I love reading the comments. People point out many drawbacks to the study – including the incredible age bias, that older people can’t figure out the technology. One said that “activity does not equal exercise.” Another said there was no 3rd control group. Another said that since muscle weighs more than fat, the tracker group may have gained more muscle weight. One person actually read the study and saw that many of the people assigned to wear the tracker didn’t wear it consistently or stopped entirely! (And or course there are comments from people who are irascible and critical of anything.)
3 mile pup walk very early this morning. Still humid here, but hopefully less so by tomorrow. 9 holes of golf (walking, of course) this evening.
^^^ Old people can’t figure out technology??? What a load of bull. My father is 88 and uses a Fitbit, iPad, iPhone, computer, etc.
Enjoyed reading about the Ragnar since I really knew nothing about it. Although I don’t see myself doing one, it was fun to read about your experience, @C3Baker. Kudos to you.
Big congratulations for C3B and the completion of her event for such a good cause! I really enjoyed your recap. Hope the aftereffects don’t linger too long.
That article started out wrong, imo, with the premise contained in sentence number one: “Fitness trackers remain wildly popular, but do they make us fit?” They might be great motivators, but a fitbit by its lonesome will never make one fit…
Sounds like you have a good trip coming, MoWC!
Kudos to you Sabaray for using fitness to relieve stress and managing your time to get the workouts in. So inspiring.
Hot and humid here as well but soon we might get a night with temperatures that dip into the 60s. Cannot wait! I did my long run/walk today: 11 miles using the 3:1 run:walk time ratio. I was tired at the end!
I have to mail the running bras back to Nike for an inspection. I’ll be shocked and majorly disappointed if they don’t issue credit for two new ones. If you look at the front of the bra in the link, at the sides near the underarm, you can see where they glue the fabric that’s come undone in mine. http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/pro-indy-womens-sports-bra/pid-10087417/pgid-1480866
I was seriously amused by the article on fitness trackers. The conclusion they reached was exactly backwards. It is clear (to me) that active tracking (logging into a website and entering exercise data) is more successful than passive tracking (using an activity tracker)–but it’s also clear that any kind of tracking helps with weight loss, as indicated by the fact that all the participants lost weight. Talk about oversimplification of results!
I got to be a data point in an activity tracker study today. A local U is comparing them to see which ones are most accurate. I wore five trackers on my wrists then walked and swam x distance. Meanwhile, two students filmed me to count my steps/strokes later.
Wow, I am so impressed by everyone’s hard work and commitment on here! Running 26 miles is no small feat, and it’s even better that it’s for such a lovely cause.
I was also having some trouble staying with eating healthy and staying fit. I recently got into weightlifting after being terrified by the weights and the strong gym bros for a few years. I really like it because each lift provides a mental challenge and the idea of being able to finally lift heavy boxes is a powerful motivator to eat well, i.e. to eat for strength, not ‘not eating to be skinny,’ which is what I used to do.
Honestly, I think it’s pretty challenging to live healthily when so much work involves remaining sedentary and a lot of easily accessible food is quite unhealthy. I went on a 5 day outdoors trip with my best guy friend and it was a real eye opener. I’m glad we have cities!
Read the articles on the fitness tracker study and I’m not too surprised by the reported results. I think there are many factors that could explain the outcome:
While the article did not state what fitness trackers were used, most of the fitness trackers sold are in the $100 a $200 range. I really question the accuracy of the calorie burn that these entry level trackers calculate. So when left yo their own devices, the subjects in the study, like many typical users of trackers, had bad data by which to set their caloric limits. If the trackers were used to set caloric intake limits, the subjects probably over ate.
Related to this, as we've discussed in this forum before, unless a person has a good systematic way of tracking food intake, there is a typical tendency to underestimate consumption. Once the subjects were turned loose on their own, they may have underestimated their food I take.
As the article reports, people with trackers may actually reduce their exercise time. Is it because they are afraid they can't reach their goals as the article suggests or is it because they look at the number of steps or calories burned during normal daily life activities and conclude that their exercise needs are being met and therefore cut back on or abandone formal structured exercise.
Whatever the causes, the study does bring into focus questions concerning the proper use of trackers and the utility of what has become a trendy fad. Just my idle thoughts on the matter.
Yes, Happy Birthday, Michael! What wild fitness adventure awaits you today?
Got out this morning for 5 miles. Ankle and hip are still uncomfortable, not quite sure what’s going on other than I’m probably compensating for the painful ankle and it’s impacting my hip. I don’t want to get any older.
Thank you MOWC and sabaray! Wild fitness adventure number 1 for today was playing hooky from early morning scheduling and luxuriating in sleeping in to 8:00, lol. Weather is gorgeous, time to get up and go for a ride!
4 mile run done – I was out early in the gorgeous 57 degree, non-humid morning! Lovely!! While I can’t honestly say I enjoyed the whole thing, it was much better than usual. I’m sure the weather played a big part in that. More exercise to come today, in the form of house cleaning in anticipation of weekend guests.
Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes! To help kick off the celebration of my 63rd, I received 3 calls this morning from scammerers seeking to have me give them my primary doctor’s information so that they can contact my doctor and have a back support device ordered, sent to me and paid for through Medicare, lol. Obviously were calls from outside of the USA, routed through a NY phone number, and apparently this scam outfit can’t subtract 1953 from 2016 and figure out I’m not even Medicare eligible!
ohio, as alluring as it is, I concluded there’s no practical use I would get out of the Fenix 3 HR notwithstanding that my local bike shop seriously tempted me at 21% off retail. Instead, we’re jointly investigating Garmin’s Varia Vision heads up display and the Varia Radar tail light, both of which integrate seemlessly with the current crop of Garmin Edge computers. Toys, we all need toys, lol.
