In recent times, you’ll find that almost everyone is making an effort to stay fit and maintain good health. You’ll come across diet plans, exercise programs, sleep schedules, and various kinds of monitors that keep a record of your activities. Also called personal activity trackers, the gadgets can track heart rates, the number of steps you take in a day, body temperature, and other metrics to collect valuable data. Using the readings on the devices, you can plan your meals and exercise schedule. Doctors and health practitioners can also evaluate this information for an overall view of your health status.
Should you check online, you’ll come across a range of devices developed by manufacturers with different features so users can choose the specific tracker that best meets their needs. For instance, as the experts at GoFind Inc. reveal, you can opt for wearable devices that also pinpoint your geolocation. Now that’s a feature that can be useful if you’re investing in the tracker for an elderly family member.
Understanding How Personal Activity Trackers Work
Personal activity trackers are designed to be worn on your body and collect information using sensors placed next to the skin. When you turn on the gadget, it links to any internet-enabled computer via Bluetooth. You can connect it to a laptop, tablet, or smartphone using the integrated app that receives readings from the tracker. The app records the information and processes it using advance algorithms to give a clear view of the status of your health. If needed, you can send the data to your doctor and receive guidance. Athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts can use the readings to gauge their performance over time while trainers use the app to design workouts for maximum results like this feature on ResearchGate explains.
But, is it really possible for you to use the monitors to reach your fitness goals? Yes, it is! And, here’s how!
- Match Your Calorie Intake to Activity Levels
You probably have a diet plan worked out that carefully balances the calories you can consume in a day with the levels of workouts you do regularly. Use the food tracking feature of your personal activity trackers to maintain a diary of the calories you eat in a day. As you jog or walk, the app will give you an overview of the calories you’ve burnt. For instance, if you eat a slice of pizza for lunch, the monitor will give you the number of calories you must burn to make up for the lapse in your diet. You’ll also receive guidance on how to plan the rest of the meals of the day so that you compensate for the extra calories in the pizza.
- Stay Accountable and Motivated
Fitness, weight maintenance, and weight loss typically need you to remain motivated to achieve your goals. While you can join support groups to remain accountable, using monitors gives you a numeric analysis so you know exactly where you stand. Counting the number of steps you took in a day and the time for which your heart rate stayed elevated gives you a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. Like this article on The Conversation reveals, modern-day devices are so efficient that they can detect if you’re walking or running and the time for which you did both activities. The intensity of your workouts and the energy you used to do them is also recorded and evaluated with the help of the sensors that use light to detect the blood flow in your capillaries.
Yet another category of personal trackers uses rewards to motivate users to keep moving and reach their activity goals. Check out this feature on the Harvard Medical School that outlines how you can choose from programs that give you cash rewards of say, $11 for covering 50,000 to 70,000 steps each week. Or, the satisfaction of donating a certain amount to charity if you reach a particular level of activity per week. These programs may also include a sliding scale system where you get more rewards as you meet goals in specific brackets.
- Assess the Quality and Duration of Sleep
Experts now concede that an important part of staying fit and healthy is getting adequate sleep. Your personal activity trackers come equipped to assess your sleep patterns and monitor the hours for which you slept as described on the Wareable. Most such devices are capable of providing readings that are almost 86% accurate thanks to their sensors that can tell when the wearer is moving or at rest. By comparing current activity to previous records and identifying a pattern followed over time, the devices give you valuable data particularly for athletes and bodybuilders who need adequate sleep to repair tissues and build bulk.
- Make it Easy to Manage Medical Conditions
In an era where diseases like diabetes and hypertension are on the rise, personal activity trackers can help you manage the diseases. For instance, diabetes can use the devices to assess their physical activity so they can coordinate the meals they’re eating with the units of insulin they must take. Another worrying condition that close to 20% of people across the world has is hypertension as reported by the WHO. Not tracking your blood pressure levels regularly can put you at risk from stroke and heart attacks. You’ll wear the trackers around your wrist so that it takes readings constantly and processes the information with the help of algorithms. The information gathered by the monitor can help you track vital statistics. In this way, you’ll have a better idea of how your body is responding to the medication and exercise, and the activities you undertake in a day.
Personal activity trackers could well be the next best thing in helping you take care of your health. These devices work using secure networks so that your data is protected from breaches but allow your doctor to assess your medical conditions and advise you better. Go ahead and invest in one of these gadgets, and you will find that managing your health and fitness is so much easier.