Whoever thought that a fitness tracker would make them skinny is delusional! Its like saying I bought a new pair of trainers , I am now entitled to a fit and healthy body. Unfortunately, we are entitled to nothing, we have to earn it. Trackers are merely accessories that draw our attention to our physical movement throughout the day, not create the calorie deficit required to lose weight!
As a trainer, I am noticing that more and more of my clients are coming in sporting trendy little wristwatches which monitors their heart rate, steps, sleep patterns and calories burned. I have to admit I am a skeptic, I like science and base everything on qualified legitimate research. So I decided to do my own research based on the clients who wore trackers compared to those who didn’t. I matched the fit bitters with clients of similar weight, height, age and monitored them over a 3 month period to see who lost the most body fat. The conclusion was quite overwhelming, the fit bitters as I like to call them lost significantly more weight than those who didn’t track their fitness, calories and heart rate. So why? I hear you say. Well firstly, the greatest shock to the fit bitters was the awareness of how little calories they actually did burn through exercise. The mass population are still grossly underestimating the amount of energy it takes to burn off the calories in high sugar foods like biscuits, chocolate and cakes. Secondly, they naturally upped their energy output by doing the simple things like walking to the corner shop instead of driving and taking the stairs at work, as they realised that over the period of a day these steps quickly add up. Thirdly, they became competitive with their device as it gently prompts you to move during the day, they wanted to beat it. Finally and most importantly they thankfully realised that their diet was the single most important element when it came to fat loss. We may only exercise 2-3 hours per week however its what we put in our mouths every day that largely dictates our body composition. The trackers called their attention to the importance of nutrition and when combined with smart exercise helped fast track their fat loss.
In summary, I believe that anything that gets you up off your back side and doing any form of movement is a positive thing. After experiencing the results of my clients I happily purchased my own Fitness tracker, knowing that it will create more awareness to my daily movements . I see exercise differently now, as I can burn off calories doing everyday things like walking the kids to school instead of driving the short distance, as opposed to mentally chunking my training into the hours spent in the gym or at at classes. If you want to invest money in a tracker I would say go for it, but always remember that it wont get your arse off the sofa to do the work – thats your job!
