I, like so many others, have been trying to focus on losing weight and leading an even more active lifestyle throughout the past few years. I've been actively trying lose the extra poundage through dieting and exercise but progress has been a lot slower than expected. (Likely due to the fact that I am now in my 30's and suspect that my metabolism is non-existent.) Enter the fitbit!
This nifty little gadget had been given to me by Maureen for Christmas. It is a small pedometer like device on steroids which tracks steps taken, floors climbed, calories burned, distance traveled, and activity level. But wait... there's more! The device syncs with the base unit wirelessly every few minutes and loads all data to their website. The site (
www.fitbit.com) graphs your progress and tracks your weight loss allowing you to earn virtual badges for exceeding certain goals. To date I have received badges for 5,000 steps taken in one day, 10,000 steps taken in one day, and 10 floors climbed in one day. Some may find earning badges to be sort of silly but I have found it to be a fun way to push myself even further. Of course, having a few extra days off of work for the holidays allowed me to visit the Museum of Science & Industry and take in the lights at Brookfield Zoo which earned me more steps than I would have taken if stuck at my desk all day long!
The device also tracks your sleep patterns. Not really sure what role sleep plays in the whole weight loss scheme of things but it must be important. So far I have learned that I like to sleep... a lot. According to the device, I don't even wake all that often throughout my slumbers. While I do not really know what it means I can at least say that I excel in the sleeping department!
There are other facets to the website which I am trying to be better at utilizing such as logging all meals but I always find that to be cumbersome and time consuming. Luckily, if you had previously used a fitness tracker such as Lose It you can easily transfer that data over to the fitbit site so there is no need for double-entry.
All-in-all I am COMPLETELY addicted to this thing! If you are like me and need that little extra incentive to stay on track I highly recommend fitbit.
