The general public probably recognizes three names in the fitness wearable market: Garmin, Fitbit, and Apple. I’m here today to tell you about how an upstart has become the daily driver on my wrist. This includes step counting, food logging, and general fitness recording.
The devices are from AmazFit, but the real compelling feature is the companion Zepp Health app.
Consistent Metric Tracking
You can’t have a good fitness watch experience without reliable data. Thankfully, AmazFit has nailed this in my usage over the last six months. I’ve found the heart rate sensor and basic biometric logging of their devices to be on par with anything from Garmin, Coros, or Suunto.
Even more nuanced measurements like BioCharge have been consistent for me and add value. Taking the combined sleep, heart rate variability metric, and my excretion from the last 24 hours, the Zepp Health app gives me a combined score. The goal is to give you a numeric value on how you “should feel” at the start of your day.
AI-Used Well Food Logging
Another feature that I didn’t think I needed was food logging inside the Zepp app. I recently found out my total BMI is a little high for my height, weight, and age. The same is true of my slightly elevated blood pressure. A quick talk with my doctor led to altering my diet and workout routines to drop a few pounds to lower both issues.
Again, AmazFit and the Zepp Health app have a robust food journaling system that uses OpenAI. This allows you to quickly log meals with text, voice, or snapping a picture. The LLM then takes this data and estimates the nutritional metrics and calories. I’ve found this to be pretty accurate overall and a huge win to quickly log my food.
Not only does it log the dietary information, but it also takes out the calories you’ve burned. I need a small calorie deficit to reach my goals, but I also don’t want to burn too many and be unhealthy. Zepp knows how active you’ve been and adjusts your daily calorie meter accordingly to make sure you’re reaching your goal but still taking in what you need as well.
PAI is a Feature and Not a Gimmick
This might be the feature of the Zepp Health app I dismissed the most on first use, and now I can’t live without it. PAI stands for “personal activity intelligence,” and I get it; this sounds like some more AI-age gimmicks. But after using it, I think it’s one of the most motivating metrics you can find on any fitness platform.
Using just your heart rate data, PAI gives you a score. When you first get the watch, it slowly starts building this metric off your activities and heart rate. You’ll find it’s learning you and will often undershoot the score the first few weeks. If you have a very hard workout at the same time, it may shoot up significantly, but as it builds more data, it begins to “settle in” and find a more realistic value.
The research papers behind the PAI score indicate that people who have a weekly exertion rating of over 100 live an average of eight years longer than others. I still have my reservations on how true that is in a statistical study, but I have found the PAI has checked a box for motivating me to stay active on a weekly basis. Better yet, the study was founded using data from 39,000 participants and a data set that ranges over 20 years.
Since the PAI is based on a 7-day rolling scale, if you have too many days of inactivity, the score drops off on the 8th day each morning, and you’ll see your score plummet. After I consistently saw this in the 100s while being active on my new journey, it really shook me when I took a few “lazy days” and it dropped back to a score of 64 PAI.
Often, the fitness watch market leans too heavily into advanced metrics and acronyms that are overwhelming for the average person just trying to be active at the gym. That data is still here with AmazFit devices in the Zepp app, but something the PAI can be a game-changer. Keeping that simple algorithm is something anyone can learn and keep as their benchmark to healthier habits.
Multiple Devices are Aggregated if Needed
The other killer feature for me is the flexibility to use different devices, and they all feed back seamlessly to the Zepp app. I can bounce from wearing the Helio Ring, Helio Strap, or Balance 2 with ease, and my metrics sync to the Zepp app in aggregate.
This gives you the opportunity to truly specialize your fitness and health logging in a way that just doesn’t exist in other apps. Want to wear the Balance 2 (or other AmazFit watch) as your daily driver but don’t want to sleep in it? Cool, then you can tag team the watch with either the Helio Strap or Ring.
You can even wear the Helio Strap as a traditional heart rate monitor and pair it with most of the watches. Here you can find a more consistent reading using a chest or bicep strap with the Helio and push the heart rate metrics to the Balance 2, for instance. I’ve found this extremely useful while doing something like kettlebell workouts, where a wrist position isn’t ideal while the bells are crashing down on my wrist with certain movements.
The fact that you can cherry pick from each device to work specifically for different environments is fantastic. The Zepp app does a fluid job of “just knowing” which one you are using and adjusting the algorithms accordingly. This allows all the devices to sync back into metrics like calories, sleep, and even BioCharge.
One of the Most Well-Rounded Fitness Apps on the Market
The Zepp app is phenomenal and captures metrics that work for the layman or an advanced athlete. If you’re in the market for a new fitness tracker or smartwatch, I can’t recommend them enough. The device lineup offers price points for almost anyone, and the Zepp app is available for all of them to elevate your experience to new levels.
Hit the links below to check out the current AmazFit lineup. I don’t think any of them will disappoint. I’d link to the Helio Strap, but it seems to be sold out across the market.
Purchase the AmazFit Balance 2 $299
Purchase the AmazFit T-Rex 3 Pro $399