How to Get the Most Out of Fitness Trackers
When I became single, I decided it was time to get fit. Being the geek that I am, I had to get some sort of gadget to help. So, I bought one of those fitness bands, you know, the ones that count your steps. At the end of the first day, I’d run off my feet at work, but I still only managed to get to 3000 steps. Which is much better than the thousand that I would normally get if I was just sitting at the computer, but either way, it didn’t seem like a whole lot to me.
Time to do it!
I swore to myself that I would do better. For the next two weeks, I made much, much more effort in my fitness challenge. I walked to see people in the office, rather than call. I would carry my shopping home by foot rather than drive. The next time that I checked, I’d gone over 10000 steps a day. I was stoked! Despite this, I hadn’t lost any weight but I was eating the same diet at this stage.
Oh Dear
That’s when I realised my big mistake. For the next two weeks, I wore the tracker on my left wrist, and the numbers went back down to 5000. The only thing I was going to lose is my eye site if it’s true what they told me as a teenage boy. What I learned from the fitness band is data doesn’t mean anything without context. It’s very easy to misinterpret if you’re not careful.
Set Goals
So, if you’re looking to get yourself a fitness tracker, or get something to shoot you in the right direction of where you want to be, make sure that you have your goals in mind and you have them set out. Understand the data before you start looking at calories and thinking about how many you’re burning. You need to make sure you’re still burning more than what you’re putting into your body. When you first step out and you start looking into fitness trackers, set realistic goals.
Maybe start with 10000 steps a day, depending on your fitness level. Maybe if you’re over 65, 5000 steps day would be a good place to start. It would be better to talk to someone who is a fitness professional about exactly what your benchmarks should be, but don’t overdo it.
Are Fitness Trackers Worth It?
So, overall, I found that the trackers are fantastic. They are a really good motivational tool as long as you get one that has great battery life, and you get one that’s going to mix in with your lifestyle. The tracker that I went for allowed for it to integrate into my business and into my home. An example of this is where if I was to be woken up in the middle of the night, I was able to have the light to turn on as I’m walking over to the toilet, which is fantastic. Those aspects are important to me, as well as tracking sleep, because I strongly believe the quality of your sleep is by far the benchmark as to how productive you will be the following day. That was important for me.
Other Tracker Features
Some of the other cool things you can with trackers are the options to read your SMS’s, see your social media post updates and other things like that. For me, all those things are a hindrance in your performance and ability at work. They’re going to be interrupting you and interrupting your day and interrupting your sleep. If it’s on your wrist when you’re sleeping you will flick it across and see that there’s been a post update. That’s a problem. You also want to make sure that fitness tracker you’re getting either has a minimal display or the display allows for you to get rid of any blue hues and blue tones out of the screen. Your body naturally reacts to those colors and tone and they make you become more awake, as opposed to the yellow tones and red tones.
In Summary
I definitely found that when you look at different fitness trackers that are out there, you do get what you pay for. You want to make sure that you’re getting one that has long battery life and fantastic waterproof abilities. If you are a social media person, maybe you’re going to love seeing status updates, twitter alerts or Instagram likes. For me, I find it an absolute hindrance, but generally speaking, I think that they’re a huge help as long as you’re using them the right way. You’re measuring your calorie intake, measuring your calorie burning, and going from there. Hope this has been helpful.
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