Chest Strap HR Monitor Integration

[asostilio]

I really want to buy a fitbit, however, I kickbox and I can't wear the fitbit under my gloves in order to track my heart rate. I would love if fitbit would come out with its own chest strap to allow me to attach the watch to my clothes or put in my pocket during my kickboxing workout. Will this be something to come in the future? This may not be the best forum to ask, but I am trying 🙂

[USAF-Larry]

@asostilio, this is not the best forum for this - you need to visit the Feature Suggestions forum and post your suggestion there if there isn't already such a suggestion. I doubt you'll be seeing this in the near future, though, as most people wear fitness trackers to get away from the chest strap type devices.

[Dominique]

@asostilio: Fitbits are meant to be worn 24/7. Therefore a model with a cheststrap wouldn’t be very convenient. If you need/want to monitor your HR during your intense kickboxing sessions, there are plenty of good cheststrap-based solutions (for instance, from Polar). You can input calories burned during these sessions into your Fitbit account (if you decide to track your overall activity with a Fitbit), so you don’t have "holes" in your activity timeline when you’re kickboxing. 

[asostilio]

@Dominique I would want to have the wrist HR monitoring at all other times, but have the option to pair with a Chest Strap during more intense workout such as kickboxing where there is a lot of movement and the wrist HR monitoring is not possible or will not be as accurate. I do not want to use a separate device and figure out how not to double count calories, etc. There should be the ability to choose between wristing HR Monitoring and Chest HR monitoring based on the activity. If I am at work or walking or running, sure, the wrist HR is fine. I just think Fitbit is losing a group of people who feel the same way I do and decide to go with Garmin or Polar because they have the option to do this. 

[Dominique]

I think there are fundamental differences between activity/fitness trackers (e.g. Fitbit) and sport watches (e.g. Polar, Garmin, Suunto), although some convergence has taken place: for instance, Fitbit started as a pedometer, but has added HR monitoring to newer devices, whereas Polar and Suunto only monitored HR with a chest strap, but have now introduced models with wrist-based HR and they’re also counting steps. I don’t think it’s very likely Fitbit wants to expand into sport watch territory, at least not in the near future. If tracking your activity during kickboxing sessions is really important for you, then you should go for a sport watch. Note, however, that they do not necessarily offer all features found in Fitbits: for instance, @bcalvanese recently mentioned his Suunto sport watch does count steps, resets them at midnight (like Fitbit), but doesn’t keep a history of them. It’s also a lot bulkier (and more expensive) than Fitbit models. So there are trade-offs and you need to decide what matters most to you. A combination of both (Fitbit + sport watch) could be a workable solution, and one that’s available right now (unlike a hypothetical Fitbit chest strap, which I don’t see coming any time soon).

[Tadm]

Oops