Best Fitbit Blood Pressure Monitors

People search for all sorts of dietary supplements to maintain their health into their golden years. But there are ways of maintaining your health that are free! Surprisingly, a recent study revealed that a “daily dose” of walking 10,000 steps a day, at a brisk pace of at least 112 steps per minute, can reduce the risk of dementia by 50%! And an exercise routine also benefits your body in general, reducing the risk of heart problems or bone fractures with age. Fitbit fitness trackers regularly have a “step counter” application, as well as the ability to measure your heart rate and other vital signs.

As of November 2022, Fitbit fitness trackers do not have an app to measure blood pressure directly. (Some competing fitness tracker products, such as the Omron HeartGuide Smart Watch do have this ability.) Fitbit trackers can take note of your “pulse arrival time”: the amount of time it takes for blood to travel from your heart to your wrist, where you’re wearing your Fitbit device. Some Fitbits, like the Fitbit Charge 5, can display your electrocardiogram and assess your heart’s status. Others can measure the concentration of oxygen in your blood. And some have a sensor to measure electrodermal activity, or EDA, to monitor your stress management!

We’ll go over some of the features of Fitbit fitness trackers, as well as other similar products, in measuring blood pressure, heart rate, and other vital signs. They can help you learn a lot about yourself, your body, and your fitness goals!

Although there aren’t any Fitbit devices that give blood pressure information directly, there are some that include heart rate monitoring, such as:

• Fitbit Charge 4 & Charge 5: These provide stress management information, such as Electro Dermal Activity based on your skin’s conductivity due to sweating and other factors. It will also give information about heart rate variability and heart rhythm assessment, skin temperature, blood oxygen saturation, as well as exercise tracking, such as walking pace and distance.

Fitbit Charge 5

• Fitbit Versa 2, 3 and Versa Lite: This version measures your heart rate and resting heart rate, your cardio score based on maximum blood oxygen volume (VO2 max), which is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise. It will also display your “daily readiness score”, to determine if you should exercise today, or perhaps take it easy and let your body recover.

Fitbit Versa 2, showing steps walked, heart rate, and calories burned

• Fitbit Inspire: This also provides stress management information, notifications of irregular heart rhythms, and “sedentary alerts”: reminders to move if you’ve been sitting or standing for too long!

Fitbit Inspire 2

• Fitbit Luxe: The Luxe is designed to more aesthetically pleasing, with a slimmer design and jewelry design wristbands. But it also has useful fitness tracking data, such as stress management data, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and Active Zone Minutes, which tracks the time that you’re performing cardio or fat-burning exercises. One minute of fat-burning exercise earns you 1 “Active Zone Minute”, while 1 minute of cardio activity earns 2 “Active Zone Minutes”. The Luxe is also waterproof, so it can be used to track swimming pace and distance.

Fitbit Luxe

• Fitbit competitors: There are fitness trackers taht display heart statistics, as well as blood pressure. An example is the FitVII Slim Fitness Tracker. It shows blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and heart rate. It is also IP68 waterproof, meaning that it can be submerged in water up to 6 meters deep for up to 30 minutes.

FitVII Slim Fitness Tracker

Here are some impressions of customers who bought a Fitbit, or blood pressure measuring fitness monitor:

• Accuracy of blood pressure monitoring: People who used the FitVII Slim Fitness Tracker said that they compared its blood pressure measurements with a typical wristband blood pressure monitor. There was a slight discrepancy, but nothing that would be considered inaccurate. Other blood pressure fitness monitors tend to be bulkier, but the FitVII is actually quite comfortable.

• Good battery life: Since you want this device to be tracking your heart rate and other vital signs, you probably want to be wearing it almost all the time. You’ll see that Fitbit devices vary widely in battery life. The FitVII Slim will go around 6 days on a single charge. The Fitbit Charge will go around 7 days without recharging, while the Inspire 2 can survive for up to 10 days!

Here are some tips and features of fitness trackers that can give you blood pressure information, which may help you make a decision when shopping:

• Heart rate, blood pressure, SpO2: There are fitness trackers that will display cardiovascular information, such as your resting heart rate, your blood pressure, and blood oxygen saturation. Blood oxygen saturation is expressed by SpO2, where “S” stands for “saturation”, “p” stands for “peripheral”, and O2 stands for “oxygen”. Your fitness tracker measures blood oxygen saturation by seeing how red and infrared light gets absorbed by your skin. The more oxygen in your blood, the more infrared light gets absorbed, and the more red light passes through. It is a measure of how much oxygen is bound to your blood’s hemoglobin. It should be above 94%.

• VO2 max: The VO2 max figure is the volume of oxygen your body consumes at maximum exertion. There is absolute VO2 max, which measures how many liters of oxygen you breathe in every minute. There is also relative VO2 max, which is the volume of oxygen you breathe relative to your body weight. It’s an indicator of how efficiently your heart pushes blood through your body.

• Compatibility with iPhone or Android: Take note of whether your fitness tracker is a stand-alone device, or needs to be used with a smartphone. You should also note if your fitness tracker is compatible with your smartphone’s operating system. Some phones will support the use of the Fitbit app, while other companies will have their own custom app.

Final Verdict

We went over some of the Fitbit devices that provide cardiovascular information, such as blood oxygen saturation figures, heart rate, and stress management data. There are also competing brands that give approximate blood pressure data. Look over the options, and select a fitness tracker according to the fitness plan you want to set for yourself!