--- title: 3 Unexpected Things Fitbit Can Tell You About Your Health description: Surprise, surprise. canonical: https://time.com/4298131/fitbit-health-discovery/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-21T12:00:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:51.070Z article:section: Health og:title: 3 Unexpected Things Fitbit Can Tell You About Your Health og:description: Surprise, surprise og:url: https://time.com/4298131/fitbit-health-discovery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd817620371b5fe/69888f8fcd1bba048f7004e6/fitbits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Fitbit Alta products on display in New York City on Feb. 2, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 3 Unexpected Things Fitbit Can Tell You About Your Health twitter:description: Surprise, surprise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd817620371b5fe/69888f8fcd1bba048f7004e6/fitbits.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 3 Unexpected Things Fitbit Can Tell You About Your Health > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f1c8f496-0d58-4cf1-83f4-d7f640a139ac&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Tech Review: FitBit Surge [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Tech Review: FitBit Surge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6EmaVmsb.m3u8) (1:12)  _Published 2015-02-04. Time's Deputy Tech Editor, Alex Fitzpatrick, reviews the FitBit's new wearable, Surge_ by [Jordan Smith / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jordan Smith / Health.com Contributor Apr 21, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Fitbit Alta products on display in New York City on Feb. 2, 2016. Fitbit Alta products on display in New York City on Feb. 2, 2016. Dave Kotinsky—Getty Images by [Jordan Smith / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Jordan Smith / Health.com Contributor Apr 21, 2016 12:00 PM UTC Your fitness tracker can be a [great source of fitspo](http://news.health.com/2016/02/08/fitbits-super-bowl-ad-is-just-the-inspiration-you-need-today/), providing the kind of feedback that helps you push through that extra mile. But it might also tell you more about your health than you ever thought possible—as these three unsuspecting Fitbit wearers discovered. **“You’re pregnant!”** Generally, it’s the woman who’s expecting who gets to share the good news with her partner. But for one New York City couple, it was the opposite way around. When his wife’s Fibit recorded some out-of-the-ordinary data in February, a man who identifies himself as David suspected a malfunction and turned to Reddit for technical help: “\[Her Fitbit\] is showing her heartbeat being consistently high over the last few days,” he wrote. One day, “she logged 10 hours in the fat-burning zone, which I would think to be impossible based on her activity level.” He also noted she hadn’t burned a lot of extra calories. “It’s not lining up.” But a helpful Redditor put the clues together and asked David if [his wife could be pregnant](https://np.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/445ppj/hr%5Freading%5Fconsistently%5Fhigh%5Flast%5Ffew%5Fdays/). “Pregnancy is a strong possibility,” David replied. “I might be a dad, YIKES. now i gotta watch my own heart rate lol.” David later confirmed that his wife, Ivonne, was in fact pregnant, after she took a pregnancy test. “It’s definitely a great story [to tell \[the baby\] one day](http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/fitbit-baby#.qf3oR46WwM),” the excited father-to-be told Buzzfeed. In the meantime, he and Ivonne are already documenting [@babyfitbit](https://www.instagram.com/babyfitbit/)‘s journey on Instagram, starting with that fateful screenshot. **_Health.com:_** [_9 Best Fitness Trackers_](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20929976,00.html?xid=time) **“You need to see a doctor, stat”** Earlier this month, the _Annals of Emergency Medicine_ published the first-ever reported case of a fitness [tracker assisting a medical decision](http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2816%2900143-8/fulltext). When a 42-year-old man arrived in the ER with an irregular heartbeat, doctors were able to use his Fitbit data to pinpoint the precise moment his arrythmia began, three hours prior. Knowing that the onset of the arrythmia had occurred within 48 hours, the team was able to treat the patient with electrocardioversion, to reset his heart’s natural rhythm. Study author Alrred Sacchetti, MD, believes trackers that measure heart rate could prove to be a [valuable tool](http://newsroom.acep.org/2016-04-05-Can-Your-Fitness-Tracker-Fitbit-Save-Your-Life-in-the-ER) in emergency situations. For example, he explained in a press release, “dizziness with a heart rate of 180 would be approached very differently from the same complaint with a heart rate of 30.” **“You are indeed heartbroken”** Koby Soto, an Israeli law student and entrepreneur, was studying on an average Saturday afternoon in January when his boyfriend called to say their relationship was finito. Soto was [blindsided by the breakup](http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/22/tech/koby-soto-fitbit-heartbreak/), according to CNN, and did his best to distract himself to get through the rest of the day. But in bed that night, he was unable to fall asleep and decided to check his Fitbit data. There, he found the trajectory of his grief traced across the screen: At the moment Soto got dumped, around 12:30 p.m., his heart rate spiked from 72 beats per minute to 88, and stayed elevated all day, peaking at 118 beats per minute. > [](https://twitter.com/iamkoby/status/689521611611971588) After Soto shared his quirky experience online, he was overwhelmed by the response as his graph went viral. @FitbitUK even [offered him a hug](https://mobile.twitter.com/FitbitUK/status/689818469882294272?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw). [_This article originally appeared on Health.com_](http://news.health.com/2016/04/14/what-fitbit-can-tell-you-about-your-health/?xid=time) ## Transcript Fitbit's new Surge, is the company's most expensive and feature packed tracker to date. Here's how it stacks up. Surge boasts built in GPS, heart rate monitoring, activity tracking, phone notifications, music control and more at about two hundred and fifty dollars in three different colors. The heart rate monitor is extremely useful for working out. That number is an indicator of how hard or little you're pushing yourself. The GPS feature is also a plus for people who run or hike and want to conserve their phone battery for calls. The surges user interface can be a little counterintuitive. Some functions are controlled via swiping the screen, while others are controlled by hardware buttons on the side. All of these features come at a price. The surge is most expensive Fitbit wearable. Fitbits charge HR is $ 100 less and has many of the same features. For fitness obsessed athletes who want one of the best fitness trackers. On the market. The Fitbit Surge is a really good option. But for the rest of us, the step down model, the Fitbit Charge HR is the best bet. 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