Counting your steps? Three key lessons from new research about the fitness tracker trend
People are wearing them on their wrists, carrying them in their pockets, or using apps on their phones. We’re talking about activity monitors like the popular Fitbit and Garmin.
The fitness tracker trend has spurred a slew of new studies about how well they work and what you can do to maximize their effectiveness.
If you’re considering investing in a monitoring device (or you already have one), here are Voices for Affordable Health’s top 3 takeaways from recent research.
- 10,000 isn’t necessarily the magic number
Conventional wisdom is that 10,000 steps a day is a good target for staying healthy, but the average American takes between 5,000 and 7,000 a day. A new Oregon State University study suggests you may not need to increase the number of steps to achieve health benefits – just the intensity of those steps. Push for about 3,000 of your daily steps to come at a brisk pace and you could see improvements in your cholesterol readings and other measurements of a healthy heart.
“When it comes to steps, more is better than fewer, and steps at higher cadences for a significant amount of time are beneficial,” said John Schuna Jr., assistant professor of kinesiology at OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
- Another important number to track: 150 minutes
A new government-funded study provides the first “scientifically compelling rationale” for donning an activity monitor, according to a recent article in The New York Times. The article cites a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, which tracked nearly 4,000 middle-aged men and women who wore activity trackers for up to 10 years.
Researchers found that volunteers whose activity monitors recorded at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise were about 35 percent less likely to die prematurely than those who were less active.
This finding is significant, according to the study’s authors, because previous exercise recommendations were based on studies in which people simply recalled how much activity they engaged in, rather than providing data from a tracking device.
- How to achieve long-term motivation from activity monitors still a mystery
So you decide to invest in a fitness tracker that costs $15 to hundreds of dollars, but does it lead to long-term use and gains in overall wellness? Another recent study tried to assess what motivates people to use their monitors. The results are mixed.
Scientists tracked 800 office workers with activity monitors in Singapore. Some were given cash if they achieved their goals. Others earned money for charity. And another group was encouraged to meet activity targets simply for their health.
Six months later, the workers who earned cash were exercising the most, while the other two groups demonstrated smaller increases in activity. But here’s the interesting twist: After the financial incentives ran out, researchers checked back again and found that workers who were given money for personal or charity use were exercising less, while those who received no money were exercising more.
Bottom line, according to The New York Times article that explained the study, is that activity monitors can’t be a panacea for improving our health “until we understand whether they actually motivate us to move and how.”
Do you own an activity monitor? Has it changed how you approach your daily activity? We’d love to hear from you. Share your story.