Are Fitness Watches Worth It? (Science Explained)

wearable fitness trackers have become incredibly popular promising to help users stay active sleep better and even optimize their nutrition but are they accurate a systematic review by Jeremy Nal from 2022 looked into the accuracy and usefulness of RIS wearable devices examining how well it measures step count heart rate and energy expenditure when it comes to step count most wearables are quite accurate whether you're walking or running the majority of trackers give a good estimation of your daily movement the same goes for heart rate tracking this is particularly good news for those looking to track their physical activity and may even want insights into how their heart rate response to exercise or simply like tracking stuff for the sake of tracking but there's a catch when it comes to energy expenditure essentially how many calories you burn while exercising and throughout the day these devices often fall short some studies show that the calorie count can be off as much as like 40 to 50% this is because energy expenditure is influenced by many individual factors like body weight muscle mass and individual variation in resting metabolic rate which wearables don't accurately measure that said an important point that people often miss when we talk about fitness trackers is that fitness trackers do more than just track they often prompt you to move more remind you to hit step goals or just to stand more throughout the day this has an important impact research shows that wearing a Tracker can increase activity by about 1,800 steps per day which is equivalent to 20 to 30 minutes of walking which can significantly impact your health and overall daily energy expenditure the Practical takeaways use your tracker for what it's good at monitoring steps and your heart rate don't base your nutrition and calorie tracking solely on the devices calorie burn readout your best bet is still to track your calorie intake alongside your body weight and physical activity allowing for a much better insight into your caloric needs at the end of the day fitness trackers can be a nice companion in your fitness journey but shouldn't be treated as an absolute source of Truth for every metric they measure if you think you'd benefit from tracking your steps and physical activity on a fitus Tracker then go for it however don't feel like it's a mandatory accessory or that you're missing out on much if it's not something you're interested in buying