Fitness Trackers for Women: How They Help with Plateaus

One of the biggest struggles of any weight loss journey is the oh-so-frustrating plateau. Here is a guide to using a fitness tracker to get unstuck and start losing weight again.

Fitness Trackers for Women: How They Help with Plateaus

Using a fitness tracker helped me overcome a plateau during my 100-pound weight loss journey.

During my first year of the Weight Watchers Online program, I successfully lost 80 lbs, and I felt fantastic.

Then the dreaded plateau hit, and it hit hard.

I lost a pound.

I gained a pound.

I lost .2 pounds.

I gained .4.

This pattern went on for 2 months, then 4 months, then 6 months.

People told me things like:

• “You’re not eating enough.”
• “You’re gaining muscle.”
• “You’re body is just adjusting.”
• “Just worry about how your clothes fit, not the scale.”

Those are all nice thoughts, but when I was seriously concentrating on weight loss, none of it was comforting.

After 8 months, I was about ready to give up in frustration from this horrible plateau. That’s when I made one minor change that impacted my fitness and weight loss routine.

What I Learned Wearing a Fitness Tracker for Women

After an 8 month long plateau, my brother sent me the Body Bugg he was done using, and I signed up for a membership. This was brand-new technology at the time. There weren’t many options out there for fitness trackers, so it wasn’t something I was familiar with using.

These days there are tons of great fitness trackers for women and the prices are affordable, such as the Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch. Check out this post for our recommendations of finding the best fitness tracker for you.

When I started wearing a tracker, I immediately learned some key things about my daily patterns.

How to Get More Steps Every Day

Daily movement is just as effective at burning calories as a planned workout. Most interesting and helpful to me was the fact that daily movement is SO incredibly important in overall calorie burn.

I’m talking about little every-day movement. Things like parking further away, yes, and even things like getting up and doing the laundry, walking up and down the steps at home, even putting more vigor into cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

A vigorous day of stuff around the house actually burns just as many calories (let’s say 300 extra calories) as what I would typically burn during a 1-hour workout at the gym — 30 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes of weight lifting (300 calories).

Regular exercise is very important for lots of reasons, like cardiovascular health, building muscle and bone strength, and warding off depression. I’m not knocking it.

But, you have to KEEP moving when you get home, too.

When looking for the tracker that is best for you, find one that you are comfortable wearing at home during everyday activities as well as at your gym during a traditional workout.

More Helpful Tips for Adding Steps and Movement to Your Day

Here are a few other important insights I learned from wearing a fitness tracker.

Sitting kills calorie burn. Those of us who workout sometimes have a tendency to use that as an excuse to crash at home for the rest of the day. I discovered I was doing quite a bit of that.

Days spent in front of the TV or computer just sink calorie burn. I remember my kids’ pediatrician telling me the kids playing, even with legos, burns more calories than watching TV. Now I get it. Those little movements really do add up.

Our bodies were made to move.

Body weight obsession isn’t worth it. I reached my lowest weight as an adult while I was wearing the Body Bugg, and even hit my Weight Watchers goal weight.

I maintained it for about 2 weeks. For me, it just wasn’t realistic to keep my weight that low. The amount of dieting and exercise required to maintain that lowest weight was simply too restrictive for me.

Then, I went up 20 pounds and have been maintaining at that weight for 10 years.

I finally reached my goal weight in a maintainable way when I was about 15 years into my weight maintenance journey, using the strategies I teach in The Weight Loss Forever Fix.

If I burn the calories without wearing the Fitbit, do they still count? While I think fitness trackers for women are incredibly helpful for weight loss and busting through a plateau, it can become an obsession.

After wearing the Body Bugg almost daily for a year, I took it off. It was difficult to part with at first, but then freeing. A fitness tracker was a necessary tool at the time, but also important for me to let go of it.

How to Use a Step Tracker in a Healthy Way

Here are four ways to use a fitness tracker for women to break a plateau in a healthy way:

1. Monitor your daily steps.
2. Monitor how many calories daily activities are burning.
3. Monitor how well you are sleeping at night.
4. Set goals for different days to push yourself for more activity – especially if you check our tips for if you don’t like exercise.

If you’ve never used a fitness tracker for women, I highly recommend trying one. It’s a fantastic tool to provide feedback.

Then you can use that feedback to create positive changes in your life. This is an excellent way to get past a plateau and truly see just how active you are every day.

Do you use a Fitbit, an Apple Watch, or some other tracker? Which one and how has it helped you? Share in the comments below.

More Fitness Tips

50+ Fitness and Exercise Tips for Busy Moms

Printable Weekly Exercise Log

How to Exercise When You Don’t Feel Like It

Christian Weight Loss: 7 Truths for How to Lose Weight with God’s Guidance

Free Printable Weight Loss Tracker

• Weight Loss Motivation for How to Lose 100 Pounds
• 100 lb Weight Loss: How I Gained (Then Lost) 100 Pounds
• Do You Need a Weight Loss Miracle?
• How Can I Lose Weight When I am Exhausted?
• What It’s Like to Attend Therapy for Weight Loss
• Is Your Weight Plateau Due to Self-Sabotage?
• 100 lb Weight Loss: Defining Moments — Paul’s Story
• How to Run a 5k When You Are Not Athletic
• 100 lb Weight Loss: How to Learn to Love Exercise
• 100 lb Weight Loss: Why the Finish Line is Not the Toughest Line
• Motivational Words That Changed My Life
• Fitness Trackers for Women: How They Help with Plateaus
• 100 lb Weight Loss: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)