Veronika is busy working mother based in Manchester, UK. She has a keen interest in health, nutrition and keeping as active as possible. When not chasing a baby around, she can be found experimenting in the kitchen.
After resolving to better understand and increase my daily activity rates, I decided to trial a Fitbit Alta (with its own app) against my phone’s fitness app.
As a busy working mother, I’m looking for accurate data, a device that’s hassle free and an interface that’s easy to use.
It’s fair to say that the Alta won (almost!) hands down. Here’s how:
To track your activity, the Fitbit Alta uses a ‘3- Axis Accelerometer’; this basically measures the pressure of your acceleration while looking for specific motion patterns, then algorithms calculate if you’re running, walking or cycling.
Independent testers surmise that they are around 90% accurate.
Your phone app will work in a similar way, using your movements to track acceleration and calculate distance moved. However, as this is only one small part of their functionality, handset Accelerometers tend to be one dimensional so can struggle to differentiate between types of movement.
For example, mine counted steps while I was driving!
Wearability
Wear-ability was a key driver for me when looking at fitness trackers too.
The Alta straps onto your wrist, is lightweight and has changeable straps that can adapt to fit your style. I found it non-intrusive when running, and with a tap it can display your current distance travelled, calories burned or the time instantly.
It’s not 100% perfect, I occasionally found baby-debris stuck underneath it and you must take it off when you wash up, shower or swim so I sometimes forget to put it back on; missing valuable activity.
Click above to find the Fitbit Alta on Amazon
Thing is, I thought I’d have my phone with me constantly, not so! After the fourth time that I’d nipped out of the office leaving it behind I just gave up: that’s the MAJOR downside of using your phone app rather than an activity tracker.
I’m not a big one for lugging my phone around while I’m running, so again, I left it at home- rendering the fitness app borderline utterly pointless.
Sleep Tracking
Researchers at the University of California, say we need at least 6 hours sleep a night. The Fitbit Alta gives you a breakdown of your sleep patterns, rating your slumber accordingly.
Which would, of course, be tremendous if I’d not got a baby waking me every hour!
However, I was surprised to learn that I regularly got the recommended amount of sleep, leaving me feeling increasingly alert and equipped for the day ahead.
Staggeringly, you usually need to enter your sleep data manually using the phone fitness app. Which I can’t be bothered to do myself. So I didn’t.
Watch or Phone?
In terms of user interface, I much prefer my phone app, it’s got a familiar user persona and flows nicely, plus all my data is ready for me to see immediately; no need to sync.
The Alta’s on-wrist interface, on the other hand, feels clunky, syncing can be troublesome and times consuming while finding breakdowns of your data means going through several screens.
After trialling both it was obvious from the start that the Fitbit Alta suited my needs.
While the Fitbit app might be clunky in comparison to the phone’s own app, it does the job, and the accuracy of the data collected, ease of use and extra features (like a gentle vibrate after a long period of in-activity) make it the right fitness tracker for my busy lifestyle.
