracks your steps first and foremost. The biggest benefit to the charge HR is the screen – the Flex is only a rubber band and you need to check the smartphone app to see your steps. With the Fitbit Charge HR, you can click through various metrics on your screen on the band – I track steps, calories, heart rate, and it even has a screen for the date and time!
Even though the Charge HR has a screen, the iPhone app is still where I am really able to dig into all my health metrics. I was able to rearrange the home screen of my app to show the metrics I care about most at the top – for me that would be heart rate, steps, and water intake. Yep, you can even track how much water you’ve been drinking throughout the day (drinking more water is one of my 2016 goals)!
The heart rate tracking screen of the Fitbit smartphone app allows you an in depth look at your heart rate fluctuations throughout the day as well as your resting heart rate over time. Below you can see my resting heart rate over the last 30 days where my Fitbit was able to track me as low as 69 bpm and as high as 78. I also love that i can see my heart rate by day, allowing me to see when the spikes happen (whether it’s from exercise or stress). Although Fitbit is definitely a fitness tracker, I’ve actually found the heart rate monitoring factor a huge help when I feel an anxiety attack coming on. Sometimes anxiety makes me feel like my heart is racing and now I’m able to glance down at my Fitbit and calm myself with the knowledge that my heart rate is really only 70 bpm!
After heart rate monitoring, tracking my sleep is my second favorite thing to do on my Fitbit. I’m actually downright obsessed with tracking my sleep. Ever woken up feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck but you went to bed early? With Fitbit sleep tracking you are able to see not just the quantity of your sleep, but the quality. It was pretty shocking at first to see how poorly I slept. After a few weeks of sleep monitoring I was able to create more consistency in the quality of my sleep by making simple changes based on my Fitbit results!
Even though I am not a fitness junkie and it’s a long shot of me becoming a health blogger, I am in love with my Fitbit Charge HR – I wear it every day! If you are a serious athelete or need 100% accurate or extensive stats, I can’t vouch that Fitbit is the right choice for you. However if you are looking for a motivational tool to help you make realistic, healthy changes to your every day routine – the Fitbit Charge HR is the perfect choice!
Do you use a fitness tracker? What health metrics do you like to track?
xoxo Blonde
Camera equipment: Olympus E-PL7
& Olympus M. Zuiko 45mm f1.8 Lens
Great article! My boyfriend recently acquired a Fitbit HR and he loves it too! I mean he’s not so concerned with the ‘cuteness’ of it haha, but the style does seem more marketed toward males. I would probably get one myself if I didn’t hate having things on my wrists, but what can ya do? Something that would be super cool is if they could make a wearable body fat percentage monitor. I want to track my weight, but right now I have to remember to weigh myself and then enter it on my iPhone health app (you can probably guess how often that actually happens), which is just so inconvenient (first world problems lol).
lol you’re so right I feel like the attractiveness factor doesn’t matter to men as much! My boyfriend has one too and he doesnt care that it’s a big black band. And they should totally add weight tracking! I think fitbit actually makes a “smart scale” but that seems more complicated. Maybe they have an updated tracker in the works!
xoxo Kelsey
I’ve been thinking about getting a Fitbit. I’ve heard a lot of positive insight to it. I do a lot of walking especially with work. I think it’ll be great to keep track of it. Thanks for your insight!
Anna | Anna Czarina Blog