I’ve ditched the Fitbit and am going it alone

Of course I have improvements to make but I knew that already. I don’t need to plug in to an app, I just need to pay attention to my body, writes Katy Brand

I bought the Fitbit to tell me how bad I was, and all it told me was that I was better than I thought (The Independent)

I have fallen out with my Fitbit. Well, not so much fallen out – it’s hard to really seriously come to blows with a jumped-up watch – but let’s just say we have reached an impasse. I took it off to go on holiday and I have not yet put it back on.

It is a relatively new purchase. I bought it because after a year of no live performance work, during which I sat on my large behind writing, I suspected I now fell into the “sedentary” category. Which as we all know, is dangerous. When we went into the pandemic I was pretty match fit, working in an all singing, all dancing West End show. Now my muscle tone is more reminiscent of a bowl of watery cottage cheese. I climb stairs and find my glutes have deserted me. I have to have a “little sit down” on the way to the shops.

So I had a quiet creeping horror that my daily step count was in the hundreds, and some way from the recommended daily minimum of 10,000. I wondered what my resting heart rate was. Was I getting enough good sleep? Good sleep is very important for your health, I read in almost weekly articles. How many calories am I really burning?