Like many people, I wear a fitness tracker. It’s a fantastic piece of technology for anyone who wants to record their health journey and track their fitness goals. Although the features vary between makers and models, many track the basics around movement and sleep. However, the reasons people wear a fitness tracker vary based on their health and fitness goals.
Reasons To Wear A Fitness Tracker
I’ve always been a sucker for data-driven results, and I started writing down my workouts before fitness trackers were mainstream. In fact, FitTrend began in 2002 as a means for me to log my workouts and track my progress. Since then, my various fitness trackers have provided a deeper insight than logging workouts, time, and distance. Let’s explore some of the reasons, in no particular order, why people wear fitness trackers.
Activity Tracking
Tracking your workouts can be as easy as tapping a button or a menu option on the screen. The fitness tracker takes it from there. Many fitness trackers can also track specific activities like running, cycling, and gym workouts. Furthermore, they collect metrics like duration, distance, speed, heart rate, and specific metrics for certain activities.
Additionally, you may want to track your steps, the distance you cover outside your workouts, and the number of calories you burn. A fitness tracker makes it a breeze to gather this data every day. Some do it automatically without you having to do anything. At a glance, you can see where you are for the day, which can help motivate you to push harder to reach your daily goals.
Sleep
Some fitness trackers can help you improve your sleep by monitoring your sleeping patterns. They can collect data on how long you sleep, your sleep stages, and the quality of your sleep. Knowing how you sleep can help you identify potential issues that interfere with your ability to get good rest.
Monitoring Heart Rate
Tracking your heart rate while you exercise can help you adjust your workouts to a specific intensity level. Whether doing a rest day workout or working near your maximum heart rate, you can quickly glance at your fitness tracker instead of stopping to check your heart rate manually.
Your resting heart rate can also indicate if you’re overreaching and need a lighter workout or a day without exercising. The more you wear a fitness tracker, the more you’ll learn what’s normal. You may find patterns in your heart rate when catching a cold, exercising too much, or lacking sufficient sleep.
Automatically Track Your Progress
Tracking your progress involves logging your workouts in a notebook or fitness journal. However, a fitness tracker makes it easy by automatically collecting and syncing your data. Then, when you’re ready to look at your results, you can open an app or a website to view the data collected for a specific workout or workouts over time.
Tracking your progress is essential to achieving your goals, and a fitness tracker makes it easy. In fact, some fitness trackers can track your goals, such as training for a race, and help recommend actions you can take to keep you on track.

Reasons Why I Wear A Fitness Tracker
I Like Insight Into My Activity
Since 2016, I have been wearing a fitness tracker every day. Although I’ve switched between several brands over the past year, I enjoy seeing the results of my efforts, whether from exercise, sleep, or just going about the day. However, I treat the data as informative since no fitness tracker is 100% accurate.
It’s nice to glance at my stats for the day. However, I don’t rely on a fitness tracker to determine whether I’m making progress in the short term. All the data is nice to have, and it helps me know how I’m doing. Letting the fitness tracker dictate whenever I need to move or exercise takes the fun out of exercising.
I Can Effortlessly Track My Progress
Nowadays, most fitness trackers sync with different mobile apps. Many popular fitness trackers can sync their data to my favorite fitness app, allowing me to use different trackers, smart scales, and other devices that align with my fitness goals.
Since I started exercising regularly in 2000, my health and fitness goals have changed several times. In my younger years, I meticulously logged every workout to be a faster runner over farther distances. These days, I prioritize maintaining an active lifestyle with running, cycling, and yoga. For me, it’s a balance of strength, cardio, and flexibility to maintain a healthy mind and body. Regardless, tracking my progress has been a part of that effort, and a fitness tracker has been a vital piece of gear to gather my data, while my favorite fitness app can show me the results of my effort.
I Like Tracking My Resting Heart Rate
Over the years, it’s been an early indicator if I’m exercising too much, not getting enough sleep, or catching a cold. Although there may not be science behind it, something is up if my resting heart rate is more than five beats higher than usual.
I Enjoy The Data
Call me a geek, but the data I produce from exercising, sleeping, and existing creates colorful charts and graphs. Without a fitness tracker collecting some of the more obscure data such as HRV, SpO2, and VO2 max, it wouldn’t be possible to measure without specialized equipment. Even if the fitness tracker isn’t accurate, it’s all still fascinating! Also, I feel a sense of accomplishment, and it’s motivating to keep going.
The Takeaway
A fitness tracker can help you achieve your health and fitness goals by automatically tracking your progress and providing insight into your daily routine. No matter your reasons for wearing a fitness tracker, it’s important that it helps you and does not dictate when you move. A fitness tracker is meant to make your personal health and wellness journey more enjoyable. If not, perhaps you should ditch the fitness tracker. Just because you didn’t track your workout doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.