FollowI know that my first post about QS2011 was back in November and I had promised a second one. Here is that post after mulling over it for more than three months.
At the QS2011 conference, there were so many devices to track activity – Fitbit, Basis band, pedometers etc. Many of the participants (including yours truly) had tried these tools or were planning to. I realized that I had started using Fitbit and stopped and here is why I stopped.
Fitbit is a versatile device which can work as a pedometer during the day and sleep monitor at night. You just keep wearing it and it will automatically upload the stats online so that you can compare and evaluate them on your computer.
I also tried the tool for 2-3 weeks. I stopped after I noticed that consistently I was walking 4-5 kms of distance everyday. This would never happen when I was living in the US. So this is what convinced me that tools like fitbit cannot really help in an active lifestyle.
I realized that I had bought Fitbit to make sure that I was getting the required amount of walking/running everyday. But in the USA where I used to jump into a car to go anywhere, I needed an external measure to tell me that I have not been very active that day.
Fast forward to life in France and things have changed. I hardly use the car. All the places that I go to daily (grocery stores, school etc) are all within 1-2 km distance. And more importantly, driving a car is a real nuisance due to bad traffic and hard to get parking. This means that everytime, I need to go anywhere in the vicinity of 1-2 km one way, I almost always choose to walk.
This got me thinking. The real key to getting a healthy lifestyle is NOT these gadgets but a lifestyle where you walk and are on your feet most of the time as our bodies were expected to. No point in slapping on a gadget to see how many steps we have walked after spending 3-4 hours driving in a car!
Now there is new research which suggests that if one spends a very active one hour in the gym and then sits in front of a desk all day, it is just as bad as having a sedentary lifestyle. Considering this, the only way to stay healthy is to be active all day. What better way to be active than to include physical activity to go with your daily activities like going to work, shopping etc? No gadget can do that for us! Only we can choose to.
I’ll put forth that behavior change is not the only, and sometimes not even the primary use of these devices. For me, it is about recording behavior variability and seeing how those subtle changes affect other recorded behaviors. This informs me which related behaviors to change to produce positive outcomes in the areas I care about.
For instance, one might find that the extra walking incurs a higher need for deep sleep. If you intentionally are aiming for less sleep or are unintentionally reducing your body’s proclivity for deep sleep you might actually choose to cut back on your walking. Not the best example, but you get the idea.
Bill – thank you for your comment. I agree with you. Having these devices is a big help to understand our health very well. This is why they are so popular with the quantified self crowd. If everyone can know their health this well, the burden on doctors will be reduced substantially!