I hit 250 days on my Duolingo streak this week. That’s more than eight months of consecutive daily Spanish lessons. My virtual owl loves me! There’s just one problem: I’m not actually any better at speaking Spanish than I was in March. I’m just better at playing Duolingo. Somewhere along the way, keeping the streak alive became more important than learning the language.
That same rewiring happens with all my health-related apps. It doesn’t take long before I’m more focused on getting a hit of dopamine from building my streak than I am with the hard work of hitting my fitness goals. I’ve written before about how chasing the concept of “wellness” stopped serving my well-being and instead became another item on an impossible to-do list. And when my long runs unlock in-app badges or my exercise bike puts me on a leaderboard against thousands of strangers, it’s all too easy to lose sight of my personal fitness goals. Am I actually growing, or have I just gotten really good at the game?
All kinds of gamified fitness apps (or “exer-games”) are popular, and for good reason: It’s a natural motivational hack, turning workouts into competitions, and elevating health goals into high scores. But as millions of us chase digital streaks, a crucial question emerges: Is your health really something you should turn into a game?
Why gamification works (maybe too well)
The appeal of gamifying health goals is undeniable. Traditional health advice—eat better, move more, reduce stress—can feel overwhelmingly vague. Such broad targets make it tough for individuals to imagine hitting them. Gamified apps transform these abstract goals into concrete actions, taken day by day.
“Gamification can clarity and more achievable goals,” says Chirag Arora, who co-authored a study on the ethics of gamification in health and fitness tracking. With streaks or badges, the question shifts from how can I be healthy? to can I walk 10,000 steps today, and this sort of simplification can provide real benefits. For someone paralyzed by the complexity of getting fit, being told exactly what to do today (and getting points for it) can be liberating.
There’s also genuine joy in the game mechanics, and “when you add friends, competition, and community support, these apps tap into deeply human needs for connection and play,” says Maryam Razavian, Arora’s co-author on the gamification ethics study.
The thing is, this appeal is undeniable for companies and app designers, too. “These gaming tactics are really effective at getting people to engage with your product” for longer times and at a higher frequency, says Doug Sarro, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. “The challenge is that these apps and tools are designed to maximize engagement.”
In the fitness context, that can be a win-win: More engagement for the apps, more time spent on fitness for you, right? But what if you’ve met your personal goals and the app still wants engagement? In short, there’s a fundamental weakness in how these apps work overtime keep you around.
The power of the streak
What’s happening in our brains when we become obsessed with these digital rewards? The apps are tapping into our dopamine system—the neurotransmitter associated with motivation, reward, and pleasure. Every completed ring, earned badge, or leaderboard climb triggers a small dopamine hit, reinforcing the behavior and making us want to come back for more.
However, gamified apps primarily target extrinsic motivation (badges, points, competition, social recognition). While these can be powerful motivators initially, they’re not sustainable on their own. If you’re only exercising for the points, what happens when the novelty wears off and closing your rings starts to feel like a chore? This leads to something Arora calls “motivational collapse,” which occurs when we rely too heavily on external rewards.
To avoid motivational collapse, Arora says that “users also need to align their extrinsic and intrinsic goals.” Because the healthiest approach to fitness comes from intrinsic motivation—exercising because it makes you feel good, reduces stress, gives you energy, or helps you do the activities you love. The game can help you get started, but it shouldn’t be the only reason you continue.
When the game takes over your life
I don’t think Duolingo wants me to actually learn Spanish—it just wants me to open the app tomorrow. Similarly, fitness apps never reach an endgame where they say something like “Great job, you’re healthy now, you can reduce your usage.” Instead, they push for more: longer streaks, higher numbers, new challenges. “Rather than working for users’ health, these games can begin to work against your best interests,” says Sarro. In other words: Longer streaks don’t automatically equate to better health. When you consider the mental toll, the opposite might be true.
When I put out a call on Instagram asking people about their relationship with posting workout data and fitness content, I received one particularly memorable response about upholding streaks: “I’ve had a 10,000 step streak going since last year…but at some point within the past few months it became less about keeping myself fit and more about hitting the number even when I should probably rest.” You might hit 10,000 steps by pacing around your apartment at midnight, sacrificing sleep to close a ring. You might push through an injury to maintain a streak. The game goal eclipses the health goal. (The real kicker? Taking 10,000 steps each day is a bullshit goal that may have originated with a 1960s Japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer.)
Targets that become additional pressure points in your life may not even make sense for you. “These apps are trying to target the lowest common denominator,” says Arora, but you’re needs may be different than those of that imagined subgroup—it’s worth noting that, for these apps, “lowest common denominator” is still targeting higher socioeconomic populations who will buy their products, Arora adds. Simply put, app designers don’t have your individual needs at heart. You may be obsessing over the extrinsic motivation of hitting an arbitrary target while losing the plot on your intrinsic motivations: What your health actually means to you.
How to find balance with your fitness goals
Look, I don’t plan on abandoning my fitness trackers any time soon, but I’m looking to change my relationship with them. Here’s how to engage with gamified fitness in a way that serves your actual health:
Remember the distinction between game goals and health goals. Razavian says users should, “focus on enjoying the process rather than feeling extra pressure to perform in the game.” Your ring doesn’t need to be closed every single day. Missing a streak doesn’t undo your fitness progress.
Stay connected to your intrinsic motivation. Why did you actually start exercising? What do you want from your body and your health? If you’re exercising solely to satisfy an app, you’ve lost the plot.
Don’t surrender your judgment. As Sarro says “your job as an informed user is to not surrender your judgment to what an app says.” You know your body, your schedule, your health needs, and your goals better than any algorithm. If the app is pushing you to do something that doesn’t feel right—whether that’s exercising when injured, sacrificing sleep to hit a target, or adding stress to your life—ignore it.
Recognize that endless growth isn’t possible in fitness. Just as a business can rarely grow indefinitely, your body has its limits. Not every week needs a new personal record. Health maintenance itself is a valid goal.
Use gamification as a starting point, not the destination. Arora and Razavian’s research suggests that gamification is most valuable at the beginning of a fitness journey, when you need help establishing habits and figuring out what to do. Once you’ve developed your routine and understanding, you may need the game elements less, which is all the more reason to let them go.
Enjoy the playfulness, but keep perspective. If the game makes exercise more enjoyable, great. But the moment it becomes another source of stress and obligation, it’s probably working against you.
The bottom line
The most important takeaway is a simple one: Your health is not a game, even if your health app is. Remember that badges, streaks, and leaderboards are artificial constructs designed to keep you engaged with a product. They can be useful tools, but they’re not the point. My Duolingo owl’s approval means nothing if I can’t actually speak Spanish. The same goes for my closed rings, my Peloton stats, and every other gamified metric I’ve been chasing, which don’t really tell me anything about my actual fitness.
Getting healthier is a messy and non-linear process. It demands rest days and flexibility, and it looks different for different people. It can’t be reduced to a single number or maintained through gamified willpower. And it definitely doesn’t end when you break your streak—so go ahead and break it.
