Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned
Fitness trackers worn on the wrist to record physical activity significantly overestimate calories burned, a new examine suggests.
The least accurate device reported users had exerted up to twice as much energy as they genuinely had.
But all seven models tested including the Apple Watch, the Samsung Gear S2 and the Fitbit Surge were way off the mark.”
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It means users may fail to achieve their target levels of exercise and struggle to lose weightas quickly as they expect.
Researchers from Stanford University, California, tested the trackers on 60 volunteers as they sat still, strolled, work and cycled.
The results, which were published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine were compared with a gold criterion, ” obtained using medical-grade equipment.
Six of the devices measured heart rate with an error rateof less than 5 percent, which the researchers considered acceptable.
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But none measured energy expenditure accurately, with even the best musician being off by an average of 27 percent.
The worst the PulseOn was off by an average of 93 percent.
Devices reported the lowest mistake for cycling and the highest for walking.
Errors were also greater for men, people with a higher body mass indicator, and those with darker skin.
The heart rate measurements performed far better than we expected but the energy expenditure measures were way off the mark, ” study author Anna Shcherbina said. The magnitude of just how bad the latter are surprised me.
The devices measure heart rate immediately, but energy expenditure must be calculated using a combination of factors.
Each device utilizes its own algorithm to calculate calories burned.
Its very hard to train an algorithm that would be accurate across a wide variety of people because energy expenditure is variable based on someones fitness level, height and weight, etc, ” Shcherbina said.
The researchers cautioned against employing the devices as part of health improvement those programmes and called for manufacturers to routinely test them against a situate standard.
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Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned
Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned
Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned
Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned
Your Fitness Tracker Is Probably Overrating Calories Burned