I recently wrote about my experience with the Fitbit Charge HR that I received for my birthday in a post entitled “Need to Lose Some Weight? Get a Fitbit!”.
I observed that through connecting with my phone, the Fitbit gives me constant feedback throughout the day so that I can manage my “calorie budget” by making many small decisions.
By making many small decisions about my exercise and food choices throughout the day, I am spreading out the effort and discomfort of weight management, making it easier, sustainable, and more likely to succeed in the long term.
You may have heard the expression among software developers that “if it hurts, do it more often”. Or put another way, “Frequency reduces difficulty”. This phrase is often associated with the practice of “continuous integration” on software projects. It was once common on software projects to delay checking in changes into the common code base. Or to leave testing and deployment to later stages of a project. Practices like continuous integration changed how many of us practice software development, making some of the most troublesome tasks, consistently a non-issue.
Breaking down a large or complex task makes it manageable. Problem solving skills are all about breaking a complex problem down into many simpler problems. This is sometimes called “chunking”. We can build a skyscraper, or send a man to the moon by carefully managing the numerous small tasks that lead us to our goal. A seemingly impossible task can be made possible in this way.
Feedback is an essential component to executing complex tasks successfully. Once we break down a problem into manageable chunks, if we aren’t monitoring whether we are on track, it is easy to drift off course. If we don’t have feedback about our actions, how do we know we are heading in the right direction?
Feedback is also helpful in assessing whether our efforts are sustainable. One of the reasons fad diets don’t work is that they are excessive and short term. They work for a period of time, but are uncomfortable, which leads to quitting. The Fitbit not only helps me lose weight, but helps me monitor the amount of my “calorie deficit”, or the difference between calories consumed and calories burned. I can maintain a practical weight loss goal that is sustainable over a long period of time. It’s better to lose a pound or two a week with minimal discomfort, than to drop a lot of weight in a short time, and then to rebound back to old habits.
Rapid feedback is a powerful tool. We have seen success for years in approaches like continuous integration. It is exciting to see continuous feedback being applied in other areas that challenge us like weight management. For an area that people struggle with because of its low success rate, the Fitbit provides an effective and sustainable solution.
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Related Links:
“Need to Lose Some Weight? Get a Fitbit!”
“Frequency Reduces Difficulty” by Martin Fowler
