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FitBit Fun

A little while back, I got a Fitbit as a gift. I sort of knew what they did at the time, but I hadn't really paid that much attention. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

For those of you like me, the basic idea is that it will track how many steps you take in a day, how many minutes you are active, and (roughly) how many calories you've burned that day. I've heard some people tell me that the step counter isn't 100% accurate, but the basic idea still holds.

So with that in mind, the sign up process asked me for my height and weight. I didn't really think much of this at the time, but keep this in mind. In a way, it makes sense. If you want to know how many steps I'm taking, my height is a pretty good approximation of how far each step will take me. Now it's just a matter of measuring how far I've traveled, and you can give me a pretty good idea of how many steps I've taken. I'm sure there's a lot more smarts to the device than that (i.e., it won't calculate steps if I'm driving), but again, the basic idea makes sense. As for the weight, that part is probably related to the number of calories I burn, because the dashboard will increase that number even if I don't stay very active that day.

Okay, so the rationale for collecting those two pieces of information from me make sense. However, those two pieces of data also get used to calculate another piece of data: the suggested number of calories I should burn every day. As I've come to realize, the number they set for me is pretty high. I can go way over the recommended 10,000 steps in a day and still not hit the recommended number of calories. I've had days when I've walked 15,000 steps, but I still haven't burned enough calories according to my Fitbit. When I first got the device, I didn't think much about it. But as days went on, I noticed the pattern and it struck me as odd.

Eventually, I realized that my Fitbit was basically calling me fat. That's basically what it means when someone tells you everyday that you need to burn more calories, right? Now, I won't claim that I'm going to win any bodybuilding or fitness competitions, but I'm also not obese. I work out some, I force myself to walk a bit, and I try to eat healthily enough to keep myself in decent shape. Basically, I'd like to think that I'm not really super fat like my little device seems to think. I cracked up as soon as I realized that's what the data implied.

Even better, though, is the subtle mental change that this device has inspired. The goal is to hit 10,000 steps every day, so I try to hit that if I can. I haven't drastically changed my daily routine or anything, but I do find that I pace when I'm on the phone now. It might only add an extra hundred steps here or there, but it beats just sitting there and accumulating a grand total of 0 steps. I've actually had my Fitbit tell me that some of my phone calls were considered "active minutes" because I kept pacing throughout the whole thing. Now picture what that looks like: I will trace circles in my cubicle or bedroom for minutes and minutes on end. If you were watching me from afar, I imagine it'd look pretty funny. Maybe I won the round about obesity, but the Fitbit ultimately tricked me into running around like a really big hamster on a wheel.

Apparently, a Fitbit can provide way more laughs than you'd initially expect.

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