![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fitbit? or is it Fatbit?
Nov. 6th, 2021 10:05 amHusband got a new Fitbit wristband/smartwatch with more features, and gave me his old one ("Inspire HR" model) to play with. He is a big enthusiast, but I think it's just because the thing produces all kinds of graphics and charts and he has a thing about those.
So I've been wearing this one for about three weeks now, and it has accumulated enough data on my activities, heart rate, and sleep cycles to start making unwanted suggestions. Like that I should sleep more hours a day, because that's the norm. Not because it sees any problems caused by my sleep habits (6 or 7 hours a day) but because "most people your age sleep more." Phooey on that.
The sleep analysis is interesting. I have no idea how accurate it is, but like so many tech things, it seems to believe it is master of everything and I'm just stupid. It divides my sleep time into categories: deep, light, REM, and awake. I get counts of time and charts showing the periods in different colors. Sometimes if I'm awake and reading, it thinks that is REM sleep. If the dog squirms around on the bed, it thinks I'm awake and restless. If I were to sleepwalk, I'm sure it would think I was awake and active.
Much more amusing, though, is the calories counted. Now I'm not bothering to tell it what or how much I eat, though that is possible by going through the associated phone app. By default, however, it looks at my activity levels ("steps," whatever it thinks those are; heart rate changes; breathing rates; and sleep cycle) and calculates how many calories I am "burning" every hour. I did supply it with my age, weight, gender and height figures and I assume those go into the calculation.
Now I have counted calories carefully over several months a couple of years ago. I know what my typical food consumption is. I do pretty well at controlling that, and I don't splurge on sugars, other carbs, or fatty stuff. Since that calorie-conscious diet two years back (I lost 40 pounds) my weight has been stable, varying only by a pound or so up and down. Let me tell you, if I were consuming the number of calories Fitbit thinks I'm burning, I would be gaining weight like crazy. Fortunately, I'm not doing that. It does keep telling me that I should be losing 0.1 pounds each day, though how it knows that without any information on what I actually ate is quite a mystery.
The thing also has an irritating habit of buzzing on my wrist to tell me I need x number of additional steps for the current hour in order to meet its expected minimum activity levels. I suppose that might be good advice if I've been sitting still and writing, but often it just seems absurd. "Quick, you need 87 more steps to reach 250 for this hour." Or worse, at bedtime, "Get 675 more steps to meet your daily quota." Sorry, no. Since it counts steps based on arm movement, playing the piano runs up the step counter rapidly. Likewise, walking with my left hand in my pocket is "silent stepping" that doesn't get counted.
I'm still wearing it to see whether it adjusts its recommendations based on what it measures and the results, as I report my weight once a week. I can't see any changes yet.
Also, there's a contradiction between the wristband and the app on what constitutes "cardio" exercise. I can convince both that I have done some any time I move quickly doing barn chores, or do anything that involves lifting hay bales or feed sacks (most days there's some of that.) But invariably, the two record and report different numbers of minutes of cardio for the day, sometimes differing by as much as a factor of ten.
For additional curiosity, since AARP recommends the Google "Fit" app, I am running that concurrently. The Google app uses only my inputs and what it measures as "steps" using the sensors in my Motorola phone. The step counts are fairly close between Google and Fitbit, surprisingly, with Google counting a bit lower because sometimes I leave the phone on a table and forget to take it with me. Google counts something called "heart points" instead of "cardio" and I rarely get any of those. I assume they are calculated just based on how many steps I get and how fast I am stepping.
Anyway, it's all very amusing, and they make a lot of pretty colored charts filled with what I am convinced is spurious data.
So I've been wearing this one for about three weeks now, and it has accumulated enough data on my activities, heart rate, and sleep cycles to start making unwanted suggestions. Like that I should sleep more hours a day, because that's the norm. Not because it sees any problems caused by my sleep habits (6 or 7 hours a day) but because "most people your age sleep more." Phooey on that.
The sleep analysis is interesting. I have no idea how accurate it is, but like so many tech things, it seems to believe it is master of everything and I'm just stupid. It divides my sleep time into categories: deep, light, REM, and awake. I get counts of time and charts showing the periods in different colors. Sometimes if I'm awake and reading, it thinks that is REM sleep. If the dog squirms around on the bed, it thinks I'm awake and restless. If I were to sleepwalk, I'm sure it would think I was awake and active.
Much more amusing, though, is the calories counted. Now I'm not bothering to tell it what or how much I eat, though that is possible by going through the associated phone app. By default, however, it looks at my activity levels ("steps," whatever it thinks those are; heart rate changes; breathing rates; and sleep cycle) and calculates how many calories I am "burning" every hour. I did supply it with my age, weight, gender and height figures and I assume those go into the calculation.
Now I have counted calories carefully over several months a couple of years ago. I know what my typical food consumption is. I do pretty well at controlling that, and I don't splurge on sugars, other carbs, or fatty stuff. Since that calorie-conscious diet two years back (I lost 40 pounds) my weight has been stable, varying only by a pound or so up and down. Let me tell you, if I were consuming the number of calories Fitbit thinks I'm burning, I would be gaining weight like crazy. Fortunately, I'm not doing that. It does keep telling me that I should be losing 0.1 pounds each day, though how it knows that without any information on what I actually ate is quite a mystery.
The thing also has an irritating habit of buzzing on my wrist to tell me I need x number of additional steps for the current hour in order to meet its expected minimum activity levels. I suppose that might be good advice if I've been sitting still and writing, but often it just seems absurd. "Quick, you need 87 more steps to reach 250 for this hour." Or worse, at bedtime, "Get 675 more steps to meet your daily quota." Sorry, no. Since it counts steps based on arm movement, playing the piano runs up the step counter rapidly. Likewise, walking with my left hand in my pocket is "silent stepping" that doesn't get counted.
I'm still wearing it to see whether it adjusts its recommendations based on what it measures and the results, as I report my weight once a week. I can't see any changes yet.
Also, there's a contradiction between the wristband and the app on what constitutes "cardio" exercise. I can convince both that I have done some any time I move quickly doing barn chores, or do anything that involves lifting hay bales or feed sacks (most days there's some of that.) But invariably, the two record and report different numbers of minutes of cardio for the day, sometimes differing by as much as a factor of ten.
For additional curiosity, since AARP recommends the Google "Fit" app, I am running that concurrently. The Google app uses only my inputs and what it measures as "steps" using the sensors in my Motorola phone. The step counts are fairly close between Google and Fitbit, surprisingly, with Google counting a bit lower because sometimes I leave the phone on a table and forget to take it with me. Google counts something called "heart points" instead of "cardio" and I rarely get any of those. I assume they are calculated just based on how many steps I get and how fast I am stepping.
Anyway, it's all very amusing, and they make a lot of pretty colored charts filled with what I am convinced is spurious data.
