Advertisement

At first I loved my Fitbit. Now I hate it.

 
In an undated handout photo, Fitbit Force wristbands, more than 1 million of which were recalled after the company received complaints about adverse skin reactions.
As wearable devices become more popular, some doctors and consumers have expressed concerns about a lack of regulatory oversight to monitor the frequency of skin allergies and other reactions to certain metals or plastics used products like the wristbands. (Handout via The New York Times) -- NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH STORY SLUGGED CIR DEVICES ALLERGIES. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. --
In an undated handout photo, Fitbit Force wristbands, more than 1 million of which were recalled after the company received complaints about adverse skin reactions. As wearable devices become more popular, some doctors and consumers have expressed concerns about a lack of regulatory oversight to monitor the frequency of skin allergies and other reactions to certain metals or plastics used products like the wristbands. (Handout via The New York Times) -- NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH STORY SLUGGED CIR DEVICES ALLERGIES. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. --
Published March 29, 2016

A new study has concluded that Fitbits, Jawbones and other fitness trackers might not be all they're cracked up to be.

"Measuring all that physical activity is a pernicious double-edged sword," according to the study's author, Jordan Etkin, a professor of marketing at Duke University, whose research is being published in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Enjoyable activities, like exercise, can become almost like a job, by focusing on the outcomes of things that used to be fun."

In other words, tracking all those steps, floors and calories can make working out, even walking, feel like a drag. Sure, now you tell me.

About a year or so ago, many of my health-conscious friends started sporting activity trackers on their wrists. Suddenly any conversations among these "sporterati" quickly turned to their target number of 10,000 steps, which Fitbit has preset as a one-size-fits-all goal. Did you achieve it? Surpass it?

I didn't buy in to the tracker craze at first, but I'm not immune to a good deal, so last summer when I saw an ad offering 20 percent off a Fitbit, I was wavering. And the tipping point: The Fitbit now came in slate blue, a color I like. From the get-go I liked how it looked on my arm. Yes, it might be true that I rolled up my sleeves more often than I had before, just to make sure others noticed I had joined the club.

Off I went in pursuit of my 10,000 steps, a metric the American Heart Associate agrees is a good daily goal for health and cardiac fitness. And pretty soon I was an addict-in-the-making. In spin class I tied my Fitbit through my shoelaces to make sure every spin or step counted. Zoe, my Jack Russell terrier, never had so many walks in her life. She seemed as excited by my new toy as I was, especially when it vibrated and flashed in celebration when I reached my daily goal.

My Fitbit honeymoon came to a crashing end after about eight weeks, when it became clear that my regular dog walks were barely getting me to the 10,000-step mark — as my Fitbit "told" me. If Zoe and I missed one walk, I missed my goal — and that left me unhappy. Worse, since my Fitbit couldn't count pool laps, it proved useless in tracking the exercise I did on half the days of the week.

Like others who came up short of the daily goal, I started to do crazy things. Sometimes just before bed, I'd walk around the house just to hit my 10,000 steps. Others tell me how they march in place, swinging their arms, to make their goal. No, I was not happy. Fitbit and I definitely had hit a rough patch in our relationship.

Perhaps you know where this is going. Was the Fitbit good for my heart? Yes. Fun? Less and less so. Sustainable? I didn't think so.

Yes, I'm fully aware that many have benefited by wearing health trackers. Mike Fredericksen, a friend of mine, told me his fitness tracker has helped him lose more than 20 pounds, eat healthier and sleep better. "I've gone from borderline diabetic to a safe zone," he said, and he's now a regular exerciser. That's fantastic, and I hope he continues.

Planning your weekend?

Subscribe to our free Top 5 things to do newsletter

We’ll deliver ideas every Thursday for going out, staying home or spending time outdoors.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

A spin instructor at a studio near where I live in Durham, N.C., told me most people in his classes now wear fitness trackers "and all through a spin session they're glancing at them. Sometimes a participant will tell me my routine was — or was not — difficult based on calories expended or miles cycled. Never mind their own physical input or lack of it: The success of my class is measured" against the Fitbit readout.

My negativity corresponded with the findings of the Duke study. When I asked Etkin, the study's author, how she'd come to examine the role of fitness trackers, she explained that after giving her father a Fitbit, "he became much more stressed about how much he walked, focused on those quantitative outcomes, when previously he'd just walked for fun." The problem, she said, is this: "Even though tracking output can encourage us to do more, it also sucks the fun out of activities we previously enjoyed, which makes us enjoy them less and be less likely to keep doing them in the future."

That had proved true for my terrier, and finally for me. So I broke up with my Fitbit.

In the weeks since, I've slowly come to another realization about measuring my athletic activity. In high school I'd been a competitive swimmer, but I really only knew how to swim against the clock in a 25-meter pool and to count my strokes per length. I graduated with my varsity letter but then stopped swimming because I'd come to hate competing. I didn't swim laps for more than a decade.

Then, missing the water, I tried a new approach: No clock. No counting. What a mess that was at first: I floundered; I crashed into the wall doing my turns; I gulped in water instead of air. I realized that I simply didn't know how to swim without measurement or quantification. I recognized that for swimming, there had to be another way. And slowly I learned how to measure my own breaths, use my eyes to navigate and, finally, manage my speed by swimming to the beat of my own heart. For the first time in my life I discovered that I loved swimming, feeling untethered from the world. From then on, I started to swim farther and more frequently.

But don't ask me how many strokes, laps or miles I've done. I wouldn't even want to know, because it doesn't matter to me — because I'm having fun. And staying healthy in the process.

— Washington Post