Since the early 2000s, fitness trackers have risen from a niche gadget to an everyday accessory. In the early days, wearables were used mainly to track your steps or monitor your heart rate. By the end of the 2000s, the first digital fitness trackers hit the market to more accurately measure your activity by automatically tracking steps, distance, and calories burned.
In the 2010s, fitness trackers introduced more features such as heart rate variability, respiration, sleep tracking, and down-to-the-minute exercise details. Smartwatches also started combining fitness tracker features, workout analysis, and health monitoring into one wearable. As the features improved and prices dropped, fitness trackers went from a niche market to mainstream adoption.
Throughout the 2010s, wearables became one of the fastest-growing tech sectors, selling millions of units yearly. Brands such as Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, and Polar became household names. As the tech evolves and fitness trackers add more advanced features such as GPS, SpO2, Heart Rate Variability, sleep quality, stress, etc., you may wonder how accurate they are.
What Are Fitness Trackers Tracking Accurately?
Most fitness trackers count steps very well, especially while walking or running. It may be less accurate if your wrists aren’t moving, but overall, it’s a great metric to reference if your goal is to achieve a certain number of daily steps. If your favorite activities involve distance, such as walking, running, or cycling, fitness trackers with GPS can track your distance accurately. However, depending on your GPS signal quality and environment, your total distance could be slightly off.
When exercising or resting, fitness trackers can accurately measure your heart rate with a small margin of error. This is especially true when resting or doing cardio activities like walking or running. Also, monitoring your heart rate during exercise can help you achieve a target heart rate without stopping to check it.
Fitness trackers also do a good job tracking some basic metrics about your sleep. They can measure when you fall asleep, how long you sleep, and when you wake up. Therefore, you can use them to monitor your sleeping patterns. Yet, with everything they can do to track or monitor your exercise and health, they aren’t always accurate.
How Are Fitness Trackers Not Accurate?
Today, wearables such as fitness trackers and smartwatches are more popular than ever, with widespread adoption among people of all ages. Overall, society is becoming increasingly conscious of its health and well-being. The technology is compact and easy to use, easily integrated with other devices and online accounts, and makes it easy to track your fitness goals. Although fitness trackers have come a long way, there are still some things they aren’t very accurate at measuring.
One of the most common metrics you may want to track is calories. Fitness trackers try to count calories by utilizing data from your activity, heart rate, and other information you provide, such as your weight and age. However, counting calories is challenging due to differences in an individual’s metabolism, muscle mass, or exercise intensity.
Although fitness trackers are very good at measuring your heart rate while resting or exercising, they can struggle when you are doing high-intensity workouts and activities with many irregular arm movements. You can improve accuracy by checking that your fitness tracker isn’t too loose and configured for the same wrist you’re wearing.
While tracking basic metrics around sleep, measuring your sleep stages, like deep sleep and REM sleep, can be misleading. Fitness trackers rely on movement and heart rate to estimate your sleep stages. It can provide a general overview of your sleep stages, but not as accurate as a clinical device.
Managing stress is critical to your health and well-being. Thankfully, you can exercise to both reduce stress and improve fitness. Some advanced fitness trackers can track your stress by measuring your heart rate variability. Although heart rate variability can indicate stress, fitness trackers may not accurately measure it since they can’t account for your mental state.
Why Would You Use A Fitness Tracker If It Can’t Be Trusted?
Fitness trackers can still be valuable even if some metrics aren’t accurate. However, metrics like steps and activity tracking are generally reliable. As a result, you will still be able to track and trend your progress, which is more important than precise measurements. Additionally, you can compare your activity over days, weeks, months, and years, which provides a way to measure your progress.
Tracking your progress is essential to achieve your goals. It lets you know where you were and where you are now, which will help you to make better decisions based on your actions and efforts. You can find patterns to help you adjust your behavior and workouts to keep you moving toward your goals instead of away. It’s hard to know what’s working and not working unless you track and monitor yourself.
Even with the limitations of some metrics, a fitness tracker can provide feedback and help motivate you as you work toward your health goals. The key is to use any number as a guideline instead of treating them as absolutely accurate.
The Takeaway
Fitness trackers are essential tools to help you achieve your fitness goals. Most modern fitness trackers collect a lot of data. However, some metrics may not be accurate. Regardless, they still provide valuable feedback to make informed decisions regarding your health. Tracking yourself over time is essential for monitoring your progress and can help you stay motivated. Regardless, always treat any number as a guideline instead of an accurate measurement.
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Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
