Wearing a Fitness Tracker is a Motivating Factor to Exercise Harder

Fitness Trackers Promote Marked Improvements In Physical Activity Durations

​These days, seeing a normal wristwatch on an individual’s hand is a rarity as fitness trackers have dominated our lives. Does this mean that we, as a population, have become fitness conscious than ever before? The answer is not a straightforward optimistic reply, but yes, we have indeed witnessed an overall improvement in health-related activities—this is evident with the omnipotent presence of fitness centres and increase in the use of fitness trackers. However, the foremost threat presently is lack of enough physical activity among people. Such insufficient activity levels increase the risk of premature mortality and morbidity and thrives as a major contributor to diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and many others.
 
Shed Away Disease Risk with Brisk Activities
 
To combat physical inactivity and incorporate better lifestyle changes, we need practical and inexpensive interventions that meet our everyday fitness needs. One practical and simple solution to meet the daily exercise requirements could be in the form of a fitness tracker. Technology is available all around us. Gone are the days when we should set reminders for activities as our smartwatches and trackers prompt us when it’s time to get up, drink water, exercise, or go to sleep. The 10000-step goal is still a craze among fitness enthusiasts and while we do check the overall step count, our tracker does this automatically, gives an account of the total calories burned and stairs climbed.
 
All these lead to humongous data accumulation but there is a purpose behind all of this. Instead of assuming the total steps taken or calories burned, outright details about the exact number of steps and calories makes us aware of the level of activity we do individually. Understanding our performance and trying to make changes willingly happen with such trackers tied to our wrists—improved activity levels do become a basic goal for the health-conscious and there are even research evidences showing clearly that wearable activity trackers improve overall exercise levels by a great number.
 
Fitness Trackers Mark Better Health
 
People worldwide are fans of fitness trackers and they strongly trust its functionality in better health. The good news now is that, even researchers have confirmed the reliability of trackers as a tool for motivating individuals to workout more, lose weight, and stay healthy. Published in the Lancet Digital Health, the research was a large-sized study which showed better results in encouraging people to workout regularly, make physical activity a part of their daily habit, and set targets to lose weight effectively.
 
Wearing a tracker helps in losing around 1 kilogram over a 5-month period and this might seem an insignificant weight loss. But, the major catch here is the change in the exercise duration—wearing a tracker motivates individuals to walk for an extra 40 minutes everyday which translates roughly to an additional 1800-2000 steps.
 
Humans need motivation to achieve success and it’s lack of motivation that halts people from accomplishing things. Also, self-motivation is a daunting task to achieve, especially under stress. Using such fitness trackers are indeed motivating as they assist in regulating our daily fitness schedules, enhance personal exercise duration, and make the individual better responsible toward overall health improvement.
 
Get Going, Get Moving
 
Fitness is a continuous journey and it is an activity that has to be done gradually. You can’t walk a few hundred steps today and aim to achieve 10000 steps the very next day. Start small, tweak your daily routines, improve step count gradually, try to become better with each passing day, and look at the positives to keep you motivated to achieve the goal. During this journey, setbacks are inevitable but they should never be a deterrent to exercise performance. Also, some people take their goals too personally which in due course becomes an addiction. For instance, some individuals don’t get to sleep or avoid eating if they have not achieved their daily step count. Such obsessions are absolutely wrong and such people must be extra careful about using trackers for fitness goals.
 
Conclusion
 
A fitness tracker might be the right tool for individuals who seek to facilitate lifestyle modifications to lose weight and become healthy. As these trackers keep providing regular updates about the progress made, they thrive as a motivation for individuals to promote daily exercising. But, there are also instances when some people indulge in overeating as they feel that they have burned more calories than expected and sometimes, tracking fitness activities and achieving health-related goals becomes an obsession.
 
Before being victimized by any of these negative aspects, it is always advisable to look out for any disturbing trait that might become a habit. Also, to avoid getting stressed over such issues, practising mindfulness meditation or yoga calms the mind and body.
 
All individuals don’t have a unanimous goal, every person’s health history is different, work culture varies, and some accomplish the daily 10,000 steps due to their work requirements. Such steps cannot be translated into activity results and one must be careful about this. Wearing a tracker is not the end of the efforts taken for weight loss or health. We must consciously work harder, exercise more, and eat in a thoughtful way to achieve lifestyle modifications, weight loss goals, and stay healthy.