Fitness Trackers: Are they worth it & why?

Fitness trackers: the latest in all fitness news, Fitbit, jawbone, Garmin, and all heart rates. Your friends have one, your mom has one, the gym gurus most likely have one. Question you may ask is, “if everyone else is doing it, should I jump on the bandwagon?” My answer to that question is YES.YES.YES. Owning a Fitbit and a heart rate monitor have done nothing but wonderful things to my health and fitness game and I’m here to tell you why.

Motivates you to meet certain fitness goals/active minutes, steps, calories

As college students, many of us are sitting at a desk or walking to our next class and then headed to the library for what…? MORE SITTING. Keeping track of ones activity through the day is something that can motivate you to get up every hour for a study break and take some extra laps around the library or walk to class instead of catch a ride. If someone is low on their step goal, it will motivate him or her to take the long way to class or take the stairs over the elevator. When you are aware of what types of activity you are doing, it can really open your eyes to whether or not you need to schedule more time for fitness and health, thus keeping you strong and fit!

Compete against others (in a friendly way)

This can go along with knowing how many steps/ active minutes you gather in a day. When you are put to a “challenge,” it can force you to go those extra miles (literally) and that really ads up. Fitbit has challenges that you can partake in with friends. My boyfriend and I do them and if he ends up beating me, I literally will take extra laps around my house at 10:00 at night just to beat him… I’ll do whatever it takes to win! A friendly competition is always a spark to help people get fit and stay fit!

Be aware of water consumption and what foods you are eating

Almost all of these fitness trackers (that I know of) can sync to food log apps (MyFitnessPal) and can help you on the nutritional side of being healthy. I know that the Fitbit App has its own log as well as a water log. Being a student, it’s so difficult to be fully aware of your water and food intake unless you track it. Many students tend to be under-hydrated in water and over-hydrated in sugary drinks and lets just say it—boos. That is why tracking the healthy things that we do keeps us on the right path to being healthy students and if we aren’t on the health path, we become aware of it through the unhealthy things that are put in the food logs.

Tracks your sleep

Sleep…something everyone wants but not what everyone gets. This feature on many fitness trackers is so useful to ensure that fit students get the proper 8 hours of z’s per night. Sleep is one of the essential things for college students because it gives the brain time to digest all of the material from class and studying, muscles times to recover after being damaged in the gym, and it reenergizes you to do the same thing again the next day! So many college students don’t get the proper amount of sleep per night and it can damage their brains and their bodies. Having a device that keeps you on track to get a healthy amount of snooze could really keep you healthy in the long run!

All in all, I am a huge advocate of tracking my fitness and being able to share it with people because it helps keep me motivated and it makes me be accountable! I love knowing my heart rate during workouts and then being able to track my every step during the day and even while I sleep at night. For college students, it is a must in my mind. It makes the extra steps of walking and being active outside the gym that much more potent in students lives, thus more healthy students! Happy stepping 🙂