Until Corona knocked on our doors, I never dreamed of writing an article about fitness trackers that went beyond basic technical details. It wasn’t like I was a complete refusal to exercise. I preferred stairs to the elevator, I walked a lot of shorter distances. But I noticed that with the home office , a large part of my daily movement was eliminated. When the pointer on the scale then slowly moved into the three-digit range, the switch flipped. I wanted more exercise and a fitness tracker should serve as a spur.
Since then I’ve walked 10,000 steps every day , often even more. Previously, my average was mostly 2,000 to 4,000 steps, tracked by a smartphone, which was sometimes much more generous in calculating steps than the fitness tracker. In this article I give you 7 reasons for a fitness tracker instead of a gym.
Lose weight: Walking is a real fat burner
You don’t even have to walk to get on your feet. Because walking is at least as good for burning fat. On paper, running burns more calories, but above a certain heart rate, the body produces the stress hormone cortisol . The body switches to a “survival mode” and looks for energy in other areas, such as the muscles. A fitness tracker will help you keep an eye on your heart rate and stay in fat burning mode. If you just go, you don’t even have to worry about it much. You also develop less hunger when walking than when running.
Whether in the gym or with the fitness tracker – by the way, when you’re on the go: sport is only a support when losing weight. Rewarding yourself for exercising with something tasty is a shot in the foot. What you have trained in 1-2 hours is back on your ribs within a few minutes. If you want to lose weight, you should not eat more than before, but rather enjoy it a little more carefully. Replacing cola and co with water or tea can do a lot. Chocolate with a high cocoa content or nuts are ideal for those with a sweet tooth. In moderation, of course.
Motivation: A bit of gamification
Are you a gamer too? Then you certainly know about achievements. Certain milestones in games that are rewarded with an award on consoles but also on Steam. As with the High Score, this achievement encourages us to keep getting better and keep going, even though we may have already beat the game. It is similar with the fitness tracker. The steps give our movement value and purpose. For me it’s the often advertised 10,000 steps . Incidentally, these are an invention of the advertising industry. The Japanese pedometer Manpo-kei was advertised with it in 1965 and even translates to “10,000 step counter”. This has continued to this day and is even recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
For me, that works great as a motivator. I always see what I still have to do and I’m all the more proud when I even surpass this mark by far. But that works above all because I don’t just see the movement as a compulsion, but also enjoy it despite all the goals in the back of my mind.
Also Read: Effective Home Workout Exercises
No body shaming: you’re just walking
For many, one barrier to entry into fitness is the fear of exposure. In the presence of well-toned bodies, you don’t necessarily like lugging your own barrel and despairing of simple exercises while others are doing very different things next to you. This hurdle does not exist with the fitness tracker. Especially if you “just” walk, you won’t attract attention anyway. Maybe that you’re going a little faster, but that’s about it. We are less in competition with our environment.
Switch off: Clear your head
You have no idea how good it is for your head to go for a long lap every day. Of course you can also listen to podcasts or music, but it’s worth not doing anything on the side. Throughout the day, stimuli rain down on you everywhere. The head is happy when it has time to sort through these stimuli. This really gets rid of stress. Did you know that Steve Jobs made many important decisions while walking? Some of the meetings also took place while walking. The head works completely differently when the body is in motion. However, running in the gym is different than running outdoors. You are surrounded by many others, you can’t really move and you don’t get any fresh air.
New perspective: You get to know your city
hand on heart Do you really know where you live? Especially in big cities it is difficult to get a real connection to your surroundings. Since I don’t own a car, I only know a handful of streets in my immediate vicinity. Stop those roads I walk regularly to get from A to B.
If you go out every day to exercise, at some point you will explore paths that you have hardly or never seen before. I was also quite amazed what idyllic areas are within walking distance. I also notice more details and changes, because I don’t just stare at my smartphone all the time, but just let my gaze and my thoughts run free. And even for the steps or the time, a quick glance at the fitness tracker is enough.
Flexibility: You don’t have to go to the gym first
With a fitness tracker you are very flexible in where and when you train. Just put on your shoes and you’re straight into training mode. The 10,000 steps may take longer than a training session in the studio, but you don’t have to get there first. And it doesn’t have to be the classic training. It can be the way to work, the lunch break, an extensive shopping tour, more often a visit to the parents. Some of the steps can be wonderfully combined with other to-dos or gaps in the schedule. And if you feel like you’re wasting time, you can always enjoy an audio book at the same time.
Environmentally friendly: leave the car behind
A fitness tracker also motivates you to have a greener carbon footprint. The steps ensure that you prefer to walk rather than take the car. For the 15-minute walk to the bakery, you can leave your car with a clear conscience. Even 1-2 stops by bus are better left alone with a view of the steps – you don’t arrive much later than the bus, which saves you the hassle of waiting. It also makes you aware that the e-scooters are nowhere near as green as they are often advertised. These are often used by office workers, who on average have less exercise than other professional groups. A look at the fitness tracker makes it clear why at least the way to the next bus or subway stop is so important.
Fitness Tracker AND Gym
The previous points certainly sounded like you should either do a fitness tracker OR a gym. That’s not the case. The two possibilities are not mutually exclusive, but harmonize wonderfully with each other. Above all, high-quality fitness trackers can keep track of far more than just steps, and strength training in the studio in particular goes well with exercise.
The only question is whether you always want to go to the gym once you’ve really enjoyed the benefits of exercise in the fresh air. Walking, running and cycling is much nicer when you really move, breathe healthy air and enjoy the surroundings – at least for me. Just try it out and then decide for yourself.
Also Read: Healthy And Fit Through The Working Day