What Are Fitbit Badges, and How Do I Get Them?

When you were in grade school, did you ever get a gold star for a job well done? Fitbit badges are the digital equivalent of getting a gold star, which makes you feel pretty good about your achievement, which spurs you on toward tackling more challenges. You earn a badge when you complete specific goals, such as a set number of steps, so many stairs climbed and so on.

Fitbit badges can be earned more than one time each, but manual entries don’t count toward earning a badge. The badges are just some additional motivation toward achieving your personal health goals.

There are 101 Fitbit badges, and the company occasionally adds a new one. Here are some of the more interesting badges and how you can earn them.

1. Boat Shoes

One of the first badges you’re likely to earn is boat shoes. It’s earned when you walk 5,000 steps in a single day, which is an achievable goal for many. Even though some experts recommend at least 10,000 steps a day, if you’re just starting in your fitness journey, a goal that makes more sense for you — such as achieving boat shoes — makes more sense.

2. Serengeti

If you’re more interested in long-term goals, you may want to strive toward the Serengeti badge, which features an icon with a giraffe. The Serengeti badge means that you’ve walked 500 miles since you started with Fitbit. Striving toward marathon-type goals is more about developing long-term healthy habits than what you achieve in a specific day.

3. Happy Hill

The Happy Hill badge signals that you walked 10 flights of stairs in a single day. It’s a landscape image, but the hill in it has a happy face with eyes and a smile. It’s a badge earned for being more conscious of the little things you do every day, which add up to big health benefits over time. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator each day quickly earns you this badge.

4. 747

The 747 badge is a bright yellow one with the image of a blue airplane and a little blue bird flying above it. You get the 747 badge for a lifetime (since joining Fitbit) award for climbing 4,000 floors since joining. While your daily badges are motivating, the lifetime achievement badges are for more long-term goals that you should strive toward. You might have 100 Happy Hill badges but only one 747.

5. Weight Goal Set

You can get a badge simply for setting a weight loss goal. That’s almost as easy as getting a badge for breathing. Of course, you’ll get additional badges for steps along the way toward that goal if you own a Fitbit scale. You’ll get badges for every five pounds of weight lost as well as one for meeting your weight loss goal.

6. Extreme Goals

There’s no way to list all 101 badges in the space here. As you can see, many are similar, such as badges for 5 pounds lost, 10 pounds lost and so on up to 200 pounds lost. However, there are also some badges that represent lofty goals you may want to set for yourself over time.

Earn cowboy boots for walking 50,000 steps in a single day or ruby slippers for walking 65,000 steps. If you’re training for a marathon or on a hiking trip, these goals are achievable — they just take more work than simpler goals.

Long-term goals, such as earning a March of Penguins badge for walking 70 miles from the time you joined Fitbit — may be more achievable if your philosophy is that slow and steady wins the race.

Go at Your Own Pace

Even though badges provide a bit of added motivation, don’t stress out if you don’t achieve one of your goals right away. Make the goal to do a little better each day until you’re able to earn those badges that signal progress in your health and weight loss goals. The badges are just a bit of added fun, after all.