ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The AI-powered health coach and fitness planner subscriptions cost $80 annually or $10 a month.
- The software is deeply impressive, a great example of Google combining its stellar fitness trackers with phenomenal AI integrations.
- I’d love to see more tracking metrics for activity and fitness available in competing fitness plan apps.
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What can AI do for my health? Before testing Google’s revamped Fitbit Premium, powered by Gemini, I didn’t believe it could do that much. Of course, I’m aware of the technology’s ability to comb through large datasets to decode patterns. That’s helpful for exercise, sleep tracking, or predicting illness or strain. It’s one of the reasons I love using devices like smartwatches and smart rings to track my health.
But could AI get me out of my bed, onto the train, and deliver me to my gym every other day of the week? Not totally, I learned. But way more than I initially expected.
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As ZDNET’s health and wearables editor, I test smartwatches, smart rings, and other wacky technology that fall under the general health umbrella. I work out regularly, at least twice a week, often four times a week. I truly enjoy exercise and care about my health, so I was eager to see how Fitbit Premium would help me design a workout schedule or provide feedback on my weekly activity and sleep patterns.
My biggest deterrent to a consistent workout routine isn’t a lack of motivation or care; it’s a sporadic schedule that changes from week to week or travel that disrupts my weekly routine. Could the refreshed and AI-powered app figure out a way to solve that?
Fitbit Premium received a complete redesign earlier this year, made to be an AI that’s tailored to a user’s specific needs and abilities, that changes based on a user’s schedule and desires, that measures sleep, stress, and exercise, plans weekly workout regimens, and answers queries on all things health and wellness.
Gemini, Google’s AI, grounds all these functionalities. Google is integrating more of its Gemini functionalities into the app than ever before, in the hopes that users can not only view their data but also query the AI for suggestions or answers to questions.
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The process begins with a quick intake of my activity habits. I tell Fitbit that I enjoy strength training and do so regularly. After my two to three strength training sessions at the gym, I alternate between stairmaster and elliptical sessions to get my cardio in.
I enjoy going on runs, but I do so irregularly, with no specific goals to build strength or speed — I only run as an accessible form of cardio. I requested that if it plans to run that it plan them on days when the weather isn’t horrible. I mention that my sporadic schedule can make it difficult to create consistency.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Then, Fitbit generates a workout plan that changes week by week, increasing intensity or weights as I demonstrate progress and strength. Surprisingly, the first week I tried out Google’s strength training routine, it accurately predicted the correct weights I should use for certain exercises with minimal adjustments.
Because Fitbit is heavily integrated into Google Pixel Watches and its own devices, Fitbit Premium is incorporating data it monitors outside of the gym, such as sleep, stress, and steps. This added layer of data informs how intensely the personal health coach advises you to exercise each day.
Also: Is Fitbit Premium’s new AI coach worth the subscription? Try it now and see
My only wish is that Google created a smartwatch that didn’t feel so bulky to sleep with. While my Pixel Watch 4 excels at exercise tracking and everyday wear, it’s not a breathable watch I enjoy sleeping in. I eventually grew tired of wearing it to bed and missed a few nights of data while testing Fitbit Premium.
Throughout the several weeks that I tested Fitbit Premium, I enjoyed the variety of exercises Fitbit provided, which targeted both the regular lineup of muscle groups and the ones I wanted to further tone. Additionally, Fitbit was great at tweaking and adding more weight or a longer duration to exercises as I performed them week over week. For example, it added a few more seconds onto my plank time after I demonstrated success, and more sets to my weight training exercises.
It was easy to modify my weekly plan to suit my changing schedule. Every modification or change can happen through a chat with the AI coach. For example, I was visiting home for a week and was away from my gym that I frequent. I told the coach that I’d like to modify my strength training plan to primarily focus on running and walking instead.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
There was a chance I could visit my parents’ gym one day, so I asked the AI coach to schedule a strength training session for me once during the week. The AI produced a doable plan for me. When I returned from visiting my family, I asked the coach to revert my routine to what it was before. It provided me with a plan for the last half of the week that included shorter workouts for “re-entry” into my strength training routine. This was a nice way to ease me back into my intense workout regimen.
Google employs several different Gemini models to power the renewed Fitbit Premium. It’s a smart integration for a few reasons. The first is that you can get all your sleep and activity data in one place. The queries you ask the health coach inform other aspects of the app.
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I tested Fitbit Premium out as fall turned to winter, and one colder day I could feel myself getting sick. I queried my AI on the app, asking how to distinguish between seasonal allergies and cold symptoms. It provided me with information on that, so I mentioned that I had a clogged ear and congestion.
I also said I’m supplementing with lots of fluids and rest. The next morning, when I checked my daily sleep and health report, it brought up this information I had mentioned in the chat and asked me how I was feeling, encouraging me to rest if my symptoms were present.
To keep the information it records about you transparent and accessible, there’s a Coach Notes tab to view the information it gathers through your conversations – and those notes are deletable at your discretion.
How does Fitbit compare to alternatives?
I’ve been paying for the workout app, Fitbod, for over a year. I purchased it when I was just starting to get into weight training with no prior experience. Before its recent update, the app provided me with dedicated workouts based on upper, lower, or full-body days, and switched up the workouts based on recovery (a recent update bars me from changing the workouts based on upper, lower, or full-body days – kind of disappointing).
I can also track metrics, such as my overall strength and the strength in my push, pull, and leg muscles, which Fitbod scores out of 100.
It highlights my improvement in benchmark lifts, such as the lat pulldown, bench press, and squats. And if I wanted to get really granular, I could track my body composition, like fat mass, lean mass, and body fat percentage, which I would measure and report myself. (I only track my weight on the app sporadically.)
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
Where Fitbit excels is in a hyper-tailored and progressively challenging workout plan that integrates with your Google Pixel Watch to deliver helpful and curated insights. However, I’d love for Fitbit to incorporate some of Fitbod’s functionalities, such as a strength score or charts that track my reps and weight progression over time. This could really bring home the “personal fitness coach” aspect of the app.
If Google continues to advance its AI and these AI-powered wellness devices and software continue to integrate and improve, as is already the case, I can envision these fitness trackers evolving into health assistants. Currently, I’d describe them as fitness devices with AI-powered health and wellness features.
Also: How to use your Apple Watch’s Hypertension Detection feature (and why you should)
But there’s a real opportunity for these devices to do so much more. We’re seeing hints of this in the current version of Fitbit Premium, with a dedicated AI that not only summarizes activity data but also offers guidance on greater health and wellness conversations. I can’t think of any currently rivaling device with as much all-inclusive functionality.
Google currently has the greatest edge over its competitors with Fitbit Premium and its lineup of smartwatches and Fitbit health trackers. It excites me about how the health tracker space will evolve – and what Google’s competitors will do next.
ZDNET’s buying advice
Fitbit Premium’s renewed app got me energized and excited to workout with a varied yet personal selection of exercises that are tailored to my interests and take into account my health data, like sleep, stress, and vitals.
Fitbit Premium costs $10 per month or $80 per year. If you’re ready to commit fully to your health and fitness next year, I’d say the subscription is well worth it. It’s available through public preview right now with a full rollout coming soon.
It couldn’t fix my busy, sporadic schedule that deterred me from a regular exercise regimen, but it got me more excited to get to the gym when I could and inch closer to my fitness goals. Its AI functionalities also allowed me to ask the right questions and extract the relevant information from my health and sleep reports.
