Ok. I’ll say it. I love my Fitbit! Not because I need to be rewarded for everything I do like badges that you earn for walking 25,000 steps a day. Not for showing me that I walked 12,221 steps in one day. Or even because it shows me how many miles I walked in a day.
Yes. I like all those features. And I recently increas d my daily goal from 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day. But for me the benefit of the FitBit is simply a guage as to whether I’ve “been active” or not during the day. There are days when I go to the rec center in the morning before work and hit my step count goal by 10am. There are other days when I don’t hit 3,000 steps before lunch. On each day I can then guage if I need to be “more active” or less active the rest of the day. Of course there is likely no negative of being more active. But it’s a good way to track if I’m getting some exercise throughout the day. While I like to incorporate going to the rec center into my routine and I use those times to hit the cardio on an elliptical, shoot some baskets and lift some weights, I also like to spread out exercise throughout the day by going on three or four walks a day giving me a chance to strecth my legs rather than sitting at my desk all day.
Dr. Michael Greger includes daily exercise in his “daily dozen”. I encourage you to check out details of his explanations. You might find a FitBit or other tracker is valuable to help you stay on track.
