10 Things you can do with your Fitbit (apart from counting steps)

Connecting your smartphone to your Fitbit has always been a handy novelty. Being able to see your calendar reminders, texts and who is calling you so you can decide while on the go if you would like to answer the call or just leave it for now.
With the Fitbit Surge and Blaze, you can also connect your smartphones music player to the fitness track and can choose what song you would like to listen to on your personalised playlist.
No more stopping to search for the Rocky theme when you see a large set of steps you want to run up. Simply control using your Fitbit.

Compete with your friends when it comes to Steps, calories and distance. Create your own personal challenges about how far you will travel in a set amount of time, there are 874 miles between Lands’ End and John O’ Groats.
The Fitbit app will link with your friends (if you choose to do so) and present a leader board of different results. It is now a great sightseeing people wanting to compete in friendly competition, you will always get one who goes hiking every weekend and blows you all out of the water but competing is fun.
There are also third party apps which offer challenges in the form of team challenges, head to head challenges as well as personal ones.
Fitbit created a new fitness social network which is not revolved around people taking selfies at the gym. This is about a community, friendship, fun and some extremely healthy competition.

Did you know you can track what you eat and drink on the Fitbit app? This may not seem like ground breaking stuff but here is why it is.
Simple analysis. I do not want to sound like a teacher but you can analyse your calorie intake, calories burned and distance walked all in the same place. You can physically see where you are doing things right or doing things wrong.
This was essential for me when I was losing weight with a Fitbit.

We know the Fitbit Surge, Fitbit Blaze and the Fitbit Charge 2 can track your heartbeat but you can also see your resting heartbeat. As well as see how long it takes to reach your normal heartbeat after a good run, you can take breathing exercises through some Fitbits and see how your heartbeat is while relaxed.
How about bookmarking those stressful moments of your day and seeing what happens to your heart, what do you do after those stressful moments? The Fitbit can help increase your happiness by either eliminating the stressful moments of the day or presenting data to you to say you need to breath after these events.

When do you get the best sleep and when do you get the worst. Maybe the Sunday Blues gets you down and you sleep worst on a Sunday night but sleep like a baby on a Friday. The sleep tracker can be a great tool to your happiness.
On the nights, you are consistently getting worst sleep, maybe you can now put plans into action like less caffeine or sugar leading up to the night time. The sleeping tracker can be a great tool when used correctly.
For me, I used to get the Sunday Blues terribly, I still do but I signed up to Audible after being recommended by another person on the Fitbit message boards to play an audio book before going to sleep. You focus on the words not on your mind and I found myself drifting off. This did improve my sleep.
Most recent Fitbits also sync with an app called Sleep Schedule, this will set off an alarm on a suggested bed time and if you activate it, it will set off an alarm on a suggested waking up time.

The Fitbit comes with a silent alarm which vibrates rapid enough to wake you up without waking up your partner. If you start work later than your partner, maybe the Fitbit will be a great gift for them so you can benefit from the silent alarm.

Most Fitbits come with these features but how many people have not synced their phone to their Fitbit properly and do not benefit from ignoring a call from someone on a run…. we all do it.
Now with the new update on the Fitbit Blaze, you can also check your social media notifications.

If you are already in love with a current app like Stave, Weight Watchers or my Fitness Pal, you can keep using them and sync your data with your Fitbit. I now exclusively use the Fitbit app since upgrading to the Fitbit Surge with its own built in GPS but you may have friends not using a Fitbit and you still want to show off your steps.

Almost like a grown-up version of Pokémon Go, you can use your phone to go on your own adventures, visit landmarks and follow trails. Your phone will offer a 360-degree view of your virtual tour and to make it that much more fun, you can collect special gifts such as fitness tips, facts or my favourite, hidden challenges.

By turning off all day syncing of your phone, you can increase your battery life by another couple of days. Very handy when you have forgotten your charger while on a trip.