Fitbit and fitness watch users are going the distance and becoming more active.
“I use it every day, and then I sleep in it, and it tracks my sleep; the only times I don’t wear it is when I’m showering, and that’s when I charge it,” sophomore Mallory Storrie said.
A Fitbit is typically worn in the form of a bracelet and has an accompanying app. It tracks the user’s steps and physical activity. Users say the Fitbit helps them eat better and sleep and exercise more.
Storrie says the Fitbit helps her to stay in shape and reach her step goal every day.
“The goal for the day is to get 10,000 steps, and the average is 5,000,” Storrie said. “I usually try to get 10,000 every day, especially on weekends. If I don’t get 10,000 before I go to bed or something, I’ll just sit there jogging for like five minutes so I can get my 10,000.”
With the Fitbit Flex, one of the many variations of the Fitbit, there is a customizable option for step goals called dots. Dots are used to set the user’s step goal for the day. Each dot represents 2,000 steps, and the watch beats faster as the step count increases.
“I’m very reluctant to go a day without getting my steps, because it’ll ruin my record,” social studies teacher Skip Thibault said.
Thibault has used his fitness watch on vacation to track his steps and was surprised by the results.
“At the end of the day, we were really tired and me and my wife said, ‘We walked 10 miles today,’ and it turned out we walked 12,” Thibault said. “We knew because we both had these [fitness watches].”
Users buy the Fitbit to monitor their activity, to push themselves and to remind themselves to meet their goals.
“I’m very active, and I like to measure how well I’m doing,” Storrie said. “I have goals for how many steps I take, how many miles I go and how many calories I burn, [and I] try to keep it up to date.”
Thibault explains how his fitness watch has helped him personally.
“I really think it’s helped me a lot; I’ve lost a bunch of weight,” Thibault said. “Part of it is you can keep track of how often you do things, and consistency is the key. It’s like, if you go to the gym and work out, you’ll go, ‘Oh I went to the gym just the other day,’ and maybe just the other day …but you remember just going to the gym, but if you [use the Fitbit], it graphs it, and it keeps track of your activity every single day, so I get pretty competitive with myself. I never want to break my streak.”
According to Fitbit, 70 percent of the users walk for fitness. However, for the users who like to push themselves or have a more competitive side, the Fitbit allows users to complete challenges solo or with friends. These consist of daily or week-long challenges.
“I mostly do [the challenges] with my cousins,” Storrie said. “There was a 20,000 step challenge…. So I walked around my whole entire neighborhood and back, and I got 26,000 steps, and then my cousin only got 18,000, so I guess I beat her.”
Sophomore Megan Walker also uses her Fitbit outside of school to compete with friends.
“Me and my friends went on vacation, and we did the work- week challenge just to see how many steps we could get, and all day we would run and try to beat each other,” Walker said. “It’s fun to compete with.”
The Fitbit app includes a messaging system that allows friends and challengers to communicate as they compete, encouraging or taunting their opponent, like seniors Terrence DeWeese and Natalie Hayman.
“We set it up to see how active we both were and for that week,” Hayman said. “We would actually be texting back and forth during the week and tell each other how many steps we have and each night we would do that.”
DeWeese and Hayman have done many challenges together to keep their steps up.
“She had work all week, which is funny since I don’t have a job, so I had to go on the treadmill for 2 hours straight to try to keep up with her,” DeWeese said. “That was a fun week.”
Hayman said that her job as a waitress helps her get more steps when she competes.
“I finish a shift there and I have over 20,000 steps, so I’m running around constantly, going back and forth for food orders and going into the kitchen,” Hayman said. “Every time I have work, I beat him by a solid 60,000 steps.”
– By Natalie Fragnito
