How an Activity Tracker Can Help You Lose Weight

For those of you who go to the gym 4 times a week, you probably think you’re ahead of the game – right? So you may find it puzzling why you can’t drop those last 5 pounds. But what about the other  12+ hours you spend sitting on your butt? Not to mention the 6-8 hours you spend sleeping. The bottom line is that most of us spend way too much time being inactive. Recently while writing a blog post on the Hazards of Sitting, I recently how much I sat –  so decided to invest in a movement tracker. Read how this little device can motivate you to move more and meet your goals – whether it be to improve health or lose weight.

Think about your typical day. You might get in the car/train/bus to commute to work. Then you get to work and sit most of the day then commute back home. Maybe go to the gym. Then on your backside once again for dinner then tv or more work on the computer. I bet you sit 13 hrs or more a day! So … here comes the movement tracker to the rescue! Whether you are a goal oriented person and like to work with data or need to be “shamed” in to moving more (I am both of these!), I guarantee they will help you IF you use them.

So what to movement trackers do?
These movement trackers are different from pedometers in that they give you more data. They track your steps, how many calories you burn, how many stairs you climb, how many minutes during the day you are active (and inactive). Some of them track your sleep (though it turns out this is not too accurate).  You can sync many of them to your smart phone or other apps such as myfitnesspal.  Basically, they make you aware of how little you move a day  – so you can MOVE MORE. The cost of most of these gadgets is $60 to $200.

In general, it is recommended that we walk 10,000 steps a day. This is the equivalent to walking approximately 5 miles. It sounds like a lot – but it can be done with a little extra effort. Of course, check with your doctor before pushing to reach 10,000 steps if you have any health problems.

Benefits
For me personally, it has made me walk more and take more stairs. When I work at NYPH, I make it a goal to climb no less than 30 flights of stairs. Prior to purchasing my Fitbit, I did not spend much time in the stairwells (going up)!  See the pic to right – I climbed 52 flights of stairs! Whoo hoo   (note: the Fitbit Force, which is what I have, has since been recalled due to some people getting rashes. But you can still get the Fitbit Flex)

– Data, data, data! Once you see where you are at, you can set goals for moving more. Most of them sync with your smart phone and other apps including myfitnesspal and loseit. Jawbone has an inactivity alert. You can set it to vibrate on your wrist if you haven’t moved in the past hour.

– It really makes you go out of your way to increase your steps or flights of steps climbed.

– Fitbit wrist band vibrates on your wrist when you reach 10,000 steps.  It also sends you an email “reward”.

– Check out this article from the NYT called  “Monitored Man” for more insights on movement trackers . He writes about Jawbone’s smartphone app offers personalized tips that are interesting. For instance: “When you go to bed 30 minutes later than average, you tend to take 971 fewer steps the next day.” And after several late nights, he was told: “Go to bed before 12:44 a.m.”   (see pic below of Jawbone)

Downside
These movement trackers are best used to track walking and climbing stairs. Don’t expect them to accurately track other sports activity like weight lifting or give accurate calculations of calories burned. Here is what I found:
– It doesn’t track movement from all activities – such as biking.  For example, one day I biked about 50 miles. It only showed up that I walked 1000 steps or so.

– It doesn’t track doing the stairmaster as climbing stairs. One day I had a super difficult workout doing intervals on the stairclimber (the hard machine with the revolving stairs). My fitbit only tracked that I walked regular steps.

– You can cheat by swinging your arm. It counts steps like you are walking. Not sure who would really want to cheat like this … but I bet there are some of you out there … perhaps waving your arm around as you lay on the couch watching tv.

– The sleep monitoring component of the tracker is not accurate as per my sleep nurse practitioner. Stay tuned for her blog post on Tips to Deal with Insomnia.  When I initially got my movement tracker and saw how I appeared to wake up every 30 minutes or so, I was excited to show my boyfriend how his snoring was ruining my sleep. It turns out this is not true …. we all naturally move in our sleep. It doesn’t mean we are actually waking up. Let’s see if the BF reads my blog to see this!

– Certain movement trackers such as wrist models of FitBit can easily unsnap and get lost. I actually had 3 clients lose one this week. Not sure what to do about this one – just be careful!

My clients love them!
I almost always recommend a movement tracker to my clients who are having difficulty in losing weight. And it doesn’t have to be one of these gadgets – a pedometer is fine too. But if you can swing it, I think you’ll find these trackers more motivating.  I have not had a single person tell me they were not useful. Just yesterday, a client emailed me “I finally got the Fitbit Flex up and running. I love it!  I was running errands all over the city yesterday and reached my 10,000 step goal.” Even if your goal is not weight loss, moving more during the day will improve your overall health.

Do any of you use movement trackers? What are your experiences?