STOP ‘eating back’ exercise calories

In 2007, Wired Magazine editors Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly coined the term ‘quantified self’. A fancy phrase for ‘self-tracking’.

Two years later, in 2009, Fitbit launched its first product–the eponymously named ‘Fitbit.’

A small matte-black device that users could clip on to their clothing, allowing them to track metrics like daily step count, calories burned, and even sleep.

Fast forward to today, and it’s hard to deny the self-tracking movement has firmly embedded itself into our culture with the proliferation of fitness trackers and apps.

In 2014, five million smartwatch units were sold, and by 2018 this number had ballooned to 141 million. As of 2018, Fitbit is the most popular health and fitness app with 27.4 million users.

Invariably, the self-tracking movement is in full swing and the use of these devices is only set to increase as companies continue to innovate and make their devices more intuitive and allow its users to track and collect more data on themselves–from heart rate, to sleep quality and quantity, calorie expenditure, and yes, even their monthly cycle.