Garfield Fit: Lazy Cat No More

Have you been thinking about getting back in shape but find yourself lacking in motivation? Fortunately for you, Garfield, the laziest cat in the comic universe wants to help you get on track. Garfield Fit, recently released as a free …

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Have you been thinking about getting back in shape but find yourself lacking in motivation? Fortunately for you, Garfield, the laziest cat in the comic universe wants to help you get on track. Garfield Fit, recently released as a free iOS and Android app by Animoca, just might be your answer.

Garfield Fit is a fitness app that rewards you for movement and meeting your progress goals. Based on the idea that if Garfield can change his life, then you can too, Garfield Fit is looking to help you get increasingly more active until it’s routine.

The goal is simple, open the app on your phone or Apple Watch and walk or run with Garfield. The more you walk or run, the more coins you collect. The coins you earn can be used to buy new outfits for Garfield. It’s an interesting concept, but it remains to be seen whether the idea of outfitting a cartoon cat is enough to get couch potatoes off the couch.

With all of the press that Pokémon Go received around its, somewhat unexpected, fitness benefits, it’s easy to see why there’s a desire to use our favourite childhood cartoon heroes as fitness motivation, even if admittedly Garfield seems like a strange fit. Where Garfield Fit sets itself apart is the way it both tries to intuitively set fitness goals based on your current level of activity and it allows for custom goals. One example provided is parents being able to set a goal of ‘walking around the park’ for their child in order to get the whole family in on the fun.

Garfield Fit

One potential issue, it that it seems to be the case, as with Pokémon Go, that the app needs to be running on your phone for your activity to be properly logged. For those with great battery life this isn’t too big of a problem, but for everyone else it’s a bit of a drag unless you have a strong preference for sprints over leisurely jogs or strolls (unlikely because if you’re already a hardcore runner you probably don’t need an app to get you out the house).

Garfield Fit is free to download, but if you are looking for a more personalized experience, Jon and Ollie will step in as your personal trainers for a fee of $1.99 (USD) per month or $23.99 (USD) for the year. It’s cheaper than a gym membership by far, but whether it’ll prove as persuasive is yet to be determined.