Can a fitness tracker keep you in good shape?

After over 2 months of using my Fitbit tracker, here is a review of the device:

I’ve been using Fitbit to primarily track the 'steps' and 'floors' metrics. These have been fairly accurate and quite useful. The other two metrics - 'calories' and 'distance' are derived from the above, and hence have a high correlation. However, they are useful additions to have. I’ve hardly used the Heart-rate meter. I did try sleeping with the device strapped on, for a couple of weeks, but the accuracy was low. It showed lesser hours slept, at times under-reporting by over 4 hours. Not finding too much utility for this metric, I stopped wearing it to bed.

I've found that walking for 45 to 60 minutes adds up to about 4000 steps on an average. This combined with general moving around at work and using opportunities to take calls mobile leaves you with an end-of-day count at around 7000 steps. These fitness trackers come with a preset target of 10,000 steps a day, however, somewhere in the range of 7500 would be a good enough target to achieve. I generally take the stairs at every given opportunity so the average floors climbed or 'steps' metric has been healthy at around 12 to 15 per day, while the pre-set target here is just 10.

The Good aspects: 

• Reasonably accurate tracking of steps/floors 
• Nice, sleek design with vibrant colours. Fairly sweat/water resistant - have put this through minor water splashes
• Instant vibrate-alerts indicating achievement of pre-set targets for the day
• Was pleasantly surprised to discover that the display was a touch-screen, something that I found out after 2 weeks of usage - only when my 1.5 year old daughter kept insistently tapping at it! 
• Gamification through achievement badges. However, you end up collecting most of the cumulative badges within the first month (50 km, 100 km, 500 floors etc). Would have been great to have some badges for consistency or month-on-month performance 
• Dashboard provides a good summary and reportedly the best amongst other fitness trackers. Gives a useful set of summary metrics, trending and breakup. 

The Not-so-good aspects:

• The data dump offered for csv download is disappointing. It just extracts the daily total, whereas an activity-wise summary (distance, speed, incline captured) or by-minute detailing would have been better. 
• The dashboard has scope for improvement. Long-term trending (over 30 days) would have been very useful. Further, the weekly summary doesn’t give you a week-over-previous-week summary, nor is a comparison provided against personal averages/best. I’ve now ended up creating my own summary view in excel, based on the csv data download available.

My Fitbit main Dashboard

Overall, Fitbit Charge HR is a good companion that does the job of making you stay active, by the very act of being visibly conscious and up-close through the day. Its almost like a trainer prodding you to move around. Gamification is a definitive motivator. There are days, I’ve felt bad that my steps count were a paltry sub-2000 and have ended up taking a long walk at night. 

Yes, the difference is partly psychological, but I would definitely recommend this for anyone conscious about their activity-level/weight or aspiring to get into this zone.