Fitness Trackers: Worth the Investment?

My husband looking fit.

My husband looking fit.

Almost two years ago my hubby decided he needed to get in better shape.  He started looking for different apps as a way to log all his activities and achievements. He decided to try a fitness tracker which were relatively new on the market.  He absolutely loved knowing how many steps he took, how many calories, and  how many hours he slept at night. He would go to bed with this little electronic device which I couldn’t help but tease him about it by calling him a cyborg.  He would get up in the morning and check his stats.  He would study the colourful charts of his activity and would plan his goals for the day ahead.

His fitness tracker really did help him stay accountable.

Often when someone is trying to diet and lose weight, a suggestion is to keep a food diary to see the big picture of what they are actually putting into their body.

Similarly wearing a fitness tracker and paying attention to the data will make you more aware of your activity. Or in some cases, your lack of activity.

If you are the type that goes from home to work and back home spending your day at a IMG_5061desk  you may be surprised at how few steps you are actually taking. It isn’t hard to find ways to take extra steps during the day, but  it is surprisingly easy to take very few steps.  Using a fitness tracker could give the extra push that will help get someone off the couch and out for some exercise.

As they’ve gained popularity more of my clients have been asking me if they should make the investment and buy a fitness tracker. I decided to try one out for myself.  I tried the Runtastic Orbit.  You can wear it on your wrist or clip it on to your waist and you can change the colour of the band if you want to coordinate with your clothes.

The set up was very simple.  I am not a technical person, electronic gadgets actually make me nervous. (It took me ages to figure out my iPhone and I am one of those people who never does the updates 😉 )  I set myself some goals to strive for everyday. I have to say I liked getting my little alert when I was halfway to reaching my goals. On the flip side the Orbit tracker even has an inactivity alert. If you’ve not moved around for over an hour it will vibrate two times to let you know you need to get up and walk around.

It will display how many steps you’ve taken, how many calories you’ve burned and how many “active minutes” you had that day.

The sleep tracking was very informative for me. After you track your sleep, a graph on the app shows you the time during the night when you were awake, and the time you spent in deep and light sleep. Conclusion… I NEED MORE SLEEP!!!

This is a great night of sleep!! Need more of these

This is a great night of sleep!! Need more of these

Overall think if you’re already motivated to exercise or eat differently, a fitness tracker is a helpful tool to track your progress and help you understand where you need to make changes. But don’t think the fat will just fall off by monitoring your steps, you are ultimately responsible for your own fitness, but something that will help along the way is a welcome tool. 🙂

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