What do you think about fitness trackers – essential tools for your exercise regime or a waste of money?

I have had cause to think about the last holiday season as my tracker died in late October and I needed to decide on my next purchase.

I did buy a new one but not without some consideration. I will share my thoughts now for those of you who might be doubtful about the usefulness of a tracker.

Here is my story….

I first started wearing a fitness tracker towards the end of 2016. My son had been wearing a pedometer for a work challenge and was leaving his workplace to go overseas. So he gave me the pedometer. It did not take long for me to become addicted to it. I set my own goal to be reached every day. But the device was almost dead and after a month or so I had to find an alternative. 

I bought a Garmin Vivofit 3 and used it as my watch as well as a step and activity counter. I set up challenges with Andrew and was part of a wider challenge each week, always trying to reach a higher step count. I became quite obsessed with reaching my goal each day and went to extraordinary lengths to do so, jogging on the spot, walking around the house and waving my arms around just to make sure I reached my goal. (Yes I know that was cheating but the method of reaching the goal became less important than the end point!)

My Vivofit 3 was a reliable tracker but only lasted me for about 18 months. I think that wearing it in the pool reduced its life. When you change the battery it is very important to make sure that the seal is in place to avoid rusting. I then purchased a Vivofit4. I just had to get one straight away – yes I was totally hooked!

The Vivofit 4 was not reliable and it frustrated me a lot! As the battery started to run low the screen would constantly blank out and the ‘blue triangle of death’ would appear. Sometimes your entire daily step count would disappear and the device would not sync. I learned to accept that my record of the number of days of meeting my daily goal was going to be constantly broken because of the device. So when it died I was quite pleased and took a step back to consider my next purchase.

These trackers are not cheap i.e. around $130-160 (AUD) and so they are should last for more than a year and should be reliable right? I began to wonder if they were just a gimmick and that I could get what I want from a cheaper tracker.

I tried wearing an old watch for a while to see if I missed the step counter at all. I nearly destroyed the watch by wearing forgetting to take it off when I jumped in the pool. I had become so used to the tracker being waterproof! I also found that I really did want to monitor my daily activity i.e. wearing a watch was not what it was all about. But I was disillusioned with the Garmin trackers and with a bit of research found out that they now have many more options. Too many for me to consider at that time and many were very expensive!!!

So I went for a cheap, generic tracker – and my experience? I will tell you straight out: don’t go for cheap and nasty! What I found was that there was no connection with others, no challenges and definitely no reliability as the device would turn itself off, fall behind with time and lose daily data – and this happened all the time! My competitive streak was not at all satisfied when I was using this tracker.

So I did some research, settled on a Garmin Forerunner 45 watch that tracks a lot of things including heart rate and blood pressure and I am currently learning how to use it. It has GPS tracking and I think  it will be helpful in my attempt to improve my pace and fitness level.

Positives about using the trackers

I have always been active and exercise is something that I love doing so I didn’t need the tracker to get me going. Using the tracker just helped me understand my activity level each day and of course it was helpful to keep me accountable to my goals.  It also helped to fulfill a previously unrecognized competitive streak in my personality i.e. I was always keen to see how well I went each week in the steps challenge and I was quite obsessed about setting a record for the number of days where I reached my goal.

I also liked the fact that I had a watch on my wrist with a back light that could be used at night, in the movies etc. A watch is something that I value as I don’t carry my phone or other device with me all the time.

With my new tracker, I can track my heart rate and blood pressure during my activities, use the GPS and time activities etc. And of course I can tell the time with the very clear and large clock face!

Negatives about using the trackers

Wearing the tracker did not help to improve my fitness. I think I put weight on in that first year of wearing the tracker. I think I had a false sense that doing 14,000 steps each day would keep me trim and fit so I could be a bit relaxed with my diet. The other down side was that I ended up damaging my Achilles tendon. I had to have physio and have my right ankle taped for weeks in an attempt to relax and heal the tendon. This is not a fault of the tracker, only of the user, but something to be careful of if you are obsessed with meeting your goals!

Do we really need fitness trackers to stay fit?

I don’t really NEED one. However I decided that it was something that I preferred to have.

Whether or not you NEED one will of course depend on your personal motivation to exercise, sense of competitiveness and need for affirmation or the need to be held accountable. I believe that the tracker would be a useful tool for someone who is new to exercise and needs support and reminders about getting fit. If that is you then I wish you well with your exercise program, goal setting and use of a tracker.

Of course I know that these gadgets are luxury items and we could all do without them really but I will continue to use my current tracker to keep me honest with my exercise routine and hopefully improve my fitness level.

I hope this has been useful for you and would love to hear your thoughts on fitness trackers!

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Until next time,

 

 

Gillian (and Andrew)