Fitbit, Inc. may be trading well below its IPO price, but that doesn’t mean the device maker’s products aren’t getting the job done and then some.

Fitbit’s collection of wearable bands are able to track steps taken, distance covered, calories burned, heart rate, and even sleep patterns with the goal of motivating wearers to keep moving in order to stay fit. Data can be viewed directly on some Fitbit models, but mostly, users rely on the smartphone app to get a better sense of the data obtained as well as to keep track of goals.

Though Fitbit’s uses may seem limited to these parameters, some users are finding their Fitbit can serve as more than just a fitness tracker.

The pregnancy test

David Trinidad noticed his wife’s Fitbit had been registering elevated heart rate readings over several days. His first thought was that the device was malfunctioning, and visited social bookmarking site Reddit to get some ideas from other users on a potential quick fix for the device. One Redditor asked if his wife, Ivonne Trinidad, had been under stress, or if she could be pregnant.

Trinidad was both excited and nervous at the thought of his wife being pregnant. But that same night, he and his wife bought 10 pregnancy tests and all came back positive. Ivonne has since been to her doctor and both she and baby are doing well.

Not many are aware that when a women gets pregnant, her heart works harder to supply blood to the growing fetus. A normal heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute (bpm), and that value goes up 10 to 20 bpm when a woman gets pregnant.

Cardiac arrest alert

Sarah-Jayne McIntosh received her Fitbit last Christmas. While studying at Edge Hill University, sitting down quietly, her Fitbit alerted her that her heart rate jumped from its normal 84 bpm to a shocking 120 bpm. She was greatly disturbed by the alert that she immediately called 111, England’s National Health Service’s non-emergency number, which immediately dispatched an ambulance to her aid.

When she got to the hospital, doctors tried shocking her heart to get it back to normal rhythm, but that did not work. Fortunately, after administering proper medication her heart reverted to its normal rhythm. According to her doctors, one of the chambers of her heart was misfiring to cause the double beats. If McIntosh wasn’t wearing her Fitbit and was alerted of her high heart rate, she could have gone into cardiac arrest.

Heartbreak tracker

Some may argue that a heart doesn’t actually break when love goes awry, but one man’s Fitbit recorded the exact moment it happened. Law student Koby Soto, who is also the co-founder of Guesty, a Y Combinator–backed startup that helps customers manage their Airbnbs and other rental properties, had been cramming for exams and was looking forward to taking the night off. Plans changed when his then boyfriend called to cancel the date, and break up with him.

Soto was pretty upset about what happened and was venting to one of his friends who suggested he relax. Sotto stated that he could not sleep or study, and to prove just how much stress he’s under he opened his Fitbit app which showed that from a 72 bpm resting heart rate before the call, it jumped to 88 bpm and even went up to 118 bpm during sometime in the afternoon. It wasn’t until night time that his heart rate went back to normal readings.

Oh yeah, baby!

Redditor noveltysin thought it would be interesting to wear her Fitbit while having sex. During her little experiment the device recorded everything from beginning to end, though the data she shared included only eight minutes of active sex.

According to noveltysin the foreplay lasted about 20 minutes, but the event’s full data set shows the interesting correlation in her wildly varied heart rate. It’s certainly an unconventional data set to share with the world, but noveltysin’s disregard for public opinion could shed some light on the methods and consequences of love-making.

Fitbit’s shares may be going down, but its trackers may get renewed interest from consumers because of these remarkable instances. Come March, two new Fitbit trackers will be available in retail stores; the fashionable Fitbit Alta and its first smartwatch Fitbit Blaze.

photo credit: Broken Heart via photopin (license)