Does a fitness tracker really help your fitness?

You see these more and more on people’s wrists and the buzz is about how many calories have you burned, how many steps you have taken, but do fitness trackers really help with your fitness.

We do all know that moving more and exercising more is good for our heart, but do we know if we are doing this enough or as much as we think?  This is where a fitness tracker really helps. We may think we have walked a lot or been active, but unless you see the results what you think and what you have achieved could be entirely different.

A fitness tracker will enable you to monitor how much you have moved, how many steps you have taken and help you with goals.  You can set goals to increase your steps or the distance you walk/run each day.  This can create good habits and increase your knowledge on what you are achieving.

The positive outcome of a fitness tracker is that it can change your mindset.  Seeing your steps and activity each day will remind you that you need to move and create positivity and targets.  It empowers you to achieve a fitness level each day.  Before fitness trackers, you wouldn’t really have known this information and would make presumptions.

There are many to choose from, which include smartphone tracking apps, simple pedometers, and more complex wearable devices such as the Apple Watch.  When you decide what you want, what suits you and your budget, away you go.

Some top tips:-

Set a goal – 10,000 steps as a daily goal are talked about a lot.  Check with your doctor and set your own and have goals to increase it.

Use daily – consistency is key to get the most out of your activity and to build habits.

Enjoyment – find walking routes you enjoy or go at a time of day that suits you best.  Find an activity that you want to do and will do regularly.

Work as a group – many trackers enable you to link with friends and family – this can create a great support network to keep you on track and committed.

Accountability – check your numbers each day and if you see your doctor regularly keep them updated – answering to yourself can be very powerful.

Fitness trackers are here to stay, and they will get more complex and collect more data, but most importantly they get people moving more.