Pregnancy setting/mode for more accurate data

Necessary:

Logging a pregnancy is a must, as is the ammenorheic period due to breastfeeding.  These drastically affect predictions making the app useless for many.  Eg. I have entered my data since 2011.  My periods are like clock work occurring every 27 days... but I have had 4 pregnancies in that time so the app is telling me that my peiods average every 104 days.

 

Useful:

Option to add basal body temp and ovulation data (eg. predictor strip).

 

Moderator edit: title

1,237 Comments
cjp834
First Steps

I find it incredibly strange that they went to the trouble to add individual trimester options as well as a nursing option but none of them adjust daily values. Beyond that, this issue was addressed on Facebook over a year ago and has yet to be resolved? Seems like a quick programming adjustment could make a lot of users very happy. Why set people up for frustration? 

dbanderson1
Recovery Runner

Child and maternal outcomes are highly correlated with proper weight gain.  Women who gain two much or too little increase their chances of a number of pregnancy related problems.  It would be nice if you could notify the app that you are pregnant at which point you would be prompted to answer a few questions (due date and pre-pregnancy weight) and the app could help you determine appropriate weight gain goals.  Additionally, it could use that information to more accurately determine caloric needs.

 

1st trimester: Normal intake* + NO extra calories

2nd trimester: Normal intake* + 340 extra calories

3rd trimester: Normal intake* + 452 extra calories

 

Table 1. Institute of Medicine Weight Gain Recommendations for Pregnancy
Prepregnancy Weight 
Category
Body Mass Index*Recommended 
Range of 
Total Weight (lb)
 
UnderweightLess than 18.528–40 
Normal Weight18.5–24.925–35 
Overweight25–29.915–25 
Obese (includes all classes)30 and greater11–20 

 

Also caloric needs go up significantly for lactation (400-500 kcal), it would be nice if there was a toggle for that as well to help mothers understand their specific needs during this vital time.

melaneyalexis
Jogger

I really love this idea. I've been imputing info into myfitnesspal but have been so confused about weather or not my fitbit already accounted for my nursing. I felt like I was undereating or overeating or  SOMETHING. Having this actually change how many calories I need a day through Fitbit would be AMAZING for me and reduce so much confusion!

kmurphy83
First Steps

This is a feature that is definitely needed. The meal plan and calorie intake/outake calculator is virtually useless to a pregnant and/or nursing mother. 

sbatt83
First Steps
This needs to be fixed!!
fishera062
First Steps

As a nursing mom, this feature would be so useful.  I don't understand why the nursing/pregnancy trimester options are listed under settings if these are not taken into account.  I do not want to have to use an external App to account for this, and I won't.  Please add this feature!

dandilyon
First Steps
I give two thumbs up for this request, this feature would be invaluable, and I think it would affect quite a lot of people as us new moms certainly are anxious to lose our baby weight! 🙂
TheFaraway
Recovery Runner

Nursing my son exclusively and my husband won this Fitbit.  He gave it to me to encourage me in my weight loss efforts.  It's essentially useless though so I'm glad we didn't waste money on it when I asked for one for Christmas.  It doesn't register any steps I take while holding the baby (because my arm isn't swinging?). ??? That would be probably 50-75% of my steps.  And it doesn't raise my calories burned for nursing.  And it says I didn't walk up any flights of stairs, except that I did 20 times today.
I can't even believe how much they're charging for these things while the Nursing option being checked does nothing.  Really, Fitbit?

TeeCross
First Steps

Recommending caloric intake for pregnancy could be tricky.  That really requires medical recommendations for each pregnant woman.  HOWEVER, there should definitely be a way to adjust calories for breastfeeding.  The fact that there's even a place to indicate pregnancy or breastfeeding but no adjustments made is misleading and could be dangerous.  If a woman is pregnant, it should immediately have a disclaimer to seek medical supervison for nutrition.  For nursing, one option would be to select a calorie level between 200-500 calories (depending on how much or often a woman is breastfeeding), and then have it adjust daily calories based on this.  

anitabre
First Steps

Hey Fitbit, Are there any planned updates for this? This is a very frustrating user experience for what's clearly a large segment of your customer base (breastfeeding and pregnant women). You seem to have made some progress by adding the "nursing" and "pregnant" options in the settings, but as it's been said ad nauseam- those selections do nothing for the actual values. I'm about a month away from weaning off breastfeeding but nonetheless, I'd feel less misguided by my daily calorie count if it actually accounted for the calories burned by breastfeeding/pumping.

Jennabelle
First Steps
Hi! I think that you guys should have an input area during the goal setting process for pregnant and/or breastfeeding moms! Both of those things dramatically change your caloric requirements for the day and therefore the calorie counter is very inaccurate.
Thanks!
Jjoseph
Jogger
Yes currently there is the option to sheet that you are breastfeeding or pregnant. But it does nothing to account for calories intake or burning. Also it doesn't allow you to select pregnant in general, just second or third trimester, but the body starts functioning differently in the first trimester as well.

To add breastfeeding there would need to be an option to input how many times a day you are breastfeeding. A newborn is going to feed more often than a 13 month old. Also if there could be the ability to enter your child's age and length of nurse. Or if you're pumping, how much you pumped.

This would need to be able to be added through the app dashboard and not just via a computer dashboard because most new mom's don't have time to sit in front of a computer every day.

Figuring out actual calorie burn and how much additional intake would be important.
Katiemarie5
First Steps

How many votes does this need before something is actually done about it. Nursing mothers are vulnerable when it comes to weight loss. It's so easy to over or under eat. I got a fitbit charge hr so I could be sure I am not consuming too many calories, but now I can't even be sure of that. 

Elletia
Jogger
A breastfeeding mother needs extra calories per day, and therefore this should be taken in to account in 'calories burnt', either by logging minutes of breastfeeding undertaken, or having the option to select 'exclusively breastfeeding' or 'mix feeding', so calories can be auto adjusted.
Sereara
First Steps
Added caloric intake for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers is absolutely essential to their health and I know that many of the Fitbit users I know are either one of those or have been pregnant and/or breastfeeding in the past year
andersenash
First Steps

Please please please take this under consideration. It seems like a pretty easy fix to me to just change the calorie need if someone has checked pregnant or nursing!!

Status changed to: Reviewed By Moderator
DerrickS
Premium User
Moderator Alum
Moderator Alum

Apologies for the delay on our end and thank you for your feedback. This isn't a feature that we could immplement immediately because it seems like it would be hardware related, but I will definitely relay your feedback to our team for consideration. 

Also, we recommend checking with your physician before using the Aria scale when pregnant. For Aria technical specs, please click here.

Klhyale
First Steps
It would be great to add nursing/pregnancy options to he fitbit for ladies to track calories. Many nursing moms are trying to lose weight and weight loss is 80% diet and ONLY 20% exercise. So really, it kind of makes your product pretty close to worthless without an accurate calorie count feature
Hhobbs23
First Steps
Yes, please add this feature. You have already added options in the UI to support it which is confusing since it does nothing. At least add an asterisk next to it that says for future development, etc. Also until you enable this feature I can't really use the food tracker and that would be very useful for someone who is taking care of the wellness of two humans! Thank you!
Tnlaven
First Steps

I made the decision to purchase the FitBit Charge HR after much research on various fitness bands available. I purchased the product in my 8th month of pregnancy knowing that I wouldn't be able to use the product to it's fullest extent until a few weeks after my delivery. I feel that there is a lot of focus around Healthy pregnancies in the medical field with women who battle gestational diabetes, hypertension and excessive weight gain causing potential problems for both mother and baby. If Fitbit were to further develop the application with a detailed pregnancy mode option, this could be a huge aid to a large market of health conscious women. The app could include features like increased water intake, healthy pregnancy weight gain goals, decreased step targets, heart rate alarms and suggested sleep targets.

Just a suggestion. I know for myself, that I would have loved to have this feature available while trying to stay healthy during pregnancy. In addition, people who are considering purchasing the product would find dual use with both healthy pregnancy and healthy weigh loss recovery postpartum.

Moderator Edit: Updated title for clarity and labels.

dmhmace
Jogger

Please change breastfeeding setting to actually reflect caloric needs and usage for lactating mothers.

samna
First Steps

It would be excellent for this feature to be made functional. I nurse twins, and while the fit bit gives me a good base to start off of, I have to ignore some of the info because it insn't accounting for the fact that I have to consume an additional 400-700 cal per baby... 800-1400, and that is no small number.

Leesha884
First Steps
Nursing mothers need an increase in calories to accommodate to the needs of their little one and the milk supply. Fitbit does not account for this. 😞 when setting up the Fitbit adding the preliminary question after gender response should allow a nursing setting that accommodates the higher calorie intake needed. Please? Thank you!!
Rich_Laue
Community Legend

@Leesha884 This already is available. Go to your personal settings page. Scroll down to your stats gender height ....., at the bottom you will see pregnant and what trimester, then nursing yes/no

SoloFrugalMama
First Steps

This request has been floating out there for YEARS fitbit team!!!!  You have the option to set "breastfeeding/nursing" in the profile, but it does absolutely nothing to the daily caloric count!!  Nor can you modify your caloric goal manually, so basically you're stuck with the defaults (only 2 options).   Please, either allow us to manually override caloric goal, or make an automatic increase based on selection of nursing in the profile, this is SUCH a simple fix, I cannot understand why I see requests on it from 2013 and still no action taken from fitbit!!!!

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