These Are the Most Accurate Fitness Tracker Metrics

Nevertheless, with that expansion comes a possible double edged sword: “paralysis by evaluation.” Having a lot data can easily overwhelm us. What do all these stats actually tell us, and what can we actually do with that info? Knowing probably the most accurate fitness tracker metrics might be helpful here.

“Having more data and the attention of all of the aspects that influence your health and fitness is great,” says Andy Barr, DPT, fitness coach and owner of Quantum Performance. “But I’ve found that an increasing variety of clients are deluged with abundance of knowledge from their wearable devices and unable to make heads or tails of it without spending considerable time doing their very own research and educating themselves…time they don’t have and time they thought could be saved by getting a wearable in the primary place!”

To maximise the worth of the info you’re getting, concentrate on probably the most accurate fitness tracker metrics. In keeping with high-level research the validity and reliability of wearables, probably the most widely accepted and backed use for wearables is to trace heart rate. Second to heart rate is step count. The subsequent tier down—essentially the “very mixed evidence tier”—is using a wearable to trace overall energy expenditure and heart rate variability. In the bottom, “not generally accepted” tier is VO2max, training load, and sleep and stress. The bottom tier will not be all that surprising if you consider the relative complexity of those metrics and what number of variables that have to be accounted for.

Opinions from leading experts align with the research in that wearables might be effective for less complicated trackable actions like counting steps and heart rate however the more complex the motion, the less accurate it’s.

Measuring complex variables like training load or stress is difficult to do accurately without advanced equipment and expert knowledge, so it’s no surprise that wearable technology—which remains to be relatively in its infancy—is unable to do it reliably.

This isn’t a knock on wearables—the vast majority of health and fitness tech can’t measure higher complexity variables. Yet they’re still excellent tools for major health indicators like heart rate and step count.

To make your wearable data more reliable and accurate for step count and heart rate, Dr. Barr says “use your look ahead to seven to 10 days and get a feel for the common because each wearable tracks things otherwise with different levels of error. Moreover, most wearables are inclined to overestimate things at lower and better intensities so you must give it a bigger sample size to get more accurate measurements.”

To place it simply, don’t take your wearable at face value immediately. Give it every week or so and take a look at the fluctuations for day-after-day and you need to have a reasonably good idea of your averages.

To place a bow on all of it is a few excellent general advice from Tim DiFrancesco, DPT, owner of TD Athletes Edge: “Wearables are one piece, and together with them, all of us have to be higher at listening to our own bodies reasonably than taking anyone metric or technology as gospel,” he says. “Health is just too complex and there’s just an excessive amount of room for error when doing that; nevertheless, combining tools like wearables with rate of perceived exertion [RPE] and wellness scale information can provide us a much clearer picture and awareness of health and fitness.”