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Fitbit’s daily readiness score used to be exclusive to its premium tier subscription, but as of the newest version of the app, it’s rolling out to free users as well—and it’s being calculated a bit differently than in the past. Let’s break down what the score means, where it comes from, and how to use it.
Which devices can give me a readiness score?
While there are other brands of wearables that do something similar, in the Fitbit universe, the ones we’re talking about are:
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Pixel Watch 1, 2, and 3
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Sense and Sense 2
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Versa 2, 3, and 4
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Charge 5 and 6
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Inspire 2 and 3
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Luxe
What does the readiness score mean?
“Readiness” is meant to capture how rested and energetic you (should, in theory) feel. If you’ve been training hard and need to rest, you should expect to see a low readiness score. But if you’re well-recovered, you’ll see a higher score. Fitbit describes it like this: “Daily Readiness Score uses your Fitbit data to assess whether you’re ready to work out or should prioritize recovery.”
Take that with a grain of salt. Your Fitbit or Pixel Watch can’t possibly know all of the factors that go into your recovery and energy levels, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing to train when you’re fatigued or “low” in readiness—so long as you don’t do it all the time.
How is the readiness score calculated?
Fitbit says that the new readiness score—calculated a bit differently from the way it did in the past—uses your sleep, your resting heart rate (RHR), and your heart rate variability (HRV).
Generally, your RHR is lower when you’re well-rested and recovering well. A high RHR can indicate stress from training, illness, or sometimes just a poor night’s sleep. You may also see a high RHR after a night of drinking.
It’s the opposite for HRV—a higher HRV is “better,” and indicates that you’ve been recovering well.
According to Fitbit’s explanations on the app, it uses your past two weeks of sleep time to determine whether your sleep has been good or not.
How can I see my readiness score?
You’ll need one of the compatible devices listed above, the latest version of the Fitbit app, and seven days of data to get started. That means wearing your watch to bed every night for a week.
The readiness score will appear as one of the metrics on the home screen in your Fitbit app. You can also view the score from your watch or device. For example, it’s in the Fitbit Today app on Pixel Watches, and there is a Readiness complication that you can add to your favorite watch face.
Is the readiness score accurate?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell how accurate all this actually is. While some numbers like heart rate can be compared to other devices to tell whether they’re being measured accurately, anytime a device or app calculates a “score,” it’s just…a score. If Fitbit thinks my readiness is 65, then that’s just, like, its opinion, man.
I compared Fitbit’s readiness score with that of Oura and Garmin devices in my Pixel Watch 3 review. It gave lower numbers than those devices, and the trend didn’t track particularly well between any of them. For example, on a day that my Fitbit-calculated readiness score was 65, I got a readiness of 85 from Oura, and a training readiness of 79 from Garmin. Who’s right? Nobody can say.
