Technological devices change how students approach fitness

Experts recommend eight hours of sleep and 10,000 steps a day to keep the doctor away. 

New technologies, like bracelets and arm bands that monitor motion, have replaced pedometers and diet journals to track such fitness goals. Additionally, smartphone apps can sync information about users’ daily activity levels, sleep patterns and calorie intake, then display the data graphically in terms of users’ goals.  

John Jakicic, chair of Pitt’s Department of Health and Physical Activity, researches the effect of physical activity on obesity. Jakicic uses technology to facilitate behavioral change in physical activity. 

He uses products from BodyMedia — a company that developed wearable activity-monitoring devices for use by consumers and health professionals — in his research, and his results showed that these devices were effective for improving activity and overall weight loss.

According to Jakicic, many of these activity-monitoring devices are sophisticated accelerometers that measure motion and use algorithms to tailor estimates to the specific user.

“Most of these devices are good for detecting change in activity over a period of time. However, some devices are better than others, and you cannot compare across devices,” he said in an email. 

Jakicic said monitoring devices can lead to increased physical activity. 

“The benefit of knowing this information is that it provides an easy way to measure activity, and it provides feedback on goal achievement,” he said. “These are key components of behavior change.”

Kelly Martin, a freshman precommunication science major, purchased a band from Jawbone, a company that specializes in developing wearable technology, in July. 

Martin said the $149 band syncs periodically throughout the day to her smartphone through Bluetooth technology. It tracks her steps, distance traveled and pace during the day and estimates her total calorie burn.

According to Gwendolyn Smith, the director of marketing at Jawbone, the company’s UP and UP24 bands use motion sensors and algorithms to track users’ steps, distance, calories, active time and idle time. 

“The UP app then calculates calories burned based on your age, gender, height and weight, along with activity intensity and duration,” Smith said in an email. 

Jawbone began making wearable technology more than a decade ago with a Bluetooth headset and now produces lifestyle trackers like the UP, headsets and Bluetooth speakers. 

While wearing the band, Martin has noticed a spike in her activity while she’s walking from class to class on campus compared with her decrease in foot travel while at home on breaks.

“It’s just really nice to be aware of your calorie intake and your calorie burning. As a college student, I know that my first week when I had no idea where I was going, I would be walking around campus, and I would do over 20,000 steps in a day,” she said. 

Martin makes decisions throughout the day based on her activity, since the band allows her to notice when she is being inactive. 

“If I look at my app at 3 p.m. and see I haven’t been moving much that day, I’ll consciously go to the gym, go for a run, workout or walk somewhere instead of taking the bus,” Martin said. 

According to Smith, the UP and UP24 can help users learn more about how they eat, move and sleep. 

“People learn about themselves and their habits so they can make changes to live better,” Smith said in an email. 

At night, the band utilizes Martin’s micro movements to monitor when she is experiencing periods of light or deep sleep. In the morning, the band vibrates to function as an alarm clock. 

“I use that to wake myself up in the morning, so it doesn’t wake my roommate up with a loud noise from my phone,” Martin said. 

Activity-monitoring devices can also serve as reminders for people to remain consistently active rather than relying on bouts of exercise. 

Shawn Eagle, a research associate for Pitt’s Neuromuscular Research Laboratory, said such technology can be helpful because people forget that making choices throughout the day beyond working out — like walking instead of driving — is an important component of health. 

The various devices send reminders through text messages or smartphone alerts.

“It kind of reminds you to get up and be active,” Eagle said. “When it’s on your wrist, and you look down, you think, I’ll just walk to the store instead of driving.” 

Eagle owned a Nike+ Fuel Band, which tracks physical activity and sleep sessions and uses Bluetooth to send motivational reminders and feedback to the wearer, but no longer uses it after stepping on the band after dropping it. He said the appeal of the Nike+ Fuel Band and fitness technology is that it doesn’t take a lot of work from the user. 

“There’s some mechanical error there, but the fact is that you don’t have to focus on putting your pedometer on and focus on your steps. It’s just doing that for you throughout the day,” he said. 

Rachel Baker, a dietician in Pitt’s Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition, focuses on the dietary intake of military operators and how to improve their nutrition. Baker also works with athletes and holds weight management counseling outside of her work at Pitt. 

She has a Fitbit bracelet, which tracks steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes along with quality of sleep, but stopped wearing it after she suffered an injury while training for a marathon. 

“It’s just another way to stay accountable,” she said. “It’s kind of like if you have it on your wrist, it reminds you that you need to be active. You can see at the end of the day how active or inactive you actually were, and it sets a tone for ways to improve upon what you did the day before.”

Baker said she chose a Fitbit over a Jawbone band because the Fitbit band, which are often between $50 and $100, was more affordable. 

Stress often interferes with sleep, which is an important part of overall health. Baker expected her Fitbit band to show she spent long periods of the night lying awake since she often awoke feeling unrested, but was surprised by the results that showed she slept soundly.

Fitbit trackers measure quality of sleep by monitoring the number of hours asleep, number of times the user wakes up and sleep-efficiency index. 

“One of the main reasons that I purchased the FitBit is because I was so interested in seeing what my overall sleep pattern looked like,” Baker said, “It might be a better way to get you to think about it more and make the effort to get more sleep.” 

Jakicic agreed that sleep is a key component to health.

“Lack of sleep negatively impacts cognitive ability and has been show to be linked to obesity and poor metabolic health,” he said. 

Whether students want to measure physical activity or sleeping patterns, Jakicic said students can choose which model of fitness technology that measures the information they would find helpful at a price for their personal budget.

“These devices make it easy to monitor activity as a behavior and provide more immediate feedback,” he said.