My Journey With Health And Fitness – Fitbit Frustrations

Yesterday I did my first run wearing my new orthotics. Since I can wear them comfortably all day when not training I decided they likely are broken in so I might as well give it a try. I was surprised at how comfortable they actually were when running. I did have a slight pressure point on the top of my foot when I was finished my 5k but it was just a small red mark and nothing painful. I certainly didn’t feel it while I was running.

I’m getting a little frustrated with my Fitbit. As you will have read in previous posts, I live by my Fitbit. It tells me all the important things like distance, steps, calories burned, zone minutes, sleep score, heart rate and resting heart rate. It also gives me my zone goal for each day and tells me when to do a recovery day. Or at least that is what it is supposed to do. Normally I am pretty confident in its accuracy but lately it has become a bit concerning.

It started with the fact that even after doing 5 consecutive days at 300+ zone minutes a day it kept telling me my recovery score was good. I knew this wasn’t correct as those are pretty high training numbers. Then one morning a couple weeks ago I did 5k on the treadmill but according to my Fitbit I had only walked about 3.5k. Note, when I am on the treadmill I set exercise on my Fitbit to ‘treadmill’ so it knows what exercise I am doing. I decided to do a reset which is what is recommended and I figured it was looking ok again.

Yesterday I did my run. I thought I was running at a pretty good pace and according to my time to do the run it was about what I usually do. When I finished I looked at my Fitbit and it said during 47% of my run I was below the heart rate zone that I needed. WTF! As a matter of fact during that run it said my average heart rate was below what it had been when I did my morning treadmill walk. Then, later in the day when I did my volunteer dog walking, my average heart rate was higher than when I did my run. This is simply not possible as the dog I walk tends to sniff a lot so lots of stops along the walk and moreover because she is 13 years old it’s not like she walks along at a really fast pace. To top all of this off, I was on the treadmill today and at one point the Fitbit said my heart rate was only slightly above what it normally is when I am sitting on my couch. Something is just not right.

I’ve done yet another reset on my Fitbit but I fear it is failing. I do have a back up one but unfortunately it is a cheaper version and just doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that I am used to. I am really hoping I am not going to have to go on a shopping spree but I will do so if need be because my Fitbit truly helps to keep me motivated.