Benefits of Wearable Technology
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by Stephanie Wagner, INTEGRIS Weight Loss Center registered dietitian
Wearable technology has become increasingly popular in the past year, but does it really work? Stephanie Wagner, a registered dietitian with the INTEGRIS Weight Loss Center, talks about the benefits you can get from wearing an activity tracker.Hi, I'm Stephanie Wagner, registered dietitian at the INTEGRIS Weight Loss Center. Now maybe you've seen a lot of people wearing these wearable devices around and you're wondering more about what they can offer. Now this one that I'm holding here is a Fitbit and they have lots of different brands that are out there - Misfit, Jawbone, Garmin makes one, Microsoft - they all have different features, but a lot of them offer similar things, though you do want to review if there's something specific you're looking for.
One of the best things about these little devices is the mental game that it can bring you into. For example, if I'm wearing this all day long and it's tracking how many steps I take in a day, I'm going to find myself challenging and pushing myself to get more steps in that I normally do. You don't know what you don't know, so if I had gotten a certain amount of steps in yesterday but I didn't know, why would I ever try to get any more? So not only does it track my activity level, it also can track my sleeping patterns, and that helps me to know if I'm getting adequate sleep and what areas I can improve.
You can also connect it with different apps such as MyFitnessPal for a food journal, and I love that aspect because then I've got the accountability of a food journal and the device tracking my fitness.
This is just another way to have a whole-rounded picture of all the areas of your health and wellbeing.
Also another great feature, these devices can be integrated with the INTEGRIS and Me portal, so it's another way that you can have that big, well-rounded view of your health.