Fitbit added a new feature to their premium services where one could see progression on a variety of key indicators for 90-day periods compared to norms. And I was looking at it to understand variations.
After several months of below-average SpO2 readings, my readings suddenly changed patterns showing improvement to a normal range. What had changed? What was I doing that made things better? Averages alone tell the whole story with the highs and lows giving a better idea, but the averages do show trends, of sorts.
Then I realized that nothing had really changed. My old Fitbit Versa 2 battery life had come down and I bought a new Fitbit Sense in the middle of April. It was the device. It wasn’t me.
Now that begged me to ask myself new questions. Which one is accurate the old one or the new one? Or were both of them inaccurate? Can these readings be trusted at all? What did the two-plus years of old readings that were under normal readings mean? And what do the current normal readings mean?
My final inclination is that these devices are just toys. With some limited usefulness. Cant inherently trust them. The direction of the patterns might be of some value. To specific readings take them with a grain of salt. At best an additional data point that needs to be validated if something seems out of the pattern. And follow the advice my physiotherapist used to give me years ago - “Always listen to your body deeply, it will tell you how you are.”