Just a minority of people may use smartphone apps and gadgets to track their activity, heart rate and diet, but that doesn’t mean many more aren’t going old-school when it comes to benchmarking their health.

Some keep track of their diet, exercise or health conditions with notebooks and journals. And, said Susannah Fox, associate director of digital strategy for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, others may measure their wellbeing in even more simplistic but still very tangible ways — like the fit of their favorite clothing. As the gadget- and app-enabled self-tracking trend grows, Fox's observation shows that the distance between what people may do already and the new tools that could help them do it better isn’t as long as some may think.

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