Do fitness trackers improve health? It seems like everyone is wearing some type of fitness tracker these days. I am sure some people wear them just because they look cool. Nonetheless, these trackers have become part of our everyday life.
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Weight loss apps like Noom use fitness trackers to help you keep track of exercise and calories burned. But do fitness trackers improve health? That’s the crux of this article, to see how effective fitness trackers are.
Are fitness trackers are all they are cracked up to be? Research from the American Journal of Medicine shows that using a fitness tracker doesn’t necessarily mean improved health, but can help with motivation to work out. Increased motivation can, in turn, help you in your journey to better health.
Adults should get 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise. A fitness tracker can help you keep an eye on meeting this goal.
Do fitness trackers improve health?
Data is the key
I have used a couple of different fitness trackers over the years, and I do like the data that they provide. If I am slacking on exercise one day, I have the data literally at my fingertips to tell me so. Having this information helps me get back on course.
All of this data is great to help keep you on track with your fitness or weight goals. If you want to walk a certain number of steps in a day, a fitness tracker can help hold you accountable for that number. If your goal is to burn a certain amount of steps, it can help you keep track of your exercise and calories burned.
Having access to all of this data is excellent, whether your goal is to lose weight, improve your cardiovascular health, or whatever your goals are. All of this data from your fitness tracker will help you make decisions to improve your health.
Fitness trackers help out in many ways
Track progress
Data is essential, and fitness trackers will help keep track of metrics like my heart rate when I am at the gym. If I am trying to maintain a specific heart rate when I am doing cardio, that is a huge benefit. I can also see my history and make sure I am on track to hit my fitness goals.
The ability to track workouts is excellent, so I can see trends and know when I need to kick it up a notch. I can set goals for myself and make sure I am trending in the right direction. The data from a fitness tracker can help you along the way.
Many people use fitness trackers to see how many steps they take in a day. Steps have become a significant benchmark for a lot of folks.
You can track so many different things
There are a wide variety of metrics you can keep track of with a fitness tracker. Whether you are monitoring exercise, calories burned, sleep, you can do it all right from your fitness tracker.
Fitness trackers are very versatile and help you track a wide variety of different metrics about your life.
Be more aware of your physical condition
You can set reminders to alert you when you need to get up for a walk. My tracker even tells me when I have not been active during a period of time. I get a notification that I have been “inactive” for a certain number of minutes.
These alerts are fantastic because I get caught up in work, or whatever other sedentary events I am doing at that time, and I get up and move my body.
What fitness trackers won’t do
Help you with the mental side
Fitness trackers can help when it comes to collecting data and helping you gain a better understanding of your activities. But they will not help you with the mental side of a healthy lifestyle.
Trackers can collect and track all of the data, but it’s up to you to stay active and meet your goals. If losing weight is your goal, there is a whole mental aspect of that as well. You need encouragement, you need a plan, and you have to execute that plan.
There are many barriers to weight loss and getting fit, like stress and anxiety. These things can prevent people from achieving their goals. A program like Noom focuses on helping people change their behaviors so they can live a healthy lifestyle.
Yes, fitness trackers are great for their intended purpose, but it’s up to the individual to execute.
Hold you accountable
Accountability is hard for a lot of people, myself included. To lose weight, or gain muscle, that takes a confident attitude, and you have to hold yourself accountable.
A big reason why people hire a personal trainer is to learn how to achieve their fitness or weight loss goals. Still, also, there is an accountability factor. Your trainer will help to set you on the right course to be successful and help you along the way.
A fitness tracker can help you with stats, but it will not hold you accountable. Losing weight is about more than just trackers; it’s about keeping a healthy lifestyle.
Do fitness trackers improve health?
Tracking your daily activity is a crucial part of living a healthy lifestyle, and trackers can help you with that aspect. They are great for their intended purpose, which is to track your data, whether that is steps, sleep, calories burned, etc.
Fitness trackers can also help you set fitness goals, and show you trends or patterns in your activity. You can use all of this data to help you meet your goals. They provide you with data to help improve health, and that data is an essential piece for sure.
Fitness trackers work great for some people, because all they need is data to show them what they are doing, and help them make any necessary changes.
Other folks need support and coaching to help them achieve their weight loss goals or maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you are interested in a comprehensive program that can help you with a healthier lifestyle, I encourage you to read my review here.
There is a 14-day trial (and you can cancel at any time) if you want to get started and see for yourself.
Do you use Google Fit on your Android? Do you use a watch style fitness tracker? I’ve read some reviews on Google Play about how unreliable Google Fit can be. What has your experience been? I’m wondering which might be more reliable (phone-based app vs. watch tracker)? I’m also interested in giving Noom a try and am wondering which tracker might work best with the Noom app. What would you recommend? Thank you!
Hi Susan, thanks for your comment. I do use Google Fit on my Android phone. I did have a bit of trouble getting Google Fit and Noom to talk to each other initially but was able to get that fixed pretty quickly. That has been the only snafu with Google Fit on my side, it has been reliable otherwise. I also own a Samsung Smartwatch.
Wearables are great for tracking data but are not the end-all I have found. I tend to get too fixated on the constant barrage of data. I know many people love their fitness trackers and they can definitely help create awareness.
This might sound like a cop-out, but having used a wearable and a phone-based app, I can see the benefits of both. Wearables are expensive and you have the ability to track workouts on your phone with Google Fit as well. I find that I use the watch for little more than just that, a cool piece to tell time. It is nice to track my activity at the gym on a smartwatch, and I also like the sleep tracking ability. But at the end of the day, I know when I have had a good workout by how I feel.
As for Noom, I used Google Fit to track my exercise. With Noom it’s pretty easy to track your food, you can scan or enter manually. Noom has a 14-day trial and you cancel before the trial expires.
If you already own a fitness tracker, that’s great, but you don’t have to have one for Noom, Google Fit works too. If you are interested in signing up for Noom, you can do so here. If you have any more questions, please ask away. Thanks again for stopping by.