A Fitbit can’t do your sit ups for you. Nor can it power through your deadlifts, jumping jacks, or bicep curls. But it can give you the motivation you need to work towards your exercise goals. Of course buying one will not suddenly change your fitness habits. But a Fitbit (or any fitness tracker), which tracks habits and provides actionable data, can be effectively used to optimize one’s health behavior. And that’s where the “fit” in Fitbit comes in to play: the sudden realization of your everyday movement (or lack of it) triggers a psychological desire to get up and exercise…whether it’s simply just taking a walk around the block or going to the gym, suddenly, you are moving. When it comes to fitness trackers, the psychology behind them is just as important as the technology inside them.

We have long been encouraged to set goals to stay physically active, but the data tracking devices seem to have several advantages when compared to simply trying to follow one’s exercise prescription or a healthy diet. They encourage long-term engagement by establishing clear numerical goals that are easy to follow and compare to others. According to John Bartholomew, a kinesiology and health education professor at the University of Texas at Austin, “One of the best things fitness trackers do is provide an objective measure of activity. By having this type of equipment, it allows you to actually track and look back to see how active you are…you can’t lie to yourself.”

Once you've established a baseline, an exercise routine, and have a realistic idea of what you're doing each day, fitness trackers delve further into your psyche by encouraging a sense of competition against oneself. The consistently improving quantifiable data, be it heart rate, exercise duration, steps taken, number of moves, or calories burned, is the motivation people need to keep moving. We quickly assume a habit to check our fitness apps as we check our phones; people get hooked into relentless surveillance of their exercise habits. But the capability to broadcast your results on social media is the cherry on top. Posting your stats allows you to both boast about your accomplishments and encourage others to join you in working toward similar goals, like participating in a triathlon. You become part of a supportive community, which makes it that much harder to slack off. This encouraging cheering squad is quite valuable for many. In addition, gamification wearable fitness trackers provide elements of gamification to fitness, making the grueling task of working out much more tolerable and fun for some.

“People find [trackers] very motivating,” says Mary Pritchard, Ph.D., psychology professor at Boise State University, “and they feel guilty when they don’t use them. That can be good and bad.” Although they do create a sense of accountability, a study at the University of Copenhagen suggests that smartwatches, while providing no shortage of useful health data, also can increase anxiety levels in some users. In a study of 27 heart patients who use Fitbit trackers to measure their sleep, heart rates and physical activity, the researchers found that the more people learned about their biometric data, the more anxious they became about it. “Sometimes we get so focused on the numbers that we stop listening to our bodies,” Pritchard said. “If you’re tired or ill, your body [will be] telling you, ‘No, not today.’” Listen to it.

A fitness tracker monitors your at health any time, from any where. But if the constant stream of data is making you anxious, you can localize and track all of your fitness activities at Success Studio North. Our Technogym smart machines, together with a fitness tracking fob, pair with the MyWellness App so you can automatically measure your miles, see calories burned, get activity data, track your workouts, get biofeedback exercise performance, etc. Plus, every physical activity you take part in enables you to collect MOVEs: these are units of measurement that you can use to see who is most active. The motivational gaming aspect here is that you can compete with just your Success Studio North friends by acquiring MOVEs and climbing the leader board each week. 

Are you ready to take the guesswork out of your daily movement? Invest in a fitness tracking device or better yet, invest in yourself with a gym membership at either Success Studio North or Success Studio Ivy. Book a Complimentary Assessment to find out how we track your progress so you can live life on your own terms.