If you’ve been paying attention to health news over the past few years, then you’ve heard the alarm bells sound: Prolonged sitting is associated with higher blood pressure, triglycerides, blood sugar levels and, according to a 2015 meta-analysis, can even increase your risk of dying from heart disease. Exercise helps but may not completely negate your risk. The researchers of the latter study also found that people who met exercise guidelines—but were otherwise largely sedentary—only had a 30 percent lower risk of dying of any cause compared to those who were highly sedentary and didn’t exercise enough.
Scary stuff. Thankfully, research shows that there may be a solution: In addition to getting regular exercise, doing two minutes of a low-intensity activity, like walking, for every hour you sit may help reduce the negative effects of sitting.
How to Move More
If you own a Fitbit Flex 2, Fitbit Alta, Fitbit Alta HR, Fitbit Charge 2, or Fitbit Blaze, your tracker can make it easy to stick to that two-minutes-of-walking-an-hour schedule. You just have to opt into Reminders to Move, a feature that gives you a gentle vibrational nudge 10 minutes before the hour if you haven’t taken 250 steps. Fitbit chose to use 250 steps as a goal because that equates to a few minutes of walking.
An hourly reminder may seem over the top, but it works. Internal Fitbit research found that 60 percent of Fitbit’s least active users began moving more when they started using Reminders to Move. Sixty percent! That’s a lot of happy hearts. After two months they were logging nearly 500 additional daily steps—adding up to over 1.5 extra miles a week.
Best of all, over time, these least active users continued to achieve more of their hourly step goals while relying less on Reminders to Move.
If you’re ready to start building more movement into your day, this article will help you turn on Reminders to Move (don’t worry, you can choose which hours to use it) and track your progress. Happy stepping!
This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or condition. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, altering your sleep habits, taking supplements, or starting a new fitness routine.
Danielle Kosecki
Senior health and fitness editor Danielle Kosecki is an award-winning journalist who has covered health and fitness for more than 10 years. She’s written for Glamour, More, Prevention, and Bicycling magazines, among others, and is the editor of The Bicycling Big Book of Training. A New York native, Danielle now lives in the Bay Area where she doesn’t miss winter at all.
Does my Fitbit log steps when my arm is not moving because of my purse or pushing a cart?
I would be very interested in the answer to this. I do not believe that my Fitbit surge counts steps correctly when I am pushing a trolley around the supermarket
Additionally does the Surge have the hourly reminder facility?
HELP !!! I’ve had my fitbit 2 since October… during the first month everything worked great… used my hourly reminder … loved it !!! then… nothing… Took it back to Verizon.. they “checked it out”… “No problem”… so they said… still no reminders…. took it back again last month… Still “no problems found”… STILL GETTING NO REMINDERS TO MOVE… I have searched and searched the dashboard and can’t find any help… sooo now I’m reaching out to the blog… can anyone help me ????? PLEASE ??? Thank you in advance… I NEED to MOVE !!!!! I’m a Grandmother and I KNOW I’m not moving as much as I should !!! Thanks…
Have you checked that your notifications are on? Notifications need to be On for the hourly reminders to work. An easy way to do this is hold down the side button for a few seconds and a message appears on the screen Notifications Off which will then shortly change to Notifications On. Then release the button. Repeat the operation again to change between notifications on or off. Hope this helps.
Send an email to Fitbit! I have found their service to be great.
Also Google how to reset your Fitbit, that may be all it needs.
I’ve been using this function since Feb of this year and it certainly gets me up and moving to achieve my 250 steps in an hour. I have set my Fitbit for 10 hours a day and most days get there with only a few days being at the 7 or 8 in a day. I am glad now to read of the additional health benefits I am getting by doing this.
My HR gave me the alerts for the first few months , now nothing- is this to do with updates
Yes and Surge does not have it. Expensive for a lack of alarm.
How do I activate on facebook…It is not activating on my phone
Yes, Know that and want the reminder on a surge but not available. Wanted to upgrade from surge when 2nd Surge failed but got an early model Surge that the band is showing wear already. Thanks Fitbit