A fitness tracker became a viral gadget at the beginning of the last decade. A miracle device that reads the number of steps, calories and sleep phases instantly gained popularity among people of all ages.

The main phase of the popularity of fitness trackers has already passed. Someone left the gadget to dust in the packing box, someone walked with it on his arm and stopped. There are those who still use it. Why do we need a tracker? How to match it to yourself? Is there a risk in using it? Let’s find out.

Everything to Know About Fitness Trackers

The gadget captures many important indicators. It measures the distance traveled (in steps and kilometers), measures heart rate, counts calories burned and tracks sleep phases. In fact, it’s a meter that impartially shows how well you are working on yourself.

It can also act as a smart alarm clock and alert you to notifications on messengers and social media. Thanks to this device you can simply find more about in-play betting or understand how many calories you have burned on the go. It’s really all in the details. You should choose a fitness tracker according to your goals.

Is There a Benefit to a Fitness Tracker?

The system shows the user how he slept, whether he is active enough, whether everything is ok with his heart rate, and on the basis of the collected information tells him how to behave. In other words, a fitness tracker helps improve health.

Moreover, one’s motivation increases (because progress is in front of one’s eyes) and self-discipline improves. This helps a lot with the Plateau effect.

For some people, data from fitness trackers literally opens their eyes to their own lifestyle. They encourage them to change it.

The most important benefit is that a person really starts to monitor their health.

How to Choose the Right Fitness Tracker

The choice of fitness bracelet depends on your goal. For example, for visitors to the pool, a model with increased water resistance and the ability to work at a depth of over 1 meter suits. There are fitness trackers for running, they help maintain the desired pace of exercise. For those who lose weight, the perfect option would be gadgets that analyze the calories consumed and burned. The only difficulty is to systematically enter the amount of food consumed.

Characteristic Disadvantages of Fitness Trackers

• Inaccuracy of measurements. When connected, we set our height, weight and age. Based on this, the fitness tracker counts steps, calories and other parameters. There is always the possibility that violent gesticulation can be counted as physical movement.
• Same-type recommendations. In the firmware of the application, one-type recommendations are embedded, which are issued based on the data received. No fitness tracker can replace a personal trainer. For example, all users are set a default norm of 10,000 steps per day, but not everyone can pass it. The device doesn’t understand the full physical and mental state of the user.

How Useful or Useless Is a Fitness Tracker

Let’s consider objectively – it all depends on you! A fitness bracelet will benefit you if you use it systematically and analyze your data yourself. The fact is that counting steps for the sake of steps is ineffective, and once a week to analyze the data and, based on them, adjust the activity and diet – the best.

You can’t wear it 24/7. If you wear the bracelet on your arm all the time, you may get irritation on your skin.

Harm from the fitness tracker can be due to the absolute faith in the figures obtained. For example, to count calories burned, you need to know much more data than weight, height and heart rate. As practice shows, a fitness bracelet is a cool thing, which can be both a good assistant and just a trinket.

The Principles of Good Nutrition Before a Workout

Lose weight, gain mass, and keep in shape. All of these goals consist of two global components: sports and good nutrition. Here’s a simple and straightforward guide to exercise nutrition.

Let’s start with calories.

Wilbur Atwater provided evidence that the law of conservation of energy can be applied to the human body. In the 19th century, this law was thought to apply only to the exact sciences. Thanks to Wilbur Atwater, the energy value of food is now written on packages, and proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are considered to be the main constituents of energy for the body.

According to the law of conservation of energy, when at rest, the body also expends resources to maintain life’s activities. For example, you are reading this article right now, clearly at rest. Your body at the same time is expending calories for heartbeat, temperature, blood flow, metabolism, organ function, and more.

What Is the Daily Calorie Allowance?

The amount of energy you need to keep your body in its current state is called your daily calorie allowance.

Even if a person reaches weight loss with this regimen, muscle and water will be lost. But not fat.

How to Calculate the Daily Calorie Allowance for Men and Women?

There are a good couple dozen formulas for calculations. Each of them is sharpened for specific cases of body condition and external conditions. The most common method is the Mifflin-Joher formula. According to experts, the formula shows the most correct results for people without pathological diseases.

It’s necessary to adjust these formulas every month. If you were running for 15 minutes in the morning for the first 4 weeks, and decided to add cycles of strength training in the second month. Then the calorie norm will already be different:

• Exercising for weight loss – count the calorie norm, reduce it by 15% and on this value build a diet.
• Working out for gaining weight – increase the rate by 15% and line up the diet from this value.
• Working out to maintain our form – stick to our daily caloric intake.

Various diet and muscle growth programs exploit these principles. Only you already know about the law of conservation of energy. The whole point is the diet, namely the distribution of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

Protein, Fats, and Carbs

Above we have already understood that proteins, fats and carbohydrates are the basis of energy. Let’s look at who is responsible for what:

• Protein forms and regenerates body tissues (including muscle tissues).
• Carbohydrates are the main source of energy.
• Fats protect the body from heat loss and protect internal organs.