At the beginning of the school year, I bought myself a Fitbit to see just how pathetically inactive I am and to motivate myself to be more fit. It’s been about a month since I started using my Fitbit, and here are my thoughts so far:
The amount of motivation you get from using a wearable such as Fitbit is relatively small. I’ve realized that if I spent an entire day in the office and at the end of the day, if my step count is just not nearing 10,000 (the number recommended by the American Heart Association), very little will get my step count up to that point. I’ve been training to fully run a 5K, but even a 3 mile run will only get me up about 6,000 steps though my Fitbit measures about 2,500 steps for me as one mile.
It makes parking far away a little more bearable. My silver lining when I can’t find parking at any of my usual spots, is that my step count will definitely be higher that day. There have been days that have been errand-filled where I hit 10,000 steps without having to make extra effort to go for a run or walk.
It is definitely not a fashion statement, unless you’re thinking of being workout chic. I bought my Fitbit in a slate color, and it doesn’t exactly match with very much. Maybe black would have been a better option because it’s easier to match with, but regardless, I have scoured Etsy and Amazon and several other sites for an option for making this look better. I have found the Troy Burch Fitbit line, but it’s only for the Fitbit Flex that has the tracker inside. I have the Fitbit Charge which has clock display, but you may be stuck with the band.
Competing with your friends makes being active a little more fun. It’s fun to do the challenges even though the challenges are based around your step count. It’s also nice to see where you measure up with your friends. I keep saying that we need more Fitbits in the Student Media office just so that we can see how inactive we actually are sometimes, especially when we’re on deadline. It’s also good for keeping one another accountable for staying healthy and active. It is unfortunate that the Fitbit can’t measure anything really other than steps walked though, so other types of exercise aren’t documented well with Fitbits. Also it’s not waterproof so you can’t go swimming or anything in it.
It works better than a fitness app on my phone. I discovered my phone has an app built in that does things such as track your steps and your active minutes. I also realized that the information I get from my FitBit is way more reliable because I usually don’t have my phone on me at all times. It’s usually sitting on a table or at my desk while I’m up and about in the office, and I think that it might be oversensitive to steps because it tells me I hit 10,000 steps way before I do on my FitBit. It could be an error in my FitBit though, but I choose to be on cautious side when it comes to wondering if I’m hitting my step goals.
Do you guys use FitBit or other wearables? Is it worth it for you guys? Let me know what you think! I’m currently in the process of trying to convert my friends to FitBit so I can compete with them.
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