Using a fitness tracker can increase your knowledge of your activity throughout the day. Some apps remind you to move, allow you to set personal fitness goals, or suggest personalized exercises. Indulge in self-care and monitor your fitness level. A fitness tracker allows you to monitor and record your heart rate, daily calories burned, and step count.
Automatic tracking allows you to eat a healthier diet, exercise more and sleep better. Unfortunately, wearing a fitness tracker also has a downside. Some study participants suggested that the positive aspects came at a cost. For example, many reported that if they forgot to use the device, they were less inclined to exercise, mainly because they wouldn't receive any “credit” for their efforts.
Worse still, some described feeling controlled or pressured by the device, or guilty if they didn't achieve their goals. And, taking motivation to a new extreme, some revealed that they had developed an obsession with statistics to the point of forgetting what was around them (which can be dangerous, especially outdoors). A study conducted by researchers at the Duke-NUS School of Medicine compared employees who used activity trackers with those who didn't. They found that a cash incentive increased employee activity levels for six months, but the positive effects of using the activity tracker were not maintained when the incentives were discontinued after one year.
The study concluded that physical activity trackers did not significantly improve health outcomes, even with incentives. For activity trackers to have real positive effects on health, it would be necessary to implement longer-term incentives for activity trackers to be effective. While your fitness journey can be complemented by a fitness band, it helps you in a number of ways, such as monitoring your heart rate. In the new study, which Maher highlighted that no manufacturer of fitness devices paid for, his team found that trackers have a significant effect on the amount of exercise people do and a minor benefit for fitness and weight loss.
Fortunately, a fitness tracker offers different personalized training ideas to fit your current fitness level.
