The Pros and Cons of Fitness Trackers

Happy Saturday, all! Today’s post comes to you courtesy of the lovely Sara Upton, who is a recent college graduate with a degree in journalism. She contacted me with a request to guest post, and wrote up a great article about the pros and cons of fitness trackers! Being an avid iPhone app user myself, I got a lot out of reading it :). Thanks, Sara!

As you may have noticed in browsing through the app stores on your smartphone, there are numerous apps out there that can serve as fitness aids. How (and how often) you choose to use them, however, can be of concern. Personally, I find it difficult to keep up with some of the apps that require you to, say, input every single thing you eat as a means of tracking calories. While it certainly can be useful, there’s also the almost-nagging element of it all. “If I really want to exercise, why don’t I just do it?” I often think to myself, scrolling through the apps that promise to help me stay motivated. It can clearly work for some people and for some companies.

In referencing both, there are studies that show fitness apps definitely have a market—and a growing one at that. To that end, it’s not terribly surprising to see that new smartphones are taking advantage of the health-centric craze.

In particular, there’s Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S5, which comes with a built-in heart rate monitor and activity tracker. That’s the word according to Verizon Wireless, which makes note of how the tracker will follow your steps, keep up with calories burned, and allow for the gamification of exercising. For those unfamiliar, gamification refers to how certain apps have introduced video game- like qualities to something far removed from that context. In this case, you’ll earn “badges” on the GS5 app based on your exercise routine. For those who have used activity tracker RunKeeper, it sounds like it’ll be similar in its approach in that you’ll get a virtual pat on the back for your longest run, most calories burned, and the like.

But does this approach work? To that end, I ask, “What about those of us just wanting to exercise every day without worrying about anything else?” It’s a question I’ve been pondering lately, and one that I’ve decided to finally answer today after doing some research and trying out many of the available apps myself.

(Source)

In my opinion, here are the pros and cons of fitness trackers:

Pros

1. They take care of any possible guess work – This probably seems obvious, but it needs to be mentioned. Unless you have come up with your own formula to track how many calories you’ve burned, distance you’ve traveled, etc… you’re going to need one of these apps.

2. They keep you motivated – Going beyond mere fitness trackers that, well, simply track your movements, there are some that really make sure you’re exercising. Take GymPact, for example. It’s an app that you can actually earn money (albeit in nominal amounts) from working out. Your bank account can also take a hit if you don’t exercise.

3. They’re intuitive – Again, there are definitely more complicated apps out there that can be a pain in the rear end. But something like the aforementioned RunKeeper app, which tracks more than just running, keeps up with your activity and the calories you’ve burned with just the touch of a few buttons. It’s not exactly rocket science.

Cons

1. They can feel like work – Getting back to the comment from Adam mentioned earlier, this is where apps really fall flat for some people. Again, if you’re just trying to exercise without adding anything to it, chances are you’ll give up on an activity tracker.