Removing the Fitbit

I’ve had a Fitbit for about seven years now. Prior to that, I had an old-fashioned pedometer, the kind you clip onto the top of your pants. It fell off on a road trip, sadly. I don’t think the Fitbit brings more to the table than these old-fashioned devices. And I also don’t believe it’s necessary to count your steps at all.

Let me qualify that last sentence. We are, as a society, sedentary. Most people would not argue with that. If wearing a pedometer helps inspire you to move, it’s no doubt a positive tool in your arsenal. But that comes with a huge caveat, which is that ignoring other aspects of your health or becoming obsessive about steps can be counterproductive. Plain pedometers don’t have bells and whistles, but Fitbits will give you a special shot of happy hormones every time you get a notification that you’ve achieved your goals. You don’t get a star or fireworks if you achieve 9,735 steps though; you have to achieve those 265 extra steps. And does pacing up and down the hallway at ten till midnight in order to achieve fireworks really improve your health?

No, it does not. In fact, rest of the mind and body is probably better. Obsessing is not healthy; the health benefits of reaching an arbitrary number of steps a day does not exceed the benefits of a restful mind. In addition, neglecting other types of exercise will not ultimately be a net good. If you are not doing stability and strength style exercises because they won’t greatly increase your steps, you will open yourself up to falls and weak bones and muscles as you age.

All of that doesn’t even touch on the inaccuracy of all types of pedometers. Old-fashioned pedometers were limited, obviously, only detecting movement. But Fitbit does a terrible job of counting steps accurately, as well. The disparity between my husband and me when we take long walks or hikes together is astonishing. He’s three inches taller than I am; he shouldn’t have 16,000 steps when I have 10,000. If the Fitbit were accurate, I would have more simply because I have to take more steps to keep up with him. It also doesn’t catalog sleep or activity levels accurately. I regularly have several-hour gaps when the Fitbit does not pick up on any of my activity, despite my walking around, sweeping floors, etc. The sleep function is almost useless. It tells you how long you slept and what cycles of sleep you were in by your activity level and your heartrate. I have a low resting heartrate and it takes a lot of movement to get my heartrate up; therefore, I’ve had the Fitbit mark my wandering around the house (when I couldn’t sleep) as sleep. This is probably also the reason it doesn’t detect hours’ worth of my house chores and movement as activity.

So, I will reiterate: use it if it helps inspire you to be more active. For my mental health at this point, I’ve taken it off…again. I’ve done this several times, and then it lures me back because I’m obsessed with exercise and counting things. But I think my established routine is enough. I exercise first thing in the morning and walk in the afternoons or evenings. It’s enough; it really is.

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I hit the publish button earlier when I wasn’t quite done. I’m coming back now to complete my thoughts. There is a modern song floating out there with a line that goes, “Blame it on my ADD, baby,” or something like that. It might also add “OCD.”* These are common modern self-diagnoses (they can also be real diagnoses; that is not what I’m talking about), stemming from a lack of mental discipline and perhaps other issues as well. The conditions are circular, one feeding the other. Many modern people fall into this never-ending circular loop, which goes about like this: I can’t focus; there is too much going on. I’m overwhelmed because I’m scattered, and I can’t decide what to do first or next to get things done. Because I can’t control my surroundings, I’m going to do what I can do. I’m going to count things, follow repetitive patterns that will make me feel in control even though I’m not.

The Fitbit, unfortunately, feeds into this thinking. However, what really needs to happen is better mental discipline, so that you can learn how to compartmentalize a job list and complete the first and then the next item on the list without being overwhelmed by the bustling atmosphere around you or the length of the to-do list.

If that’s you, I’d recommend putting exercise into a compartment and keeping it there–and I’d also recommend taking the Fitbit off. It will make you feel better; I promise.

*It only says “blame it on my ADD;” I looked it up. The song is called Sail and is by AWOLNATION. Apparently, I filled in OCD…because the two go together. Reaction–>overreaction.