Fitness trackers are they with us or against us?

Let’s clear things up…

I want you all to know once and for all why I always talk about not paying attention to the calories on your watch. {Or if you do not have a fitness watch but you might have had these thoughts I list below} Now, if you think I am crazy or you can separate fact from fiction already then this post is not for you. It’s for a past me and I know there are a lot of people out there who have dysfunctional thoughts about the calories burned on their fitness watches, or just calories burned in general by working out or not. Let's continue..

Have you ever eaten back the calories you burned during a workout, because you thought you deserve them?

Have you ever said to yourself, “I deserve this _____food because I worked out hard today and probably already burned it off or I will burn it off in tomorrow’s workout.”

Do you say, “I don’t deserve to eat all this food because I didn’t burn enough calories in my workout, or I didn’t workout at all so I won’t eat much today.”

These statements are things that I used to say to myself or thoughts I believed to be true. I used to workout and then go eat foods that continually trashed my body. I also had thoughts that continuously trashed my body as well.

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You can break free of these thoughts. You can have a good workout based on your specific goal for that workout, maybe it is to lift a certain amount of weight, complete extra reps or sets or to keep your heart rate elevated more than normal. The number of calories burned on your watch does not dictate the amount of food you can eat or deserve to eat. 

Exercising doesn’t = earning food. You don’t earn food, you are alive and you need to eat to live, you deserve to eat regardless of how you moved or how much you moved. 

                                    "COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY"
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Even as a personal trainer I fall victim to thinking I have done something wrong when I see posts from others that they burned X amount of calories in their workouts but I didn't burn nearly as many in my own workout. Did my workout even matter? Of course it did! Comparison is the thief of joy. I used to let it steal mine, however now I am better equipped to snap out of it. Those calorie burned numbers can be wrong up to 20% and usually towards 20% less than it actually shows.  Here is the thing about calorie burn, it is usually directly related to your heart rate. The higher you keep your heart rate during a workout-ANY workout- the more calories you are likely to burn. Everyone's HR is different and responds differently to every workout. So there should be no comparison, because we are all different. A lot of people do not understand this and only see themselves as a failure when we post about how many calories we burned and then they start the cycle of being deserving of food or not or  begin to have a dysfunctional relationship with their fitness watch.

What can you do for yourself if you have had these thoughts just by looking at your watch or by seeing social media posts about how many calories people are burning in their workouts??

• Don’t wear it for your workout, see if your anxiety goes down.
• Set a goal for your workout that is not based on what your watch says
• If you feel like eating a certain food, eat it. You don’t need movement to justify eating for yourself. You are alive, that is enough. I also want you to notice how eating what you crave, makes you feel while eating it and how you feel after. Being more aware about how food makes you feel is actually a good thing.
• Don’t wear your watch all day here and there. Notice how it makes you feel.

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Lastly, I know I preach more movement everyday. That is because as a whole, our nation needs more of it, not just one individual.  Tracking your movement with a fitness watch should be an enjoyable experience to motivate you to keep healthy habits, like exercise and more steps each day. It should not keep you from enjoying life with your friends, family or food, it should not make you feel lazy or inadequate. Movement is important but so is rest. The only way to truly know what you need out of each day is to be more aware and more present with your feelings, thoughts and what your body is telling you. Not with what your watch is screaming at you.
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We all can make everyone feel a little better about their own body and its abilities by showing that our worth or what we deserve is not found on our watch display but by honoring what we need, for ourselves and ourselves alone. 

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