Tracking my fitness

Back in September, a couple of days before my holiday in Wales, a new watch appeared on my wrist. But this was no ordinary watch –  it was a Delvfire Fitness Tracker.

This was yet another purchase inspired by my good friend Lucy, who had recently bought a FitBit and was singing its praises on her blog.  To start with I was highly sceptical about its usefulness and said as much, but gradually warmed to the idea. The Delvfire is a down-market version (£33, compared with £120) but I guessed that if I bought one, S-- would soon want one too. I was right! Six weeks later we were back on the Amazon website, buying a second.

The incentive has been to 'up' my fitness level. That, coming from a woman who enjoys rambling and hill walking may seem strange but the truth is that, apart from one or two longish walks every week (weather permitting) I've been living a fairly sedentary lifestyle.  That's not good.

My ambition is to average 10,000 steps a day over a one week period – something I've only achieved once, on September's holiday in Wales.

Here's a more typical week's result. Just look at Wednesday - a measly 1791 steps! My excuse is that I spent most of that day programming my Raspberry Pi computer and never set foot outside the door. Before donning my Delvfire, though, there would have been many days like that. It's a privilege of being retired, I suppose, but not always a good one.

The Delvfire lacks the data analysis and smart graphics of the FitBit but it does tell me a few more interesting things, such as (if I wear it through the night) my sleep pattern. Here my target is 7½ hours sleep every night and it's unusual not to achieve this.

One piece of data, however, I choose to ignore – the result for Resting Heart Rate. Take a look at this (click to zoom in for a clearer look)...

The trace shows my heart rate today. Apart from obvious periods of activity, my resting rate hovers around 55-60 and the average over the whole day is 59. But look at the 'resting HR' result – 73!  The Delvfire calculates that figure at midnight but it makes no sense to me. How can my resting heart rate be 14 beats/min higher than my average? Every day is similarly baffling.

At £33 I'm still getting good value for money, though. Perhaps one day I'll upgrade to a FitBit, but not just yet.