Seen At 11: Fitness Tracker Users Turn To Creative Hacks To Increase Step Counts
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There's a new type of cheating going on, and it has nothing to do with your love life, but everything to do with your health.
It's called fitness fraud, and in this case the cheater is only hurting themselves.
For Lisa Billington, wearing a fitness tracker has inspired personal motivation, and friendly online competition. But as CBS2's Kristine Johnson reported, some users are turning in questionable results.
"It was astonishing to me that my friend was getting over 30,000 in a day where I'm getting just getting 10," Billington said.
Billington said she doesn't cheat, but has discovered creative ways to increase her own step count.
"Just my movement of my hands is going to give me steps," she said.
Her dog walks have been getting longer, making lunch has become a more energetic endeavor, and so has driving as she pumps her fit bit wrist to the music.
"It's activity and it all helps. It all goes in the same pot at the end of the day," she said.
It's not step count, but user's data that insurance companies are after.
"There's all sorts of implications around this in terms of privacy, what happens to your data," artists and engineer, Tega Brain said.
They're using the information to offer discounts to customers who maintain a certain fitness level. Artists and engineers Brain and Surya Mattu took that as a challenge to figure out hacks to cheat.
"The numbers are going up and you just get to sit and work out with your mind," Mattu said.
FitBits fixed to metronomes, bicycle wheels, or swinging back and forth on a string can up the step count.
"Some people respond to it as 'oh great it's fraud,' and then other people are like, 'it's empowering, it allows me to work outside the system," Brain said.
Psychologist Dr. Harris Stratyner said you're cheating more than the system.
"You have good cardiovascular health so that you don't live a sedentary lifestyle, not so you can tell your girlfriend or your buddy, 'I did 3,000 steps today," Dr. Stratyner said.
Fitness trainer Natasha Forrest agreed, cheaters may be missing the best part.
"You can walk into your next training session knowing that you didn't slack off. You did what you were supposed to do, and that's rewarding," Forrest said.
There's no data about the number of cheaters out there, but there are a lot of creative hacks on social media -- just know that you're only fooling yourself if you're not getting your steps in.
