This was the year of the sensors. From Fitbit’s new Aria Wi-Fi scale to the Basis sports watch, I saw more devices to keep you healthy and lean than ever.
I sat down with the folks from Fitbit and Striiv who both saw the power of self-reporting and mindfulness when it comes to weight loss. Striiv, for example, has a new feature that allows you to connect to your friends wirelessly to compete in contests like walkathons and races. For example, you and the wife can compete to get to 5,000 steps first during the day and the winner has to do chores or gets some of the losers “energy.”
Fitbit, on the other hand, is closing the loop when it comes to health data. The Aria scale sends your current weight and BMI to the Fitbit web app and lets you figure out what’s working and what’s not.
In the end, these products are only as good as their users. However, with a little bit of data you can go a long way towards getting on track to health and/or weight loss. That’s the plan, at least. Whether it works in practice is another question.
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
