Do I really need a tracker 8 July 2019 at 8:25PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Sports and Fitness MoneySaving 4 replies 3.1K views

kah22

I’m in the market for a new set of scales and I probably will buy a smart scale. My old ones, possibly 20 yrs old are well past their sell by date.

My first thought was to purchase a tracker and a set of scales that would talk to each other and send the information to Health in my iPhone 6s (not necessarily but something like a Fitbit tracker and the Fitbit scales.)

However, when I stood back and looked at the costs I wondered if I really need all that gear. While I know that the Apples Pedometer is inaccurate, research shows it could underestimate your steps by 21.5 percent per day, roughly 1,340 steps per day but research shows that a large amount of that is when you haven’t the phone with you. I am fit, I don’t drive so I walk a lot, I don’t do jogging or weight lifting. So do I need all those metrics? I really don’t know 🤔

So I’m wondering to myself, ‘do I actually need a tracker, would what real use would I get from it?’ )

I do want to keep a general check on my health and loose a bit of weight. So I’m wondering if there are apps out there that will tie into the scales and Apples Pedometer? Any ideas ?

parking_question_chap

No. Step counters are for middle aged women who think taking an excessive number of steps eachday is somehow a replacement for high or even moderate quality exercise.

Walking any further that you need each day. Unless you are seriously unfit whats the point?

Would not waste money on a "smart" scale either, whatever it is.

trailingspouse

*Ahem*
I'm 58 and female, so maybe count as a middle-aged woman??
Someone gave me a fitbit, and it was mildly interesting to see how close to the mythical 10,000 steps I got each day - but I prefer going to the gym every other day (45 minutes HIIT). I haven't worn the fitbit for over a year.
I eat a sensible balanced diet.
I hardly ever weigh myself.
It's very easy to get hung up on all the kit (let me guess, you're planning on starting your fitness regime when you've got the scales, the watch, the connectivity??). Forget all of that, and just get on with it. If your old scales are still accurate, they're all you need.


As the Greek goddess once said - just do it.

ruperts

I don't use apple health or Fitbit scales so maybe I'm unaware of some functions, but on the face of it I don't see what additional insight can be gained from tying weight and activity data together without also including accurate data on calorie intake.

Whether you gain or lose weight at a particular level of activity depends on what you eat, so the data might show you losing weight one week at say 10k steps per day, but gaining weight the next with the same number of steps. What it won't show is that you ate a lot of cake in the 2nd week, and without knowing that it seems kind of useless.

engineer_amy

having a tracker worked for me - I lost 8 stones in 9 months. I was significantly increasing my activity and had reduced my calories/portion size.
The reason I say the tracker worked was more that keeping an eye on my activity through the day and also recording my calorie intake, water intake etc just made me more aware of what I was eating and there was a conscious decision as to whether I was actually hungry or just eating out of habit. and im the competitive sort so being able to see my total steps/minutes of activity in one week and trying to beat it the following week definitely pushed me to move more.
my fitbit records/tracks steps, minutes of daily activity, calories consumed, calories expended, water intake, sleep, weightloss and heart rate (resting and active).