Does a Fitness Tracker Help with Your Health and Fitness?
When you consider how quickly fitness trackers have grown, it’s astounding. The majority of activity, calorie, and heart rate measurements were found in clinical and laboratory settings when I started my job fifteen years ago. When we attached the plastic pedometer, which monitored our daily steps (usually erroneously), to our waistline, we felt like we were being fancy. There are now 132 brands and more than 423 distinct fitness trackers. The scientific world now considers fitness trackers to be “sufficiently accurate,” meaning they are valid in research investigations, demonstrating a significant improvement in accuracy.
A new movement known as the “Quantified Self” has emerged as a result of this technological explosion. Every day, we keep track of everything here. We are aware of our heart rate, our food intake, our caloric expenditure, and even our window for conception. It never shuts off.
How Fitness Trackers Are Beneficial
These fitness trackers are capable of many wonderful things. These devices’ designs reveal that they have a scientific foundation. When the self-determination theory is applied to these gadgets, it supports every method by which we determine what motivates our actions. Goal-setting, measuring instruments, and feedback are used to increase both internal and external motivators. Setting objectives and making plans of action are examples of extrinsic variables that can increase physical activity, enhance cardiovascular health, and even improve blood sugar regulation. The tracker also shows intrinsic characteristics, such as feeling inspired by previous good days.
In a nutshell, using a fitness tracker allows you to establish objectives, monitor your progress toward those objectives in real time, and start to feel more capable. In the context of intuitive eating, we discuss enhancing competence in great detail here and here.
A lot of these fitness trackers take into account recommendations from the American Council on Exercise, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control. These groups advise 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week, which is equivalent to 30 minutes five days a week or 75 minutes of strenuous aerobic exercise per week. Most watches have a 30-minute daily programmed activity when you switch them on for the first time.
Step Counts and Fitness Trackers
Now let’s discuss step counts. When pedometers were first invented, research suggested that 10,000 steps a day would help you become more fit and healthy. Although counting your steps has been found to boost your daily average by around 2500 steps, this is a fantastic objective, but fitness is much more than just the number of steps you take. We are aware that trackers that incorporate your heart rate into their algorithm offer a more thorough assessment of your health. More studies have also been done on the negative effects of prolonged sitting on general health, and using a fitness tracker can serve as a helpful reminder to move during the day.
Is There a Downside to Using a Fitness Tracker?
The answer is, like with most things, it depends.
Here are the results of a 2019 poll that looked extensively at women’s relationships with fitness trackers:
- Only when charging the battery do 89% of women take off their tracker, which they wear all the time.
- Women’s food and activity decisions were significantly impacted by wearing a tracker.
- Women reported experiencing the following emotions when they either forgot their tracker or the battery died:
- Without it, naked
- They “wasted” the activities they finished without the tracker.
- Decreased drive to move
Wearing the tracker has quantifiable effects on mental health, such as:
- Pressure to meet daily goals
- The tracker-controlled routines
- When they were unable to “close their rings,” they felt bad.
I think it’s clear where this is headed. It could be a good idea to reconsider the use of your fitness tracker in your day-to-day activities, though, if you have ever experienced this. Our drive to exercise is frequently misdirected by the fitness tracker, which makes us concentrate on calories burnt rather than on feeling good about our bodies.
A fitness tracker can be extremely detrimental if you have ever battled with an eating problem, disordered eating, or body dysmorphia. I have frequently dealt with women who have previously had a problematic connection with food and who currently have a problematic relationship with exercise. Perfectionism and the drive for control are common traits that might be made worse by a fitness tracker. It can also be detrimental to those who are already very conscious of their body’s calorie intake and expenditure.
Assess how your fitness tracker affects your health by asking yourself. Be kind to yourself while you fuel and move your body. Don’t allow a small “ping” to ruin your enthusiasm for working out.