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When the “10,000 steps a day” craze started, my husband and I bought in. We strapped pedometers to our waistbands and got hoofing it.

Over our lunch break, we’d tie up our athletic shoes and head to the dog park around the corner. It’s a big park. Two blocks long on each side. We’d walk at a brisk pace around the park three times. Each time we passed the doggie play section, we could see what the canines were up to. We got our entertainment as well as our steps.

By the end of day, we’d easily surpass our 10,000 steps goal.
Yay, us.

But did I lose any weight in the process?
Nope. Not a pound.

Fast forward to 2017 and the Fitbit craze is in full gear.

I had no intention early in the week to write about Fitbit but I’ve been getting negative comments about them from clients, so I decided to check into this further.

This really is a polarizing topic. People either love those things or hate them.

Here are some interesting numbers to start things off:

• Fitbit did $745 million in sales last year and recently kicked off their IPO. They are selling stock in Fitbit now.
• You have to register your Fitbit with the company. They report that there are 19 million people who own a Fitbit.
• More interesting number is they report that only 9.5 million Fitbits are actively being used. That leaves almost 10 million of them already gathering dust in a drawer. People wear them for a while and then quit; like so many other exercise fads.

I’ve heard stories of people who walk around their house at 11PM working to make sure they hit the 10,000 steps a day mark. They can’t sleep unless they hit their goal.

Others are talking about how their Fitbit took all the fun out of their exercise routine. They are so obsessed with hitting a goal number that they can’t focus anymore on the pleasures associated with exercise. One guy talks about how he used to enjoy his evening walk. He enjoyed seeing the dogs along his path. He enjoyed looking at the sky and the changes in the cloud formations. He enjoyed breathing in the fresh air. Now he stares at his wrist; willing the number to go up to 10,000 so he can go home.

Two recent converts to Plan Z wrote to tell me that they dumped their fitness gadgets because all they did all day was enter in what they were eating in order to get a calorie total. It drove them nuts and they weren’t losing any weight in the process. You don’t have to record anything while on Plan Z. You just eat the allotted food…and lose. You don’t have to hit 10,000 steps either. I knew from a decade ago that it didn’t make any appreciable difference in my weight. My heart might have been happy about it but my scale was unimpressed.

I’m not real impressed with what’s out there for fitness gadgets that strap to your wrist. I’m not buying the stock, either. I think I’ll stick to my weight training routine and traditional yoga. Does the trick for me. I have enough stress in my life without adding in pressure from my watch.

Cheers,