ShareI get a lot of questions about new fitness tracking devices on the market today.
Fitbits, Fuelbands, Jawbones and many others can enhance your health by accurately monitoring the number of steps, calories and sleep patterns.
But according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the apps on your smartphone do the job just as well…or even better when it comes to measuring your steps and calories burned.
Read that last line again.
Here’s the scoop…
Researchers at Penn compared the Top 10 best-selling smartphone fitness applications and pedometers with wearable devices, tracking 14 healthy adults as they walked on the treadmill.
Seriously, I was shocked by the results!
Turns out the smartphones were just as accurate and consistent as the wearable devices.
Wearable devices had up to 22% variation in the range of step counts vs the observed number of steps taken. But there was only a 6% difference in the range of the step counts of smartphones vs observable steps.
In order to accurately estimate the number of calories burned, the number of steps is REALLY important. The apps and devices track your steps by the shifting position of your body.
If your smartphone is just as accurate, why spend $100 bucks on a fancy bracelet?
That is an excellent question, cool cat.
The main objection is that your smartphone is hard to carry if you’re doing intense exercise. And let’s be honest. If you drop your brand new iPhone while out running… you’re in big trouble.
Now for the record, I’m not telling you to trash your fitness tracking device. To me, it means you’re somewhere on the behavior change spectrum and taking action to improve your health.
But the problem with every fitness tracker is that they rely on very limited metrics… you only get stats about your steps, calories burned, distance traveled, movement when you sleep…some even measure your heart rate… which gives you a very skewed analysis about your health.
Your overall health depends on so many factors – your genetics, culture, whether your children let you sleep at night – that I find it so interesting how many people are completely obsessed with these tracking devices.
JAMA also reported that one third of people who own these devices completely stop using them after only 6 months.
In fact, I was using a Fitbit last year for around 6 months. And yep, I was one of those people who fell off the wagon…
And why not… since my smartphone can give me the same information?
If you’re looking to get an idea how active you were during the day, smartphone applications that track food consumption, activity, sleep, and other health factors may be more convenient and less expensive that Fitbits etc.
But don’t forget… the FitBit doesn’t take into consideration the intensity of your workout. It simply estimates your calorie burn based off your step count.
What the point here?
Use technology to change your unhealthy behaviors (like sitting too much)… but please, don’t become a slave to the numbers.
Pursue fitness activities because it makes you feel better, look great and become awesome… not to please your fitness app.
KV
