Switching from a Fitbit smartwatch or tracker to an Apple Watch doe means changing the way you view your goals, targets, and achievements, and will initially alienate and frustrate Fitbit users switching to the Apple fitness regime.

Youll get used to it but Apple hasnt made it easy for switchers to find a natural match for their beloved Fitbit experience. As with getting fit, you need to work at it.

Apples Activity app focuses primarily on Movement, Exercise, and Standing rather than Fitbits more straightforward Step, Floor, and Distance measurements.

Fitbit users will be put out by Apples different approach to fitness and health metrics, but there are ways to make the transition easier and force the Apple Watch to behave more like a Fitbit.

Fitbit switchers will have to show some patience and flexibility when moving to the Apple Watch and may never get the same simple joy they previously enjoyed with Fitbit, but the Apple Watch does offer much better smartwatch functionality and closer interaction with the iPhone.

About me: Ive been a Fitbit user since the original Classic pedometer in 2009. I have reviewed Fitbits, from clip-on trackers to smartwatches, but it looks to me like now is the time to change to an Apple Watch, despite my love of being a Fitbit user.

Since being bought by Google in 2019, Fitbit devices appear to have slipped down the new owners priority list for new features and enhancements.

Indeed, the latest Fitbit smartwatches have actually lost features, and are now more like fitness trackers in a smartwatch shape. The newest versions of the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Sense (Versa 4 and Sense 2) are not as advanced as their predecessors (Versa 3 and Sense). They have been kneecapped in terms of on-device apps and streamlined (Fitbits words) on former favorites such as challenges and social groups. Just read our sister title Tech Advisors reviews of the latest Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2.

The Versa 4 and Sense 2 basically had their third-party app support ripped out and lost even some of Fitbits own functions, such as Music Control and, weirdly for a Google product, Google Assistant.

Google appears to be focusing on its own more expensive Pixel Watch, which incorporates Fitbit health tracking. If you want a proper smartwatch, Fitbit is now the wrong solution unless you choose the Google Pixel Watch. Google even states that the Pixel Watch features Fitbits most accurate heart rate tracking yetanother slap in the face for iPhone-using Fitbit fans.

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As the Google Pixel watch works only with Android, iPhone users must switch to Apples Watch for smart features. Fitbits trackers do have some smart featuressuch as notificationsbut if you want a proper watch experience with your iPhone, Google/Fitbit is forcing you to Apple.

The Google Pixel Watch is also more expensive than Fitbit smartwatchesstarting at $349/339 compared to the Versa 4 at $199/179. That said, switching to the Apple Watch is not cheap either, with Watch prices starting at $249/259 (SE) and rapidly rising to $799/849 (Ultra).

iPhone users will soon face the inevitable and must look at the Apple Watch as an alternative smartwatch, or just move to the top-end Fitbit trackerssuch as the more-than-able Fitbit Charge 5.

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Counting the number of steps you make during the day is at the core of Fitbit metrics. While the daily 10,000-step target is not based on actual science, its well held by medics that even gentle walking to this level is definitely good for your health.

10,000 steps are about the same as walking four to five miles, depending on your stride, and a number that has been linked to a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease, stroke, and heart failure), multiple types of cancer, and dementia.

Fitbit uses Steps as its primary goal, although you can switch this to Distance, Calories, or Active Zone Minutes if you preferbut Steps will always remain an important target. Apple, on the other hand, does not regard steps as one of its three primary fitness goals (Move, Activity, Stand). Apple instead concentrates its red Activity Move ring on how many active calories youve burned, the green Exercise ring on how many minutes of brisk activity youve done, and the blue Stand ring on how many times in the day youve stood and moved for at least one minute each hour.

But what if you want to keep counting the number of steps you make each day via the Apple Watch?

While you can see steps inside the Activity app, Apple doesnt offer a way to display it as a complication on the face, so you need a third-party app such as Pedometer++.

This is how you add steps to the Apple Watch via complications.

Note that, unlike with Fitbit, the step count that now shows on your Apple Watch clock face isnt a live step count but is updated on a regular basis.

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Just note, if you set the bottom complication to Steps & Distance you get a more accurate step count than you do in the top left Steps one. Neither is a live step count, so depending on when they update, youll often see different step counts.

Switcher tip: Fitbit users are going to have to rewire their fitness-measurement brain when switching to the Apple Watch. Steps are not entirely out but the motivating Red, Green, and Blue Activity rings take a little getting used to. Some will prefer steps to be at the forefront, but its like youve changed personal trainer, youll find new motivation tactics work in the end.

Apple and Fitbit count the number of floors you walk/climb each day using the built-in barometric altimeter to count flights climbed based on atmospheric pressure changes.

Again, Apple doesnt regard the floor/flight metric as a primary measurement, and you have to go through the same rigmarole as you did with steps if you want to show flights on your Apple Watch face. Otherwise, the stats for flights climbed is found in the Activity app with some scrolling down to get to the numbers.

Switcher tip: Floors climbed is not used as a main fitness metric, so youll you need to use a complication as described in the Steps section above.

Its the same story for showing the distance you walked, run, or hopped through the day. You can set it as a complication in the Activity Digital clock faceat the bottom in Steps & Distance works well enough.

Switcher tip: Like steps, then you need to manually set up a complication to see the distance traveled.

Apple

Counting calories either in or out of the body is quite a subjective process, so Apples insistence on Calories Burned as a primary goal seems an oddly unequal one.

Many people equate calories burned as a weight-loss rather than movement metric, and it could suggest that fitness is about being slim rather than being healthy. Fitbit, to its credit, doesnt even show Calories as a metric to child accounts. Calories can be a toxic measurement.

Apple uses your personal informationheight, weight, gender and ageplus other daily activity metricsincluding your Active Metabolic Rate or AMR to calculate how many calories you burn.

Fitbit devices combine your basal metabolic rate (BMR) based on the physical data you entered into your Fitbit account (height, weight, sex, and age) with the rate at which you burn calories at rest plus your activity and heart-rate data (AMR) to estimate your calories burned at rest and in exercise.

Fitbit considers that at least half the calories you burn in a day are used up maintaining vital body functions (such as breathing, blood circulation, and heartbeat). Because your body burns calories when youre sleeping or not moving when you wake up Fitbit shows you the calories already burned, and this number increases throughout the day.

The number you see on your Fitbit device is your total calories burned for the whole day. The number you see on the Apple Watch is just the supposed calories burned through exercise.

It is not as accurate a measurement as counting steps, and its a curious one for Apple to hang its hat on. While its easy to compete with friends or plan a day based around walking, boasting about calorie burn is just not a real thing.

Most activity tracker users dont regularly change their physical datafor example, weightso as this changes, the calorie count becomes less accurate.

Switcher tip: No device is accurate at calculatinglets be honest, estimatingthe number of calories burned, but the red ring on the Apple Watch Activity app is a primary goal Fitbit users will just have to get used to when they switch. Please, Apple, allow users to customize this ring to Steps.

Fitbit counts Active Zone Minutes (AZM) as your time spent in any heart-pumping activity. Its default goal is based on the medically recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.

It rates your activity based on your age and resting heart rate, and then determines which of three active zones you reach during the day. The harder you work the more credit you get: one minute in the Fat Burn zone earns you one active zone minute (AZM). A minute in the Cardio or Peak zones earns you two AZMs.

Fitbit devices buzz you as you enter each zone.

While Apples Activity app relies on arm motion and the Watchs accelerometer to track Movement (the red calories ring), the Exercise measurement (green ring) uses the accelerometer and heart-rate sensor and GPS.

The Exercise ring tracks how many minutes you spent exercising during the day. Apple Watch measures your heart rate and movement to count Exercise minutes and fill up your Exercise ring. Apple says it is looking for any activity thats at least as intense as a brisk walk.

By using the Workout app, you help the Watch count Exercise minutes more accurately.

Your Apple Watch is looking for an elevated heart rate while sensing movement.

Switcher tip: If you are happy with a simple Exercise goal, then Apples Exercise ring is easier to understand than Fitbits Active Zone Minutes, but you get more detailed breakdowns from Fitbit on heart-rate during exercisenicely visualized in the Fitbit app.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

What Fitbit calls Exercise is called Workouts by Apple.

Workouts tracked by Fitbit: Walk, Run, Bike, Elliptical, Stairclimber, Interval Workout, Hike, Yoga, Circuit Training, Pilates, Martial Arts, Kickboxing, Swim, Outdoor Workout, Spinning, Golf, Bootcamp, Tennis, Treadmill, Weights, Workout.

Workouts tracked by Apple Watch: Walk, Run, Cycling, Elliptical, Rower, Stair Stepper, HIIT, Hiking, Yoga, Functional Strength Training, Dance, Cooldown, Core Training, Pilates, Tai Chi, Swimming, Wheelchair, Multisport.

Both activity devices can automatically sense that you have started certain forms of exercise and suggest you begin tracking them.

Fitbit will automatically track: Aerobic workout, Elliptical, Outdoor bike, Run, Sports, Swim, Walk.

Apple Watch will automatically track: Indoor Walk, Outdoor Walk, Indoor Run, Outdoor Run, Elliptical, Rower, Pool Swim, and Open Water Swim.

You can turn off auto-workout detection on both devices if you find it bothersome, which it can be if you are out and about moving around for longer than 15 minutes.

Apple gives you much more on-wrist detail about your workout when its ended or paused, plus split information during your run or walk. Fitbit users have to swipe to get as much on-wrist data during exercise.

Both Fitbit and Watch app store and share past exercise/workout data in more detail on the phone in the Days of Exercise (Fitbit) or Activity (Watch) sections. Fitbits data visualizations are more simple and easy to digest. Apples are more hardcore sports science in looks. The simple exerciser will prefer Fitbits friendlier graphics. More dedicated sports enthusiasts will dig Apples graphs.

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On a tracked walk or run, the Apple Watch will show you the workout duration, active calorie burn, heart rate bpm, average pace and distance. With more swiping, Fitbit shows you workout duration, steps, active zone minutes, active calorie burn, heart rate bpm, average pace and distance.

Switcher tip: In the moment, the Apple Watch gives you more detail than Fitbit about your exercise, but the casual exerciser will take some getting used to Apples pro sports data displays.

One of my favorite health prompts is Fitbits Hourly Activity tracking, which suggests you get up and walk at least 250 steps an houryou set which consecutive hours you want to be prompted on.

Apple takes this further by making it one of its primary goals, with its own blue ring in the Activity app.

Apple calls it Stand, and thats nearly all you have to do: get up out of your chair and mooch about a bit for a minute, and you are rewarded with a ping and a congratulations if you havent got up for the first 50 minutes of the hour. Wheelchair users get a prompt to Roll instead of Stand.

Fitbits 250-step rule makes you work harder for your hourly reward than Apples Stand count. You can get a Stand point if you get up and wander off to the toilet in the night.

Switcher tip: Both Hourly Activity and Stand are helpful, and Fitbit users will quickly appreciate the lower threshold of the Apple Watchs Stand metric, but thats maybe just me being lazy.

Apple is much more lively when it comes to suggesting you pick up the pace when it comes to hitting your goals, although the Watch can be told to quit the personal-trainer chat.

Its also politer, with a Good Morning message that reminds you of the Watchs battery levelparticularly important given the Watchs feeble battery life.

At first, I found the activity rings to be too simplistic compared to Fitbits raw step count. But the more I used the Apple Watch, the better I appreciated the rings as a quick motivating signal, and the numbers are also included on the Digital Activity clock face.

Switcher tip: Fitbit users might miss the weekly Fitbit Progress Report email that summarizes your 7-day effort across multiple statistics. But for during-the-day motivation, the Apple Watch is a better motivator.

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Monitoring your heart rate is core to both Fitbit and Apple Watch, and both do an excellent job at using this data to power insights into your exercise and general health.

Both calculate the number of times the heart beats per minuteyour heart rate in bpmusing a technology tongue-twistingly called photoplethysmography.

When your heart beats, capillaries expand and contract based on blood volume changes. To determine your heart rate, the optical heart-rate sensor in the Fitbit and Apple Watch flashes green LEDs hundreds of times per second to detect these volume changes in the capillaries above your wrist. Then your device calculates how many times your heart beats per minute.

Your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is the number of times your heart beats per minute when youre still and well-rested and not dashing around, lifting weights or playing tennis. In general, your RHR should be between 60-100 bpm. Under 60 is normal for super-fit athletes.

Your heart rate will increase when you are more physically active (your heart is working to pump more oxygen-rich blood around your body), and both devices use this data to determine how much energy you are using while exercising.

Your target heart rate should be about 50-70% of your maximum heart rate during moderate-intensity activity like walking. To find your normal maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. During more intense exercise activity, your target heart rate should be about 70-85% of your maximum heart rate.

Both Fitbit and Apple Watch can also check Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which is the variation in time between heartbeats. People with a higher HRV have better cardiovascular fitness and might be more resilient to stress. Mindfulness, meditation, sleep, and physical activity can help improve your HRV. A significant drop in HRV may indicate that your body is experiencing illness, stress, or depression or anxiety.

To get to your HRV data from your Apple Watch, open the Health app on your iPhone, tap Browse and then choose Heart. Here you can find your Heart Rate, Resting Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, Walking Heart Rate Average, Cardio Recovery and Cardio Fitness, plus High Heart Rate Notifications and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings.

Fitbit users should check the Health Metrics section of the Fitbit mobile app, where they can see their Breathing Rate, Resting Heart Rate, and Heart Rate Variability. In the Today section of the Fitbit app there are heart-rate and cardio-fitness graphs. Heart Rate Notifications can be found here, too.

Another important heart rating is known as VO2 max, which is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can import, transport and utilize in a single minute during intense physical activity. Fitbit and Apple use VO2 max in their Cardio Fitness scores.

The electrical sensors on your Fitbit or Apple Watch detect your heart rhythm. When you use a special electrocardiogram (ECG) app, your heart rhythm data is analyzed for signs of Atrial fibrillation (AFib), which is a type of irregular heart rhythm, caused when the upper chambers of the heart beat out of rhythm.

An ECG can help diagnose some heart conditions, such as abnormal heart rhythms and coronary heart disease (heart attack and angina).

You can check your ECG with the Fitbit Charge 5, Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Sense 2, and on Apple Watch Series 4, Series 5, Series 6, Series 7, Series 8 or Ultra; the ECG app is not supported on Apple Watch SE or Fitbit Versa 3 & 4.

Switcher tip: Both Apple and Fitbit measure the same heart measurements. Its easier to see your current heart rate on the Fitbit clock face, although you might have to tap to find it if you are on another measurement display. You can set it as a feature on the Apple Watchs Digital Activity clock face, but actual data is still a tap away.

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The duration and quality of sleep is now seen as a major and significant health metric. Measuring sleep length and quality, and then trying to improve both is also a fascinating project. After all, going to bed earlier is surely easier than running a half marathon. Having a decent nights sleep is not always easy, however, and so knowing your sleep quality by the minute can be a useful tool.

Both Apple Watch and Fitbit can track your sleep and do so in similar ways.

Apple Watch can estimate the time you spend in each sleep stageCore, Deep and REMas well as when you might have woken up.

Fitbit estimates your sleep stages using a combination of your movement and heart-rate patterns. While youre sleeping, it tracks the beat-to-beat changes in your heart rate, known as heart rate variability (HRV), which fluctuate as you transition between Light, Deep, and REM sleep stages.

Fitbits Sleep Stages graph (viewed in the Fitbit iPhone app) is better looking and more informative than Apples (in the iPhones Health app), which looks a little squashed and fuzzy.

Fitbit shows the most recent and a 30-day average of your sleep stages, and can benchmark this against people of a similar age and gender. It also shows your estimated oxygen variation here, but hides some detailed data (your Snore Score, Sleeping Heart Rate and Restlessness) behind the Fitbit Premium paywall.

Apple shows most recent, weekly, monthly and six-monthly sleep data in rather difficult to gauge column graphs. It also shows your respiratory rate, and sleep duration over the past seven days.

While both Fitbit and Apple can monitor your sleep, Apples recently improved sleep-tracking functionality is let down by the Watchs much shorter battery life.

The Apple Watch SE and Series 8 have a battery life of between 18 and 24 hours, depending on your usage.

The Fitbit Versa 4 has a 6-day battery life, which means it is far less likely to die on you during the time you are sleeping.

If you charge your Watch overnight, sadly sleep tracking is impossible. To ensure you can get sleep data every night, youll need to top of the Watch battery during the day, each day. With Fitbit, you need worry maybe twice a week at most.

Switcher tip: Fitbits sleep analysis is better, but Apple is catching up. But if sleep measurement is important to you, then switching from Fitbit to Apple watch means you must be methodical in your device charging to ensure that the Watch is powered up for the night.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The Watch SE and Series 8 have an 18-hour battery life, or 36 hours in Low Power Mode, which disables Always On display, heart rate notifications, background heart-rate and blood oxygen measurements, and the start workout reminder

Read more here:
How to switch from Fitbit to Apple Watch - Macworld