Body Fat % as Main Goal Instead of Weight

[bj2burch]

I'd like to be able to choose body fat % rather than weight (currently have to choose between lose, maintain, or gain weight). I'm sure that there are others like me that don't have a lot of weight to lose, are building muscle and would rather have a body fat % goal. Frankly I could care less about my actual weight.

[bj2burch]

Yay! Thanks for the votes @tapowe @Jernej @Cinny @cjfrye @SunsetRunner. Hoping to get more! Love to see this added feature 🙂

[LizFitbit]

Hi @bj2burch, you can actually do this now! In the app under 'Goals' go to 'Nutrition and Body'. Choose Body Fat % to select that as a goal. Then, on the dashboard, go to the the weight tile and body weight % is featured. Thanks!

[bj2burch]

Just curious if this is being looked into still. After we spoke via PM and I explained that this isn't a current feature (yes you can set a body fat goal but the goal itself in the app is still weight based, lose maintain or gain and not solely body fat) I haven't heard anything since...

Is this still being looked into?

[tralfaz1966]

arrrrgh. This is not an existing feature. don't care anymore what my actual weight is.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @bj2burch and thanks for sharing this suggestion, which has received votes from other community members. I’m happy to let you know that this suggestion has been picked up internally at Fitbit and is being considered by our team. This suggestion will either remain ‘Under Consideration’ until released, or else move to ‘Not Currently Planned’ if it’s not viable right now. Further updates will be posted here.

Please remember that if a suggestion is chosen for development, it can take some time before updates are available or a release is finalized, so thanks in advance for your patience :). To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs. Fans can continue to vote for this feature suggestion while it is under consideration.

[bj2burch]

Very cool thank you! @LizzyFitbit Weigh loss is not always the main goal. Sometimes it's body composition!

[rckoegel]

Glad to see this is getting some traction.... I've only been waiting for BF% to take center stage since I bought me original Charge HR and Aria Scale... the whole point was to track activity and BF%, the primary determining factors in general health.

Stay active, keep your BF% within a healthy range.

Right now my weight goal is set by manually calculating out the ratio of fat to weight goal to get the desired percent that matches my current lean mass in pounds. It's simple math, but still.

[schnoko]

Hey @LizzyFitbit it's been a couple of months since this was set to be taken into consideration. Any updates?

I'm still hoping for this feature as I - just like the thread opener - don't really care about my weight, but very much so about my body fat % and I don't really like having to enter a dummy weight goal to be able to enter a BF% goal as well. 

[Loloaqic]

I realise that this suggestion already exists, however I am NOT able to add my vote to that suggestion, hence this post.

Please provide us with the ability to set a Body Fat % Goal.

Please provide us with an actual Body Fat weight metric.

please provide us with an actual Body Fat weight goal.

[user74]

Hey there,

Totally agree about this feature. I think this is something that Yazio or Nutrients or MyFitnessPal offer. Check out there.

Have a good day!

Žan

[Agerf]

Agreed!  This is asked every few months and yet fitbit always says 'thanks, we'll consider it' and never actually does anything.  technically, you can set a body fat % goal (on the same page you can set your weight loss goal) but it doesn't actually do anything.  It does not show up as the primary goal in the widget on the dashboard.  

who cares about weight loss?  it's body fat loss that people care about - nobody has said "my goal is to decrease muscle mass or empty my bladder, thereby losing weight as it shows up on my scales".  Body fat is what people want to lose and yet the 'goal' front and centre on the dashboard is losing weight!  Not even an option to make body fat % loss the goal that shows up.  I just don't get it.

[Agerf]

I replied to this but it was marked as spam.  I was merely agreeing with this post.  Body fat percentage is what people care about - a person's actual weight (as opposed to body fat) is not that important and to not have an option to have the body fat percentage as a goal and to show up on the widget in the weight page seems to be a little narrowly focused.  Weight as it shows up on your scales includes muscle mass and urine - and I don't think that people set out to lose muscle mass in order to decrease their weight.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Loloaqic, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to see Body Fat goals for weight. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". You can learn more about it here. Keep adding these suggestions.

[Ryfrmda9]

Yessss :exclamation_mark: exactly what I need I bought this and set it up today downloaded another app to track my food and was so disappointed I don't necessarily want to lose weight just body fat :exclamation_mark::exclamation_mark::exclamation_mark:💪

[Eric_Martinusen]

Under consideration for 2 years is unacceptable.  

Body Fat is considered by the health and scientific fields to be much more important to overall health than weight.  To have the word "Fit" in the name of the company is almost embarrassing at this point.

If it is easier for your team, perhaps just Change the name to "$Bit" and we can all migrate to Apple or somebody else that is paying attention to the feedback they recieve.

Cheers

[rckoegel]

"$Bit" is trademarked already.

[skaryzgik]

If this does ever get implemented, please make sure that "gain" is also a possible body fat percentage goal. If I get too far under, I need a plan to help bring it back up.

[jess0rz]

We really need an Aria 3 or an updated Aria scale that utilizes wifi and calculates fat %. I’ve searched here and elsewhere online, and there are many others who are disappointed with the discontinuation of Aria 2.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @jess0rz, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to see Body Fat % on Aria Scale. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has been updated as "Under Consideration". I hope to see you around.

[kcole02]

I agree with all of these points. I check every 6 months or so (for A LONG time now) on the status of this "update" and sadly nothing ever happens. I'm not sure if it's the fact that they don't want to shed light on the miscalculations of the Aria or if their pricing cut them out of the market for a good device or what.. but I've stuck with fitbit because it's easy, I'm used to it and it almost checks all the boxes.

I wish it was as robust as myfitnesspal in goal settings, food databases and macro goals (and logging - though they have started to bring that into the app so I'm hopeful..) BUT my body composition comes first and foremost. Not the weight number. As you get closer to your "goal" everyone (hopefully) realizes that.

I get that the Aria is telling me nothing but lies, but at least it's consistent so I could theoretically set a fake goal that I would assume would bring me closer to my real body fat% goal to compensate - but there still isn't that option. So I've given up on that part. If I can find another wearable that ticks all the boxes, I'll likely switch. For now though I just hope they enable this as an option - since it seems pretty easy from a developer standpoint since it exists in the database already, even the "goal".. just make it a darn widget option or your "primary" - just like you can with steps vs total calories as a goal. 

[Davidyt22]

I would also like to see this feature added. My main goal is body fat percentage not scale weight, which I am sure is the same for many other Fitbit users. I hope Fitbit includes this option soon!

[spontaneousfitn]

I agree completely!! + It would be even cooler if Fitbit app could synchronize to my Dexafit app so I could import all the various data points automatically like my body composition over time, VO2max and HR zones, RMR, etc. I'm in a reverse diet right now and I'm trying to build muscle. I wasn't sure what to put in my Fitbit app for weight. I guess "maintain" makes the most sense but having a lower body fat % goal.... But I can't really do much with body fat % at the moment. Anyway I just wanted to echo that this is a good idea.

[atwistonlife]

Hello! Regardless of where my weight and body fat % data is being input from, I really want to have a dashboard tile that focuses on my body fat %. I see this has been under consideration for many years, and I'm not sure why it would be such a difficult thing to achieve... Fitbit folks, can you provide some insight for us?

[AllisonGH]

This feature would be great!!! I hate that the emphasis is on X lbs to lose to reach goal when I don’t even want to enter that type of goal, body fat % is what I want to focus on. People put a really unhealthy emphasis on the weight they see on the scale sometimes even though the “healthiness” of the same weight varies based on body type, how much of that weight is muscle v fat, etc. I rarely weigh myself because I don’t think it’s healthy to track that number so closely and in the past when I exercise regularly I actually gain weight (muscle weighs more than fat), so body fat % is a much more accurate measure of how my current habits might be impacting my overall health.