CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Edinburgh Napier nurses given pedometers following shock report"
(27 posts)-
Posted 8 years ago #
-
Meanwhile, as reported in a lot of newspapers today, fitness trackers make you gain weight: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/fitness-trackers-may-actually-make-you-gain-weight/
Again I do wonder why there's such a disconnect in how people think about solving these issues. 'Here everyone, have a gadget that you can ignore if you want to', rather than, 'here everyone, here's how you can get to work actively, more quickly than by car, cheaper, and basically lose weight without specifically having to go out to do exercise'.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I'm quite taken aback by just how many of my sedentary colleagues have invested in all manners of Fitbit type things and not done a single other thing to change their lifestyle.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"basically lose weight without specifically having to go out to do exercise"
Yep.
Still no idea if 'experts'/govs don't 'get it' or they don't know how/haven't the nerve to try to get the message across OR realise it needs things like infrastructure which might be controversial/expensive...
Posted 8 years ago # -
Scotland's problem is summed up neatly by my work colleagues:
"I don't have time to do any exercise!"
*waits for a few minutes for a lift to take them down 1 floor (24 actual steps downstairs)*I point out that they'd get some exercise using the stairs, but it falls on deaf ears.
Posted 8 years ago # -
In the past I have offended my work colleagues by making an offhand remark that Fitbits are designed for people who like the idea of exercise but can't actually be bothered to do it.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Fitbits are designed for people who like the idea of exercise but can't actually be bothered to do it"
As threefromLeith will attest, these are generally worn in our office by people who could do with taking up cycling.
Its nothing to do with fitness, more fadness (a bit like Apple Watches).
TV programme the other night confirmed that the heart monitors in these are dangerously poor - nothing like a decent chest strap monitor.
Still, at least they can say they did 1000 steps en route to the coke machine..........
Posted 8 years ago # -
Still, at least they can say they did 1000 steps en route to the coke machine..........
Or, as one gadget-fixated but decidedly inactive colleague once demonstrated, they can pretend they did lots of steps simply by shaking their wrist for a while.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"I don't have time to do any exercise!"
Translation: I like taking the lift to the car park, then driving all the way home.
Posted 8 years ago # -
People always want technology to compensate for failings in the human condition.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Or, as one gadget-fixated but decidedly inactive colleague once demonstrated, they can pretend they did lots of steps simply by shaking their wrist for a while.
Very apt!
Posted 8 years ago # -
Pretty much everyone I know with a fitbit and the likes (save a few very fit exceptions) seem to complain about the fact they're being constantly reminded they haven't walked enough. This doesn't seem to trigger the desire to walk more, just noting that it's telling them they should.
It does seem to act more just as a salve for the conscience. "I haven't been to the gym for 7 months, but look, I've done all these steps today, so it's not as if I'm getting no exercise. Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have set a target that means me having to do more than the little I already do...".
Posted 8 years ago # -
"maybe I shouldn't have set a target that means me having to do more than the little I already do..."."
I'm (slightly) surprised they bother to set targets!
I know nothing about Fitbit (apart from being a black lump on some people's wrists), so I don't know how much people use them to measure what they do, or give themselves incentives to do more or just wallow...
I think we're down to discouraging current behaviour, like moving the carpark further away from the front door and shutting roads and doubling the price of fuel, and other things that won't happen.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"I point out that they'd get some exercise using the stairs, but it falls on deaf ears."
In my old office, I would take the stairs to the 6th floor because it was faster than the lift. Especially if it had to stop a few times on the way up.
Basically, the same reasons I cycle to work.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"Basically, the same reasons I cycle to work."
But clearly you are sensible and not willing/able to make up excuses!
Posted 8 years ago # -
@WC, interesting article on fitbits making people gain weight - the science of losing weight is mysterious and ill understood...
My guess is that if they asked whether having a fitbit made you (very slightly) more active the answer would be yes. Feedback is usually a good thing, and if it makes people who do too little exercise excited about doing slightly more then that's great. My mum has a fitbit and loves it.
I used strava once for a couple of weeks and it did make me add in some extra little bits to increase my weekly mileage. It also depressed me by telling me that my cycle to work only burns the equivalent of two and a half slices of bread, I had imagined it would allow me a second lunch...
Posted 8 years ago # -
There is also the recognised problem of over-rewarding oneself for the activity done. Oh I have done my 10, 000 steps today, I'll just have that extra muffin after all.
Posted 8 years ago # -
As the proud mother of a toddler with sleep issues, my main use of my Fitbit is to monitor how many hours sleep I actually got (as opposed to how many hours it feels as though I got). Surprisingly, once I got it I realised that I was actually sleeping moderately decent hours, it's just that as I was unconscious at the time I didn't realise it, and it seemed as though all the awake hours ran throughout the night.
I do keep an eye on the steps though but as above I can't say it's particularly motivated me to do more per day. I did 15k for the first time on Monday though which felt good (#bl*****knackered) (EDIT for forum rule 2...)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Walking the boy to the Meadows swingpark and back again from Meadowbank reliably got me 15,000 steps when I tried a pedometer, but it took no account of pushing 4 stones of pram and lumpen child up Dumbiedykes!
Posted 8 years ago # -
"There is also the recognised problem of over-rewarding oneself for the activity done. Oh I have done my 10, 000 steps today, I'll just have that extra muffin after all"
In fairness that's exactly what I do with the cycling.... :-/
Posted 8 years ago # -
I did once turn on one of those mapping things which takes account of your mass to see how many laps of the hill would be required to calorifically counteract a standard ISB chocolate chip muffin. For a while I only let myself have one when I'd been for a run the previous evening.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"the science of losing weight is mysterious and ill understood..."
Eat less; move more; measure, don't guess.
The power of marketing to obscure this reality (see, "low-fat" foods) and the hard work inherent in doing the above means gadgets, pills, fad diets and New Year gym memberships continue to be profitable.
Posted 8 years ago # -
A friend recently went to a public health meeting on increasing activity in the region. One person walked there, she and her colleague cycled (the bike racks were buried in the undergrowth somewhere) - everyone else was faithfully wearing their fitbit. Hopefully they parked a bit further away in the car park ...
Posted 8 years ago # -
I've not drank a soft drink in 8 weeks now and the amount of empty sugar calories I've not consumed as a result must be huge. Single exception for tonic as a mixer.
It's not been easy resisting to be honest, I have a massive sweet tooth.
Posted 8 years ago # -
"everyone else was faithfully wearing their fitbit."
Kinda like the mileometer in their car, except for walking. I'm starting to see the connection now.
"Single exception for tonic as a mixer."
Slimline/diet tonic? Most of the calories coming from the gin, it must be said...
Posted 8 years ago # -
The decision with soft drinks was as much for dental health as it was dietary, I'm not sat counting calories in a bar :) AND like you say most of the calories are in the alcohol itself so the choice there is whether or not to have a drink at all.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I had a colleague who declared that since he and his wife had stopped drinking a bottle of wine in the evening and started on spirits with diet mixers the pounds were just falling off.
It's all perception evidently.
Posted 8 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
