when it comes For fitness trackers, the psychology behind them is as important as the technology they contain.
Devices like the Nike+ FuelBand, Fitbit Ultra, and BodyMedia Fit Link use accelerometers, altimeters, and algorithms to track everything from how many steps you took to how many calories you burned. By providing this data instantly and, in some cases, allowing you to share it via social media, they do more than inform. They reinforce, motivate and reward by turning exercise into a game.
Motivating couch potatoes and providing data to everyday athletes will be an increasingly lucrative business as so-called “wearable” computing devices, such as fitness trackers, take off. Companies like Nike, Adidas and Motorola are expected to ship 90 million wearables by 2017, according to ABI Research.
Forrester Research is equally optimistic, noting in a report this week that wearables are the “next wave of consumer technology product innovation” and that companies like Adidas, Nike and Under Armor should work alongside Apple, Google and Facebook to maximize your potential.
The operation of these devices is a simple technological matter. Because His work delves into two important facets of activity: measurement and motivation. To know if you are improving at something, you need data. As the physicist Lord Kelvin said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Once you have the data, you’ll need specific goals or standards to provide the sense of accomplishment that will make you work harder.
One of the best things fitness trackers do is provide an objective measure of activity, said John Bartholomew, a professor of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas at Austin. The truth is that people do not know how to accurately judge their level of physical activity. Few people have any idea how many calories they have burned running to the train or walking to work. Others spend, say, half an hour on the treadmill each day and consider themselves “active.” And there are even more promises that they will “get active” but will not achieve their goals.
“By having this type of equipment and this type of technology, it allows you to track and look back to see how active you really are,” Bartholomew said. “You can’t lie to yourself.”
Once you’ve established an exercise routine and have a realistic idea of what you do each day, fitness trackers delve deeper into your psyche by motivating you. The routine things you do every day (climbing stairs, carrying groceries, pushing the lawnmower) are seen in a new light. Suddenly, they exercise. They always were, of course, but fitness trackers make the point clearer by telling you how many calories you burned raking your lawn. As a result, exercise becomes something you look to incorporate into your life, a goal-directed activity that creates a sense of accomplishment. Every goal you reach: “I reached 12,000 steps today!” – pushes you to do better next time.
