Fitness Trackers: Helpful or Harmful?

amberlynwellbeing
Mar 5, 2023
2 min read

Fitness trackers seem like a necessary piece of equipment when it comes to working out. Whether that is true or not is something I would like to explore.

I had a Garmin and then a Fitbit for several years. When I started to experience symptoms of orthorexia I realized, that the fitness tracker was contributing to my negative and all consuming mentality when it came to exercise and food.

Fitness trackers are great for collecting data.

There are several basic types of trackers; ones that approximate steps, ones that approximate steps and monitor changes in heart rate, and can help determine number of calories that are burned in a day, and then ones that can do all of that plus determine your position on the globe if you are outside.

They are a great resource for gathering information about yourself and your habits.

Pros:

Provide accountability
Provide motivation and encouragement - you can have a visual of your progress and your accomplishments (positive reinforcement).
Encourage ‘healthy’ eating habits - tracking
Great for helping you set goals
Tracks your sleep
Provides social aspect- with certain apps you can connect with friends and compete
Monitors heart rate - can be notified when heart rate becomes abnormal
Helps build a routine

There has been several studies on the accuracy of different fitness trackers. It seems that most devices can reliably measure heart rate, number of steps, distance traveled, and sleep duration. One of the limitations is the ability to accurately determine energy consumption and expenditure, which can be dependent on certain activities.

Cons:

Can be expensive
Limited battery life
Limited accuracy
Can lead to obsession with tracking and habits
Can be overwhelming - the amount of data, all of which may not be necessary and what to actually track
Focuses on performance based goals - some people benefit from progress and improvement goals
When sleep or heart rate result measurements are not 'good' or are abnormal, they can cause anxiety
Possible reduced enjoyment in activities and experiences of disordered eating symptoms.

I think fitness trackers can feed the idea that if you don't track it did it happen, or why even do it if you cant track it. I think it puts more emphasis on the external outcome of working out when the mental aspect, which is very important to creating a consistent fitness routine.

Some Possible Alternatives to Digital Fitness Trackers:

Set reminders on your phone to move
Apps to log food and workouts
Physical journals

Fitness trackers are a great resource if they are available to you and they do for more for you than inhibit you. They are not necessary to be successful in a fitness routine or program . When using a tracker it’s important to check in with yourself as to why you are using them .

There are possible negative mental effects when it comes to using fitness trackers and to make sure they don't occur, or diminish the probability of the occurring, be active in check ins with yourself and make sure you maintain control over it and you're not letting it control or dictate your behavior.