Fitbit has a really smart way of getting everyone to exercise more - and people love it

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Fitbit

"I'm only 2,000 steps behind Julia, I have to keep going so I can beat her before I go to bed," my wife proclaims as she walks back and forth in the long hallway of our first floor apartment in New Jersey.

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This is typical evening conversation in the Johnston household where Fitbit rules and couch potatoes drool. My wife is part of a group of people at her job who have banded their Fitbit bands together in the virtual world to create some healthy competition. And as a result of that competition, they're exercising a ton more

Fitbits are, of course, those trendy little colored, computerized bands people wear constantly to help them count their steps and measure general fitness statistics throughout the day. They're part of a huge line of wearable fitness trackers hitting the market these days including, of course, the Apple Watch that just debuted.

These fitness trackers record all sorts of activity throughout the day including general exercise, but what my wife - and many others - focus on is the built in pedometer, or step tracker. The Fitbit records each step you take via a three-axis accelerometer. Basically, the device knows when it's shifting its own orientation. That allows it to predict the movement of your feet based on the way your wrist is moving with the Fitbit strapped on.

There's an emerging movement in health and fitness for people to start tracking the steps they take in their everyday lives. And there's a magic number many people are working toward: 10,000 steps in a day.

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As the Fitbit blog notes, 10,000 steps per day is the number used by the American Heart Association as a benchmark for improving health and lowering your chances of heart disease. The Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) has also conducted studies as backing for its own 10,000 step program and found significant improvements in weight, high blood pressure, waist size, and BMI just from walking.

Fitbit bands connect to your phone and operate through the Fitbit app. There's tons of stuff within the application, but one of the most interesting aspects is the ability to add friends who also have a Fitbit and compete with them for steps on a daily basis.

FitBit Screenshot

Meg Johnston

My wife is part of a group of co-workers who all have Fitbits and have connected to each other through the app. Each day, a leaderboard is populated with each of their names organized in order of how many steps they have. The members of the group compete to climb higher on the leaderboard and get more steps. The more steps, the more frequently you win the day's challenge, and as a result - the healthier you get!

I asked some of the members of the group about how it impacts their daily lives.

"I'm a mildly competitive person with others, but intensely competitive with myself, so hitting my daily and weekly personal goals matter most, despite what others may be doing or not," Julia DiNardo, who competes in multiple Fitbit groups per day, told me. "It is a good benchmark to see where I rank amongst others, and to push myself to take the long way, one more time, to the office kitchen."

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My wife also feels motivated by the leaderboard and step counts. "Having a leaderboard makes me feel more accountable than I would if it were just me and the Fitbit," she said. "Even if it doesn't matter to them, I know they can see if I've been slacking in my steps and it makes me want to try harder. Also, I can set mini goals for myself if I find out I'm not too far behind the next person. For example, if I'm number 2 on the list and number 1 has only 1,000 more steps than I do, I might set a goal to do 1,000 or even just 500 more before I can sit down again."

She continued: "I mostly use it just to track steps, but I think it's a great reality check to know that by 4:00 p.m., I normally have around 8,000 steps, so if I check at that time and only have 2,000 steps, I know I need to get moving."

FitBit Screenshot

Meg Johnston

It's worth noting that the concept of competing for fitness goals through a mobile app is not new. For example, I'm a huge fan of cycling app Strava, which records bike trips and enlists you in challenges to ride more miles than other users all around the country.

But Fitbit is, in many ways, a leader at the intersection of technology and fitness because of its widely known brand name and the popularity of its device. And based on the research we have on the health improvements that accompany a greater focus on consistent walking during the course of the day, there are a lot of positives here.

"Fitbit, for me, is like a coach on my wrist - it makes me feel very accountable for everything I do or don't do in terms of movement and eating," Susan Kaufman told me. And it's hard to argue with that.

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