
Ask HN: Do you use (and recommend) a fitness tracker? - aosaigh
I’ve been long considering buying a fitness tracker in an attempt to be more active and track progress with regard to activity. I’m already moderately fit but a serial procrastinator who is bad at planning.<p>I’ve been put off by privacy concerns, a feeling of “I don’t really need this” and wondering whether or not they are actually effective.<p>I’d be interested to hear peoples experiences with them and whether they have had a positive effect in their own right.
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lawlorino
It probably depends on what kind of person you are to be honest. I'm a data
scientist so naturally I quite like the measurement aspect of it all, it's
very rewarding to see improvement in key metrics that correlate with my
overall well-being like sleep, heart rate, running distance and so on as I
change my workout routine.

Combined with calorie tracking I've found it's helped with weight loss as I
can measure my calories burnt versus consumed more accurately. Before this I
had a habit of starting dieting and working out more which lead to me
drastically undereating and feeling awful after a week, then I'd default back
to my older patterns. Now I am achieving more sustainable weight loss.

My watch has a GPS also for tracking runs or cycling which I've found really
useful also, it's much more reliable than a phone.

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stugeeeee95
They are helpful to an extent, they only really show you basic activity and
can give you notifications to get you moving and active. But I find the best
way to get up and active is to actually find something that really motivates
you, like a competition of sorts of something to get a bit competitive about.

