Fitbit depressed/counteractive?

redraidergirl2009
redraidergirl2009 Posts: 2,560 Member
in Motivation and Support
I'm thinking about selling my fitbit. It makes me feel bad and I end up giving up a few days after wearing it. I work an office job so I sit all day. So by the time I get home I have maybe 2000-2500 steps and in order to get 10,000 I have to spend 2hrs exercising after work to do it. Then I'm exhausted. Or if I don't I finish the day with less and feel like garbage. Does anyone else feel like this?

Replies

  • coreyreichle
    coreyreichle Posts: 1,031 Member
    You can easily get 7500 steps in by going for an hour long run.
  • jctk0419
    jctk0419 Posts: 21 Member
    Are you able to go for a walk on a break/on lunch? Even if up & down a hallway, if you can't get outside.
  • julie2038
    julie2038 Posts: 142 Member
    It's just a tool! Don't give it so much power! When I first got mine it was a real eye opener on how inactive I was. So don't go for 10000 a day. Change your goal to 5000. Try and get 10000 on a day off. Gradually increase. Good luck.
  • wendsg
    wendsg Posts: 755 Member
    Don't give up! I have the same problem - I have a striiv, and when I first started wearing it was shocked to find out that I only averaged about 3000 steps a day (and most of this was my walk from the parking garage to the ship for work!). However, rather than let it get me down, I have my own /personal/ goals. Screw 10000 steps - that's something that, most days, I simply don't have time for. My goal is calorie counting, and I just use that striiv count to give me a few more calories to eat a day (I only eat back half of what the striiv gives me). This keeps me full, happy, and unstressed.

    And on those days when I actually /do/ have time, I go for a good walk to get those steps. :) Please don't give up!
  • lorib642
    lorib642 Posts: 1,942 Member
    redraidergirl2009 wrote: »
    I'm thinking about selling my fitbit. It makes me feel bad and I end up giving up a few days after wearing it. I work an office job so I sit all day. So by the time I get home I have maybe 2000-2500 steps and in order to get 10,000 I have to spend 2hrs exercising after work to do it. Then I'm exhausted. Or if I don't I finish the day with less and feel like garbage. Does anyone else feel like this?

    You can set any goal you want. I haven't walked 10,000 steps in a day yet. I average around 5K. I have it set to vibrate when I hit 5K. It's a tool. It shouldn't be punishment.
  • Anne_R91
    Anne_R91 Posts: 29 Member
    No worries. I've had a fitbit charge HR for a month now, and I've noticed I've become too focused on reaching it's goals. (I focus more on the 2460 cal burn than the steps, since it registers no steps when I'm doing cardio at the gym.) Didn't realize how exhausted I was until I slept through my alarm this morning and woke up at 12:00 -_-.
    Anyhow, point is, it's a very handy device to get insight, and it's good to be motivated to move more, but it's also important to be well rested. Find a middle. Maybe set out to reach the goal 3 or 4 times a week or something else.
  • mountiesgirl
    mountiesgirl Posts: 41 Member
    redraidergirl2009 wrote: »
    I'm thinking about selling my fitbit. It makes me feel bad and I end up giving up a few days after wearing it. I work an office job so I sit all day. So by the time I get home I have maybe 2000-2500 steps and in order to get 10,000 I have to spend 2hrs exercising after work to do it. Then I'm exhausted. Or if I don't I finish the day with less and feel like garbage. Does anyone else feel like this?

    You can always change your step goal to the amount of steps you want to take you don't have to go by the default step goal
  • zezelryck
    zezelryck Posts: 251 Member
    I work an office job as well, what I do is park just over a mile away from work then walk in. After work I then walk back to my car to do the 6 mile drive home, I then park up and take a 40 minute walk to the shop for my grocery. 10k pretty easy. Although the advice above is good, set your goal to 5 or even 4k and see how you feel. Good luck :-)
  • MsBuzzkillington
    MsBuzzkillington Posts: 171 Member
    You don't HAVE to do what the fitbit says. You can lose weight with eating less and only getting 2500 steps. Try walking for 30 minutes after work for now. Just do what you can't, don't burn yourself out.
  • lorib642
    lorib642 Posts: 1,942 Member
    MsBuzzkillington wrote: »
    You don't HAVE to do what the fitbit says. You can lose weight with eating less and only getting 2500 steps. Try walking for 30 minutes after work for now. Just do what you can't, don't burn yourself out.

    Yes, maybe just look at active minutes rather than steps?
  • 20yearsyounger
    20yearsyounger Posts: 1,630 Member
    do yourself a favor and aim for more steps between 5k and 10k. You dont have to aim for 10k everyday but 2500 is just too sedentary. For health reasons not just losing weight.
  • redraidergirl2009
    redraidergirl2009 Posts: 2,560 Member
    So I tried setting a lower goal thinking that would help but it didn't because I like to take a rest day and I've changed my cardio from walking to elliptical or stairmaster and I'm sorry but those are alot harder than walking I don't think they should be counted as '1 step' as if I was walking. I think I am just going to sell it. i know it's a "tool" but I find it less helpful than helpful because if I see I didn't get enough step or burn enough calories during the day I just give up and eat something bad. I feel like if I didn't see that I wouldn't do that...because I didn't before I had it
  • klkateri
    klkateri Posts: 432 Member
    I use mine as a guide and motivator. I tend to get about 6k at my job which is awesome considering its a desk job. But I find ways to sneak in steps. Lots of trips to the printer, I increased my water so more trips to the loo, walking the 6 flights of stairs as opposed to the elevator, walks on my lunch break, not keeping supplies at my desk so I have to run to the supply closet.. dumb things but they seem to help. The walks on lunch too now that the weather is getting nicer.

    Then when I get home I get in more just cleaning up, doing laundry, taking the doggie for a walk and then if I'm still short "I walk the driveway" which is just laps up and down my driveway. My tenants and neighbors thought I was weird but now they know and will ask me "How many you need?!". It's our thing lol and I've even gotten my Hubby doing it too!! We take the dog potty and walk laps while he does his thing.

    I think the FitBit is about how to sneak it and to make you mindful of it!
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
    I very rarely get 10,000 steps in a day. Only times I've done that has been things like the State Fair, where you walk around a lot! Hell, I don't even hit 5000 every day! But I'm using it more to keep track of what I'm burning and my heart rate. While it's cool to get the buzz at 10k, that's never my goal.

    However, if you feel that it's not helping you and is counterproductive to what you're doing, then you don't have to keep it. There's no law saying you HAVE to have one to lose weight or exercise. If you wanted, you could only wear it when you exercise to get your exercise calories burned so you can enter that into MFP, that might help.
  • brb_2013
    brb_2013 Posts: 1,197 Member
    julie2038 wrote: »
    It's just a tool! Don't give it so much power! When I first got mine it was a real eye opener on how inactive I was. So don't go for 10000 a day. Change your goal to 5000. Try and get 10000 on a day off. Gradually increase. Good luck.

    Yes change your goals. 10k is a recommendation, not a rule. I had mine set to 8k for the past 4 weeks because I was working on other goals. The point of my fitbit for me is to draw my attention to my inactivity. I click a button and see I only have 1956 steps. So I decided to go all the way downstairs to use the bathroom instead of the floor I was on. Boom- there was 2300. They add up more quickly that you realize. Build in more steps- Park farther away, use the stairs more, take a lap around the office every half hour. It's good for you to get up and move, even if it's only 50 steps at a time they'll add up.
  • Larissa_NY
    Larissa_NY Posts: 495 Member
    I love my Fitbit, but it's not a moral obligation, you know? If it makes you feel bad and you find it more demotivating than motivating, either reset your goals or just stop using it. It's okay to have tried something and realized it didn't work for you.

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