Fitbit offers the best sleep tracking and heart health insights going, not to mention powerful new metrics such as Active Zone Minutes.
But if you love the data your Fitbit offers, a Fitbit Premium subscription enables you to use it better to make more positive changes.
Whether you want killer insights into your sleep, making sense of trends in your health data or simply getting fit, Fitbit Premium is all about giving you more tools to make positive changes.
Read on for the five Fitbit Premium features we couldn’t live without.
1. Deeper sleep insights
One of the best parts of the Fitbit ecosystem is its sleep tracking tools, and Premium subscribers get even more from this aspect of the app.
While everyone gets incredible insights such as Sleep Score and Sleep Stages, only Premium subscribers get extra analysis into their slumber.
Premium users will also get to see a breakdown of how their Sleep Score is calculated, with individual scores for sleep duration, restoration and restlessness. This is displayed on a new screen, dedicated for Premium subscribers, and is broken down into the following sections:
Time asleep
Premium offers extra analysis into sleep duration, with a screen that shows sleep and wake periods. This aspect makes up 50% of your sleep score, so getting a breakdown can be hugely effective. You can see time asleep vs time awake and your sleep schedule.
Deep and REM
Like free users, Premium shows a breakdown of your deep, light and REM sleep cycles. This will show time spent in each stage, and you should see yourself cycling through different types of sleep. Time spent in each stage counts for 25% of the score.
Restoration
This is specific to Fitbit Premium and accounts for 25% of your sleep score. You can see your heart rate through the night and the percentage spent below resting heart rate. You’ll see the effects of alcohol or caffeine in your heart rate data, and spending time below resting is a large part of your sleep score.
Premium users will also see the percentage tossing and turning made up your sleep. Again, working on this score and making changes, from reducing screen time, caffeine, alcohol and stress will dramatically affect your sleep score.
Fitbit Premium also offers Personalised Insights, which help to connect the dots in your Fitbit data and understand how things such how your sleep quality improves when your exercise increases.
2. Dynamic workouts
A lot of Fitbit data can be passive. Your Fitbit device measures aspects of your body, and reports back data on what’s going on under the hood.
Fitbit Premium offers more ways to take control, and start improving your health and fitness – and the Dynamic Workouts are a perfect place to start.
Covering everything from High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), to kick boxing, barre and yoga – Fitbit’s dynamic workouts are perfect whatever your level.
Whether you want a full body workout, purely focus on abs, workouts with kids, audio running guides, or five minute blast to full on classes, Fitbit Premium has content to get you sweating, moving and working.
These workouts are delivered from expert partners, including fitness brands such as Physique 57, barre3, Daily Burn, Popsugar and Yoga Studio.
Dive into the Discover tab on your Fitbit device to access a host of guided video workouts aimed at all abilities.
You don’t need to have any kit either, as there are options for bodyweight exercises, as well as those with basic equipment – perfect for at home workouts
3. The Fitbit Wellness report
Wellness Reports is a Premium feature that gives you a breakdown of your last 30 days of sleep, resting heart rate, weight (if tracked) and activity data.
It’s downloaded and viewed as a PDF and offers an incredible way to look at your health stats in one place, perfect if you want to share your data with your GP or health specialist.
It’s not just a re-creation of what you’ll find in the Fitbit app. Wellness Report also shows your monthly fitness data in comparison to previous months and even years. That means it goes one step further in revealing long term health data.
You can compare things like sleep quality, sleep schedule, across the long term, showing in black and white how your lifestyle is changing.
4. Guided programs, workouts and mindfulness
Making lifestyle changes isn’t easy – and while your Fitbit device is a fantastic tool, it’s just that. It can’t do the hard work for you.
And while a Fitbit Premium can’t burn the calories for you, or make you get to bed on time, it can at least let you know how to achieve your goals.
Premium offers Guided Programs, which is like having a lifestyle coach on your wrist. There are Guided Programs for getting more sleep, eating healthily, moving more and getting exercise.
Unlike just singular workouts, a Guided Program will last 1 – 3 weeks. Each program is more than just a set of targets and also included education, reading and then daily strategies.
For programs like Kick Your Sugar Habit you tick off each day as it’s accomplished, and the next day you’ll get a different set of reading and inspiration. For workout or activity-based Programs, you have to complete three Dynamic Workouts, or whatever the plan entails, to tick it off.
While Fitbit is a great tool for your physical wellbeing, it’s not just about steps, workouts and heart health. Fitbit Premium has guided mindfulness sessions, with over 150 to choose from.
There are guided breathing routines, bedtime stories, anti-anxiety meditations and more, including content from Aura and Ten percent Happier. If you're having trouble sleeping, there are guided sessions for that too.
5. Challenges and adventures
Getting fit is easier when you enjoy it, so Fitbit Premium’s challenges and adventures are a perfect way to get motivated.
Head to the Discover section of the app, choose Challenges & Adventures, and tap See More.
From here you can play games such as Fit Bingo, where you have to tick off a bingo card of mini fitness goals to create a pattern. The game can be played between 1-30 players, and timescales between 1 hour and 30 days.
You can also take on virtual adventures, again either between friends or just on your own. Examples include walking famous trails like the Valley Loop (35,000) or Pohono Trail (62,500) – you can challenge a friend to be the first to traverse the distance over days or weeks, or just take on the challenge yourself.
And you don’t have to take on the pre-made challenges. You can create custom ones with people in your friends list, competing for steps, active minutes or distance, setting the goal yourself from within the app. Just head to the Custom Challenge section to set up your competition.
Fitbit Premium is available to users of all Fitbit devices. After a free the trial period, Fitbit Premium costs £7.99 a month, or £79.99 a year. Click here to sign up.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.