Noor
Medical professionals have always talked about the importance of having an accurate and up-to-date understanding of your health. Why? Because, as we age, our bodies change, and so do the challenges that come with them.
This is probably the sole reason why so many people are switching over from their traditional methods to a fitness tracker, including the seniors and elderly people.
So, if you’re looking for Fitbit for Older adults, you have come to the right place. In this article, I have researched on your behalf and reviewed the ten best Fitbit for seniors in 2022.
Best Fitbit for Seniors
Seniors and Elderly people have different needs when it comes to fitness trackers. With a Fitbit, you can get all the benefits of being active without having to put in as much effort. And because Fitbits can track almost anything, they are perfect for seniors needs.
Now, without further ado, let’s get to the ten best Fitbit for seniors and elderly people.
1. Fitbit Charge 4 (Editor’s choice)
The Fitbit Charge 4 is the ultimate fitness tracker for getting you results. Under the 7-day battery life, this sleek technological device packs every essential function so that you’ll always know your progress and what to do next.
Fitbit Charge 4 can track your heart rate whenever you want to. So for those who want a fitness tracker that can keep up, this new and improved Fitbit might be just what you’ve been looking for.
Seniors can track their sleeping schedule and zones, including light, deep, and REM cycles during the night. You can also determine your sleeping score depending upon the different metrics, which show sleep quality.
You’ll be able to see your nightly SpO2 average, as well as trends over the past week in the app, which means you can identify changes in your quality of sleep and stay up on any respiratory interruptions or patterns that could indicate a disorder. However, it is not intended for medical purposes and can only be used for indication.
This Charge series had everything one would want in a fitness tracker, but it lacked this one feature. The GPS will show your pace and distance on screen during outdoor runs, rides, hikes, and more. Although this might not seem like an important feature for older adults, it does have an impact on the accuracy of tracking different activities.
Fitbit Charge 4 comes with 20+ goal-based exercise modes, which takes fitness tracking to new heights. You can also jump in the swimming pool without thinking twice since it’s Swimproof and water-resistant (50 meters), so you can sweat it out like never before without worrying about damaging your wearable tech.
All your smartphone notifications, including incoming calls, text messages, and social apps, get received by Charge 4 easily.
Fitbit Charge 4 comes with a battery life of 7 days, which depends on one’s usage. Also, if you’re going to use built-in GPS, it can only go on for 5 hours.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Brand: Fitbit
- Display Type: OLED touchscreen
- Water-resistance: 50m
- Battery life: 7 days
Key features:
- Smart notifications
- Built-in GPS
- Heart rate monitoring
- Sleep tracking
- Blood oxygen level monitoring
- Sport modes
- Swimproof
- Detailed health monitoring
- Accurate tracking because of built-in GPS
- It comes in an affordable price range
- Battery life in GPS mode is very low
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2. Fitbit Blaze Special Edition
The Fitbit Blaze is a one-of-a-kind fitness watch that helps you get the most out of your workouts and be on top of your everyday life. With HR monitoring, smart notifications, and advanced fitness tracking features, this device offers an all-around solution for people who want to maximize their performance in multiple areas.
Don’t worry about hanging the chest strap with you anymore because Fitbit Blaze can monitor your heart rate anytime you want, with its PurePulse ™ technology and wrist-based heart tracking.
Have a sound sleep at night, and wake up in the morning with all the stats about light, deep, and REM zones of your sleep. Of course, you’ll have to wear it to the sleep for sleep tracking, which should be okay considering it’s not bulky or heavy enough to weigh your wrist down.
After connecting it to your smartphone, it will receive all the notifications of your incoming calls, text messages, and emails through Bluetooth connectivity, making it a good accessory for the phone.
Your daily activities will be tracked with Fitbit Blaze in no time, including step count, distance traveled, floors climbed, and active minutes. Along with this, it has the option of connected GPS, which uses your phone’s GPS to keep an eye on your outside workouts and provide running stats as well.
If you thought its activity mode is good, wait for its built-in sport modes, which can track running, cycling, cardio, and cross-training as well.
If you forgot to log in your workout before doing it, Fitbit Blaze will detect it automatically and start tracking it, which can be a good thing for seniors because they tend to forget these things. And, to make sure if you’re achieving the fitness goals or not, you can always set the workout goals in the Fitbit App and check your daily or weekly progress.
Fitbit Blaze can last for five days after getting fully charged, which can vary according to your settings and usage.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, GPS
- Human interface input: Touchscreen
- Battery life: 5 days
Key features:
- Heart rate monitoring
- Sleep tracking
- Smart notifications
- Activity tracking
- Sport modes
- Music player
- Good design and display
- Auto tracking of workout
- Fitness goals and summaries for your exercises
- It doesn’t have a built-in GPS
- It doesn’t support swimming
3. Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch
Seniors looking for a Fitbit to keep track of their health, along with other perks, should be your go-to gadget because it has everything you want in a fitness tracker. Fitbit Sense has both the features of a smartwatch and fitness tracker merged in such a way that you’ll be killing two birds with one stone, and let me show you how.
Keep track of your heartbeat 24/7, and check your heart rate zones after a heavy workout and exercise to see the difference. Fitbit Sense also comes with an ECG app, through which you can check any irregularity and rhythm of your heart rate as well. However, it cannot be used for medical purposes and should be used for an indication.
It also alerts you to high or low heart rate, which is a good thing for seniors, as they can take precautionary measures beforehand.
Fitbit sense keeps track of your sleep and gives you detailed insights into light, deep, and REM stages during the night. You can check your stats in the app and see how much sleep you exactly got last night.
Skin temperature tracking; an interesting feature. It keeps an eye on your skin temperature and lets you know it changes during the night and also tracks your blood oxygen level to make sure you have a complete picture of your health right on your wrist.
Fitbit Sense can be termed a Standalone smartwatch with Bluetooth connectivity, as it comes with a built-in mic and speakers, which means you can make and receive calls and reply to texts without using your smartphone in any way. It will also be receiving all the notifications of calls, emails, and social apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc.
To track your outdoor workouts and exercises such as biking, hiking, running, etc. Fitbit Sense comes engineered with built-in GPS, which keeps an eye on pace and distance and makes sure it’s accurate.
Talk to your watch with the voice assistant feature, so you don’t have to do stuff manually. For example, want to check weather updates or your schedule of upcoming meetings, just ask Alexa, and it will be displayed on the screen.
Just in the swimming pool or take it with you while showering because Fitbit comes with 50m water-resistant, immune to such things.
It can last for six days after getting gully charged and for about 12 hours in GPS mode. If you’re going outside and don’t have time for charging, just plug it in for 12 minutes, filling it with juice long enough to last for an entire day.
Specifications:
- Color: Carbon/Graphite
- Display Type: Touchscreen
- Human interface: Microphone
- Water-resistance: 50m
- Battery life: 6+ days
Key features:
- Heart rate tracking
- Sleep monitoring
- Skin temperature/Blood oxygen level tracking
- Google assistant
- Built-in GPS
- Smart notifications
- Swimproof
- Detailed health monitoring
- Bluetooth calling and texting
- Swimproof
- Fast charging for a day
- Less number of built-in Sport modes
4. Fitbit Ionic Watch
Fitbit Ionic watch comes in a rather sleek design shape and compact size. It does give the vibes of a formal watch at first sight, but it is equipped with some of the very good features, which I’m would be appealing to you.
Just like most Fitbits, it also uses PurePulse ™ to measure your heart rate, so you can have details about different HR zones and can customize your workout according to your needs.
Trouble sleeping during the night? Well, Fitbit Iconic is here to save the day with its significant sleep tracking, which means you would know exactly how much sleep you’re getting at night. So change your bedtime routines, and get meaningful insights to have a good night’s sleep.
Your step count, distance traveled during the day, burnt calories, weight, and active minutes will be tracked with this watch on its own. Along with this, you can always set new fitness goals and check the progress through the app anytime you want.
It comes with the deadly combo of built-in GPS and GLONASS, which makes sure the tracking of your activities is on point, including running, biking, and other workouts and exercises. Along with this, it comes with SmartTrack technology which makes sure that your desired workout gets tracked without you having to do it manually.
Why do gyms have trainers? So that you could do your workout the right way. Just like that, the Fitbit Iconic watch can be your personal trainer by providing on-screen guidance of every move. You can also get video coaching with it, which can clearly be helpful for those elders who get trouble learning the workout or are just shy enough to ask anyone. With this watch on your wrist, you can have all the guidance you want to stay in shape.
After connecting it to your phone’s Bluetooth/Wi-Fi, all the notifications of your incoming calls, text messages, emails, and social apps will be delivered to it after connecting it to your phone’s Bluetooth/Wi-Fi. You can also pay from it through the NFC chip mounted on the smartwatch, which is a bit old school considering the success of Google Pay, but it still works for some people.
Listen to your favorite songs and playlist while working out or running outside since the Fitbit Iconic watch can store more than 300+ in it, which is a pretty good feature.
After getting fully charged, Fitbit Iconic can last for four days, which could have been better.
Specifications:
- Color: Charcoal/Smoke Gray
- Display Size: 1.15-inches
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Battery life: 4 days
Key features:
- Smart notifications
- Heart rate monitoring
- Sleep tracking
- GPS + GLONASS
- Sport modes
- Music player
- Slim and sleek design
- Built-to-last
- Personalized guiding for workouts
- Can play and store songs
- Battery life is average
5. Fitbit Versa 3
The successor of Versa 2, which has been a great hit, Fitbit Versa 3 is here to steal the show, with its awesome AMOLED display and variety of features. Whether it’s your health or fitness, Versa 3 will make sure you have all the insights.
After wearing it on your wrist, Fitbit Versa 3 will keep an eye on your heart rate all the time, giving you a free hand to compare different HR zones and depict its possible behavior in different conditions.
Your different stages of sleep, including light, deep, and REM zones, will be measured, and you have a look at them in the morning. Check how much sleep you exactly got, and learn new tips and tricks about bedtime routine to get more quality sleep.
Your blood oxygen level will also be monitored with Versa 3, and you check your health metrics in the app to improve your overall fitness and wellbeing.
Coming up with the built-in microphone and speaker, Versa 3 makes sure you can make calls right from your wrist when connected to your smartphone. It will receive all of your notifications of texts, emails, and social apps as well.
For those seniors who love to monitor their workouts and exercise, Versa 3 is perfect, since not only does it keep track of them, but with the built-in GPS, there’s no questioning the accuracy of it. You can track your locations, check out maps, and find new routes for cycling and running sessions.
If you’re not in a mood to make calls, check your notifications, weather, etc., just ask your watch to do, and it will be done. Since it has a built-in Google Assistant to work on your voice commands, you don’t have to do anything manually.
Fitbit Versa 3 comes with 50m water resistance, so you can swim in the pool, shower, and even take this smartwatch with you in the rain, and it won’t get damaged by it at all.
It can last for 6+ days, which depends on the usage as well, since if you’re going to use GPS mode frequently, then it might not go on for even a day.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Band Color: Black
- Display Type: AMOLED display
- Connectivity: GPS
- Built-in GPS: Yes
- Water-resistant: 50m
- Battery life: 6+ days
Key features:
- Smart notifications
- Heart rate tracking
- Sleep monitoring
- Sport modes
- GPS
- Fitbit Pay
- Music player
- Swimproof
- Simple and aesthetic design
- Easy-to-use interface
- Bluetooth calling
- Different clock faces choosing from
- Less number of built-in GPS
6. Fitbit Inspire HR
If you want to bring good health to your life, Inspire HR is the answer to it. It’s a friendly fitness tracker for seniors that helps them build healthy habits with encouragement and motivation. With 24/7 HR monitoring, workout features like automatic activity tracking and customized coaching, sleep stages & more – this can be a good fit for your wrist.
The Fitbit Inspire HR is the next big thing in heart rate trackers. With 24/7 heart rate monitoring, this fitness tracker can show you how many calories you burn at your current activity level each day, as well as helping you to find new ways to train.
No more dreading the morning after. Better sleep means better days ahead with the Fitbit Inspire HR. Automatically track your sleep for a personalized analysis of how your light, deep & REM stages affect your mental and physical health.
This Fitbit Inspire HR not only helps you maintain a healthy weight but also lets you track 15+ exercises and workouts. Set your fitness goal and use the app to receive real-time coaching through each workout to help you get there. Along with this, it can also use your smartphone’s GPS to keep an eye on your outdoor activities as well.
Syncing range up to 6 meters means data will flow seamlessly without having to be tethered to a phone while working out.
Your incoming calls, texts, emails, and other notifications of social apps will be received on it without any resistance.
Fitbit Inspire HR is water-resistant up to 50m, which makes it perfect for swimming, and showering.
It can last for five days with constant usage and varies from user to user.
Specifications:
- Color: White
- Display Type: OLED
- Human interface input: Touchscreen
- Water-resistance: 50m
- Battery life: 5 days
Key features:
- Smart notifications
- Heart rate monitoring
- Sleep tracking
- 15+ goal-based exercises
- Swimproof
- Compact design
- Good tracking features
- Affordable
- No built-in GPS
7. Fitbit Flex
Since there’s no active display, Fitbit Flex can be disguised as a strap, but it does more than that. This slim, stylish device is so lightweight and versatile because it tracks your activity around the clock to help you achieve your individual goals.
Flex seamlessly integrates into whatever outfit you choose for the day. It’s perfect for those with an active lifestyle because it even showers right alongside you, regardless of where life takes you.
Those seniors, who don’t want any complex tracker which has dozens of features, they won’t be using should consider this, as it might be the simplest Fitbit with good but limited features.
Fitbit Flex allows you to track your sleep habits like never before. With this smart fitness wristband, you can answer your most pressing questions about how much time and quality of sleep you’ve been getting. This way, you’re more empowered than ever to make the changes necessary to boost energy and productivity for each day ahead.
It will be monitoring your step count, distance traveled, burnt calories, and active minutes automatically. In addition, the Fitbit Flex will use LED lights to show a visual representation of how close you are coming to achieving your daily fitness goals, which makes it delightfully simple for busy people on the go.
It comes with a water resistance of 10m, which makes sure it doesn’t get damaged by slight contact with water. However, it isn’t suitable for swimming or showering in any way.
Fitbit flex can last for 7-10 days after a single charge, which is ideal.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Display: LED lights
- Water-resistance: 10m
- Battery life: 7-10 days
Key features:
- Sleep tracking
- Activity tracking
- Silent alarms
- Water-resistant
- Long battery life
- Easy-to-wear
- It can’t get damaged easily since there’s no display
- Affordable
- No heart rate monitoring
- No sport modes
8. Fitbit Zip
Be motivated every step of the way on your fitness journey. Fitbit Zip is a unique fitness tracker that isn’t wearable to your wrist like most. Those seniors who get irritated with wearing a watch or tracker can just put it in their pocket, wear it around their neck, or older women can put it in their purses.
I’d be guilty not to tell you beforehand that this is more of a pedometer than a proper fitness tracker with tons of features. However, it can be a perfect choice for seniors if they’re looking for just the activity tracking and not more than that.
Steps at your fingertips. Want to know exactly how many steps you took today? Fitbit Zip will tell you. This compact and lightweight device tracks all of your distance traveled, burnt calories, and step count during the day, and you check out anytime you want.
Your activity stats will be synced wirelessly to your smartphone without you having to do it manually. You can also set your fitness goals, check the progress, and compete with your friends to earn virtual badges as well.
Fitbit Zip doesn’t need any charging for six whooping months, which is insanely good. So you can go on trips without having to worry about it for half a year, and your activities will still be tracked.
Specifications:
- Color: Charcoal
- Display Type: Tap
- Battery life: 6 months
Key features:
- Activity tracking
- Wireless syncing
- Tap display
- Wear-resistant
- Long battery life
- Compact in size
- It can be placed anywhere
- Don’t have to worry about charging for half a year
- Limited features
- No health or fitness tracking features
9. Fitbit Surge Smartwatch
The Fitbit Surge is your perfect workout companion. You can accurately track your heart rate, steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, and more. Plus, the device features GPS tracking to show you where you went during your workout and split times for each segment of your route.
The Fitbit Surge is an all-in-one fitness powerhouse that integrates activity tracking with continuous, automatic wrist-based heart rate and simplified heart rate zones for tailored workouts.
Get your morning off on the right foot as you are gently woken with a silent alarm. The Fitbit Surge monitors your sleep automatically, so you can make necessary bedtime changes and wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
You can monitor your distance and calories burned and view other stats in the app, which also tracks your steps, and with GPS tracking, you can see how far you’ve gone, at what pace and even the elevation climbed.
After getting paired with the compatible smartphone, it will receive all the notifications of incoming calls, text messages, emails, and social apps.
Without changing or logging into the workout/exercise manually, it will detect the desired workout on its own and will start tracking it. In this way, your hard work won’t go unnoticed.
It can last for seven days after a single charge, which is quite good.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Weight: 2.72 ounces
- Battery life: 7 days
Key features:
- Smart notifications
- Heart rate tracking
- Sleep monitoring
- Sport modes
- GPS
- Music player
- Automatic fitness tracking
- Lightweight
- Good tracking features
- Long battery life
- Complaints about the accuracy of HR monitor
10. Fitbit Alta HR
Probably the slimmest tracker from Fitbit with a display. Fitbit Alta HR is a way to stay on top of your health and fitness while making sure you’re living a healthier life. This wristband tracks your steps, calories burned, distance traveled, and active minutes so that you can monitor your daily habits towards becoming more active.
Fitbit Alta HR will monitor your heart rate to help you better understand the intensity of your workouts and get all the detailed insights right from your wrist.
With Sleep Stages enabled on your Fitbit Alta HR, you can objectively see where each night of sleep ranks among light, deep, and REM sleep, then use these insights to develop better sleeping habits. Along with this, with heart rate tracking, the Fitbit Alta HR knows when you’re restless or awake – all to provide insights into how best to optimize your rest.
It keeps an eye on your step count, distance traveled, active minutes, and burnt calories. It also comes with “reminders to move,” which can be a good pushup for a lazy person to complete their daily steps challenge. Of course, you can always check all the stats regarding your fitness tracking in the phone app.
Like most Fitbit trackers, it has automatic exercise recognition, which makes sure whether you’re running, biking, or doing any workout, it gets tracked automatically and synced with your dashboard.
Fitbit Alta HR makes sure you never miss any notifications and get all of them, including incoming calls, texts, and emails.
After getting fully charged, Fitbit Alta HR can go for seven days.
Specifications:
- Color: Black
- Display Type: OLED tap display
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Battery life: 7 days
Key features:
- Heart rate tracking
- Sleep monitoring
- Activity tracking
- Automatic exercise recognition
- Smart notifications
- Interchangeable bands
- Slimmest design
- Easy-to-wear
- Lightweight
- Detailed tracking
- It doesn’t have a built-in GPS
How to Choose Fitbit for Seniors?
These are some of the boxes you need to check in before choosing the Fitbit for seniors.
Size/Built:
For older adults, anything heavy or bulky won’t do any good, although it’s more a personal choice; if the tracker is weighing your wrist down, you’ll eventually get tired of it. Instead, try going with the one, which is sleek and lightweight so that you can wear it all the sleep, including your sleep.
Display:
You want the Fitbit with display; it should be clear and easy to read in direct sunlight as well. If you’re not a fan of fitness trackers with display, Fitbit has that too, but if you’re going with the one displayed, make sure it has good resolution and clarity.
Health monitoring:
Heart rate and sleep monitoring are two of the most mainstream features in Fitbit and smartwatches nowadays. There’s hardly any fitness tracker without these, which shows how important they are. However, along with them, if Fitbit is offering Blood oxygen levels and blood pressure monitoring, then it’s an exception, and you should go for it.
That said, it depends on your usage, too; if you need heart rate and sleep monitoring feature the most, then if the latter two aren’t there, it shouldn’t affect you.
Fitness tracking:
What’s the point of a fitness tracker if there’s no fitness tracking? Luckily, Fitbit offers detailed fitness tracking in most models, including step count, distance traveled, burnt calories, and built-in sport modes. So make sure the one you’re choosing should have all these capabilities.
Wireless syncing:
Your physical activities, sleep monitoring data and other stats gets synced to your Fitbit or app wirelessly, with the help of Bluetooth. This actually works like a daily journal or diary, which has all your fitness stats, but the best part is, you don’t even have to do it manually, as it is done on its own.
Smart notifications:
It does the work of cherry topping means you can get all the notifications of incoming calls, text messages, emails, etc. You can also reply to the texts and make calls through it in some models as well.
Battery life:
Although it depends on your usage and the type of feature your Fitbit has, try going with the one offering 7-10 days of battery life or somewhat nearer to it.
FAQ’s
Q: Why do Seniors need Fitbit Fitness Tracker?
According to recent research, Elderly people are the fastest-growing demographic in America, and many want to stay active and healthy. And, it has repeatedly been proven that staying active can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes; it also helps with muscle strength and can help with brain function. But, that being said, there are many benefits to owning a fitness tracker for seniors.
With a fitness tracker from Fitbit, seniors will be able to track their sleep patterns, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and more. Best of all, different models cater specifically to older adults needs and abilities.
Fitbit, which Google now owns, specializes in this genre and is known as one of the best brands for fitness trackers. They can track almost anything, from your heart rate to sleep and blood pressure/blood oxygen levels – they can do it all. And because most of them come with wireless syncing capabilities (such as Bluetooth), you don’t have to worry about cords getting tangled; just sync it up when you’re done.
Q: Can elderly people use fitness trackers?
Ans: Seniors and older adults can use fitness trackers as much as anyone else. And, probably it’s more important for them to use it so that they can have all the stats about sleep and heart rate right on their wrist.
Q: what is the most important feature in a fitness tracker for older adults?
Ans: It’s subjective; as for some people, their health stats are more important than fitness stats, but a fitness tracker should have all the features, including heart rate, sleep, sport modes, activity tracking, etc.
Q: Are Fitbit for seniors expensive?
Ans: Not really; they are available in almost every price range. It depends upon the person what kind of tracker fits their need.
Q: Does Fitbit Zip needs charging?
Ans: Not for six months, no, It doesn’t need charging. But, after that, you might have to change its battery, or Fitbit Zip won’t work.
Conclusion
All the Fitbits mentioned above are some of the best Fitbit for seniors and elderly people. But if I have to choose, I’d go with Fitbit Charge 4.
This fitness tracker has everything for health monitoring, fitness tracking, and being an accessory to your smartphones as well. So, I’d suggest elders go with this one for sure.
That said, if you need more of a fitness tracker in a smartwatch mode/shape, you should go with Fitbit Sense, which is the newest and probably the watch when it comes to detailed health monitoring.
However, if your budget is low, you have to worry, as you can choose Fitbit Inspire HR, which has some great features and costs less than 100 bucks.
