Last year, I decided that I wanted to lose weight and I lost 30 pounds in three months! After that I lost 10 more pounds and chose to go into a more “maintenance” phase. But we had a few trips and I stopped tracking my calories and I knew that I had gained. I weighed myself and had gained five pounds — not terrible, but I wanted to get things back under control.
To reinvigorate my weight loss and help me to be motivated, I wanted a new fitness tracker. This is a review of my Fitbit Alta HR:
I have used Fitbit in the past, but they only seemed to last about a year before the straps would break. I’ve used the Fitbit Flex, and the Fitbit Charge HR and both have had broken bands. Fitbit would replace the band/device if it was within warranty, but I decided to take a break from Fitbit last year and have been using the Garmin Vivosmart HR. (full Garmin review here).
I had seen the Fitbit Alta HR on Amazon, and even mentioned it in my post about cool/unique finds on Amazon, so I decided to buy it in the rose gold version. At the time, they only had the large size available, so I bought it. I had the large size of the Fitbit Charge HR before and it was a good fit for me.
When it arrived and I tried it on, I was so sad at how large it was. I had it on the tightest notch and it was fitting way too high on my wrist/arm. I couldn’t wear it like that, so I considered just buying a replacement band so I could get the smaller size but replacement bands are so expensive. The band replacement/different color options are basically a third of the price of the whole tracker. I had to return it, and repurchased at Target in the small size.
DESIGN
The Fitbit Alta HR is surprisingly small and thin. Compared to my previous Fitbit devices and the Garmin Vivosmart HR I had been using, the Alta was a small, cute bracelet. As I mentioned, I picked up the rose gold edition, so the Fitbit is a bronzy color and it came with blush pink bands.
The band material is soft and flexible and the bands just clip in and out, so if they do happen to break some how, replacement would be easy. The bands connect with a watch strap closure so you know your band is secure on your wrist. I love the rose gold edition and how thin and light it is.
The display is bright and clear; way brighter than my Garmin, but it’s hard to read in bright sunlight.
INTERFACE
There are no buttons on the Alta HR. To interact with the device, you tap it twice to wake it up, or turn your wrist up and toward you to auto-turn on (if you have that enabled). To navigate through the different screens, you just tap once to toggle through. You can’t swipe or go backwards in the rotation, you just have to keep tapping through until your desired screen comes back again.
Compared to the Garmin Vivosmart HR, the Alta is missing a lot of features. The Garmin allows you to swipe forward and backward through the different screens, you can control your music, view the weather, and track/time your workouts. The Garmin is also swim proof and you can shower with it, but the Alta is not water-resistant and should be removed in the shower.
The Alta does all of the basic things that you would want a fitness tracker to do — track your steps, your heart rate, your sleep, your active minutes, and calories burned. The Alta HR also shows you notifications (text messages and calls), but if you missed the message, it’s gone and you can’t go back to view it. The Garmin, however, would let you swipe through to see a limited number of messages that came in in the past.
WORKOUTS
A huge difference between the Garmin Vivosmart HR and this new Fitbit Alta is that you can’t initiate a workout on the tracker. With the Garmin, I could click through and tell it that I was going to do a run; it would start the timer and record my activity and heart rate during that time. I loved that because it would isolate that specific workout and I could see all my stats during that time.
With the Fitbit Alta HR, it auto-detects an activity after you have been doing it for 10 minutes. This is fine and maybe nice if you aren’t into having to click through to initiate your workout. I have had the Alta for just over two weeks and haven’t had a problem with this so far, so it’s fine for me.
CHARGING
The Fitbit Alta HR has a cute little clip charger that just clamps onto the back of the Fitbit. I like the charger because you don’t have to struggle to try to connect the device. Charging is super easy. When my Fitbit arrived, it was basically completely dead and I had to charge it for almost two hours to bring it back up to full. You are supposed to get up to 7 days of charge with the Alta HR, but I haven’t ever let it go that long. I try to charge it while I’m in the shower since it’s not water-resistant.
THE APP
I really love Fitbit’s app. That was one of the main things I missed when I chose to go with the Garmin Vivosmart HR last year. The Fitbit app is very user friendly and easy to navigate. It looks pretty and has a lot of information available in an easy to interpret way.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
While I sort of feel like I am downgrading in terms of features versus my Garmin Vivosmart HR, I am really happy with my new Fitbit Alta HR because of its slim design and basically how cute it is. I don’t even feel like I am wearing a fitness band; I feel like I am wearing a cute watch/bracelet. Plus, I really prefer the Fitbit app over Garmin’s so I have really been enjoying it.
The whole point of a fitness tracker like the Alta HR is to wear it all day so you can learn about your activity, your sleep, and your heart rate. To me, the Alta HR is so cute and stylish, I am happy to wear it all day. It’s comfortable and I like the data the app provides. Knowing how you are doing is motivating and can help push you to stay more active. I am still tracking my calories, but the Fitbit Alta HR is an overall wellness tool for me.
