Fitness by Jennifer Cox Fitbit 101: Technology meets healthy living There are really no excuses for not staying healthy these days, especially when it comes to emerging technologies that are making it easier than ever to set health-related goals and stick to them. The latest gadget which everyone is getting their sweaty little hands on is a fitness tracker, such as Fitbit. These implements use activity trackers, as well as wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure things such as the number of steps you take, your heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed and other personal metrics. The basic first-edition model, the Fitbit Tracker, has completely evolved to now encompass an entire collection of Fitbits. Some are for everyday living, while others are more customized for those with an active lifestyle. Now, users can monitor everything, from tracking exercise and activities to food, weight, sleep and more. The results can be displayed on your Fitbit or even synched with other devices, including your phone or computer. You can receive daily updates on your progress (or lack thereof), and even have your stats put into cool graphs and charts that are available on your Fitbit dashboard. You’ll receive achievement badges when you’re successful at meeting one of your goals, which can be a great way to encourage you to continue with your efforts. And, in an attempt to get even more people on the Fitbit train, the company offers unique packages for corporations that want to engage their employees in a healthier lifestyle by using the device. Depending on how many employees are participating, there’s a Fit for every business size, from a few participating employees to more than 1,000. Studies have been done since fitness trackers started gaining momentum in the last several years to see whether these gadgets are having a positive impact on peoples’ well-being and the general consensus is that, yes, it’s helping people become more active overall. In one particular study, which was carried out last summer, women who wore a Fitbit saw a boost in their physical activity over a four-month period (livescience.com). The study involved about 50 women in their 50s and 60s who were overweight and generally not very active. About half of these women were given a Fitbit One, a fitness tracker that clips to a person’s waistband and tracks a number of metrics: how many steps they take, the total distance they move, the number of floors they climb, the calories they burn and the total number of minutes during the day that they are active. The other half of the women in the study were given a standard pedometer, which tracks only the number of steps taken. Both groups were asked to try to do 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. Sixteen weeks later, women in the Fitbit group were doing an extra 62 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week, compared with the amount of activity that they were doing before the study started. They were also taking an extra 789 steps per day, according to the study. In contrast, women in the pedometer group did not experience a meaningful increase in their physical activity during the study. Fitbit isn’t the only fitness tracker out there – Garmin, Jawbone, Samsung andMOOV are all popular brands that boast devices with similar capabilities. It’s all about the needs of the end-user – are you trying to find a gizmo that helps generally improve your overall health or do you want to hone in on a specific need (i.e. to lose weight)? Depending on your lifestyle goals, you can find a fitness tracker that is best-suited for you. 36 | www.snowbirds.org
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