Fit in Focus

Ever wonder how to navigate through all the health and wellness trends in the world today? How do you know what’s right for you and who to listen to? Hear from celebrity trainer, nutritionist and Fitbit ambassador, Harley Pasternak about his tried and true fitness and nutrition tips and how to stay informed on the latest science to keep your whole family healthy and motivated.

This will be our last episode of Fit in Focus this season. Thank you to all our listeners for tuning in! We’ll share more about future episodes of the podcast soon.

Designing for wearable technology is a complex art that merges the digital and physical worlds, marrying information and innovation. Jonah Becker, SVP of Design, shares how his team of industrial designers has created a style that makes Fitbit’s advanced products feel super user-friendly. Also: Find out how wearable design has evolved in the last 5 years, and the meaning of the word “squircle”.

Since the start of this global health crisis, the Fitbit research team has been diligently working to help make a difference in the fight against COVID-19. In this week’s episode of Fit in Focus, we talk with Dr. Conor Heneghan, Director of Research Algorithms at Fitbit about the Fitbit COVID-19 study, which aims to build an algorithm that detects COVID-19 before symptoms start. He’ll share early results from the research, and how he sees this making a meaningful impact in the future.

“I never get stressed!” said no one ever. Stress affects us all, but why exactly do we feel it and what causes it? Fitbit research scientist Samy Abdel-Ghaffar breaks down how we appraise a stressful situation, and how stress can impact your health. Plus, learn how Fitbit’s new Stress Management Score calculates your ability to handle stressful situations—the key to bringing more calm into your life.

Your Fitbit tracker measures your heart rate, records your exercise and tracks your sleep. Ever wonder how the magic happens? Tracy Giest, who leads the Fitbit Human Research Lab, pulls back the curtain on the in-depth experiments and testing Fitbit conducts to develop its hardware, algorithms and new technologies. It’s a job that involves everything from dumbbells and snoozing employees to strollers and grocery carts.

Your body needs it, you may be tracking it with Fitbit and you’ve probably heard that your health could benefit from better rest—so how much do you really know about sleep? Clinical psychologist and sleep behavioral specialist Dr. Michael Grandner walks us through everything from weird dreams to insomnia and how your current quarantine habits may be impacting your ZZZs. You snooze on this one, you lose on this one.

While wearables may have started out as devices to help users count steps, today they play a significant role in healthcare and helping employers create a "culture of health" in their organizations. We hear from Amy McDonough, SVP & GM of Fitbit Health Solutions on how wearables evolved and her early days at Fitbit as one of the company's first employees.

How can little green lights help detect a deadly heart condition? And what data should you be looking at to understand your heart health? We chat with Tony Faranesh, lead research scientist at Fitbit, on a new study that’s using data from real Fitbit users to help detect a person’s risk for atrial fibrillation—a condition that affects 8 million Americans and is a leading cause of stroke. Discover how wearing a Fitbit on your wrist could enable more cases of AFib to be diagnosed than ever before.

Fitbit co-founder Eric Friedman and co-host Andrea Holing talk with experts, industry leaders and real Fitbit users about everything from fitness, nutrition and sleep, to the science and business of health, to what motivates people on their own health journey.