Fitbit and other trackers

I really do try. It's easier in the summer when we take several walks around our trailer park.

Also play Pickleball and this helps.

I just had a Fitbit given to me I like it so far!
hitting about 8000 steps a day gonna try and do more in the coming weeks!

You could get addicted and do like me. Such as going for an extra walk in the dark, because you're 1000 steps short of 15 or 20K steps, or walk in circles through rooms in the house, because you're 250 steps short of 10,000. LOL

Right now I'm in the middle of a workweek challenge with 5 guys half my age, I'm currently in second place and just finished my day with a walk around the neighborhood and will be finishing the day with around 15K steps or around 7 miles, I usually do 1 hour at the Gym on a treadmill and 1 hour after dinner, I feel bad for you Canadians and the cold weather.

Ouch! "Cold Weather"... We're still able to work out - you don't realize how much exercise you get shovelling the sidewalk on a corner lot

Do these things work? I was under the impression that it was more ofa gimmick.

The American Heart Association recommends 10k steps a day for a healthy heart, how would you know if you done it if you don't have a mean to track how many you have walked? It can be done with a simple pedometer or smartphone but some of the smart trackers also measure your heart BPM which is also important for a healthy heart specially your BPM at rest of when you are sleep, the lower that number the better, supper athletes or marathoners have theirs in the low 30s

for about a year. I used it for motivation and overall awareness of how much movement I was, or was not getting daily.
I paired mine with the MyFitnessPal app to help manage my caloric intake and expenditure. It helped me lose 25 lbs and develop healthier habits which I've been able to maintain.
When it started developing glitches I tried to contact their tech support but nothing really helped. I couldn't find my purchase receipt for a product exchange so I just stopped using it.
Overall though, it fulfilled it's intended purpose, so I didn't find it to be gimmicky.

~Angela

The cheap step counters pick up all sorts of false steps, while driving in a car, etc.

The Fitbits and the other good ones have multiple accelerometers and only pick up real steps. I've shaken mine and it doesn't register the shaking as a step.

It does cause you to challenge yourself. I don't worry about the calories that it calculates. If you get your steps and active minutes, I figure you get calories burned.

If you are interested in improving your health (conditions permitting) here is a good article that shows why is good to have a low RHR

https://blog.fitbit.com/what-your-resting-heart-rate-can-rev...

My wife as tachycardia and wore a monitor for 3 weeks. When the monitor went back, I bought her a Fitbit Charge 2 for the heart rate function alone. You can sync with your computer to provide a graph of the rates.

This is turning out to be VERY informative and educational. She cannot jog, but the Fitbit is worth it for other reasons.

Also, you might be surprised just how low your heart goes while you are sleeping. In my case, it drops to about 45/min. My wife's stays closer to 100 and sometimes higher even when sleeping.

You must be in excellent shape to have it that low, mine RHR is 59; just think and do the math comparison I did it with my brother's RHR (during sleep) and almost fell off my chair, every minute his heart pumps 21 times more than mine, multiply that by one hour, then one day and finally one year and you will see the strain a person with high RHR puts that pump trough.

I have two fitbit, the ZIP to count steps only that I just drop in my pocket when I don't want to use the the Charge 2 bracelet that I wear to the Gym and sleep.

Like GlobeTurtle I have my Fitbit account paired with MyFitnessPal, if I want MFP to give more calories to eat I just go for a walk to earn it.