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Imagine if I told you this 20 years ago: That everyone would have a communication device strapped to their wrists. That his communication device can instantly connect you to anyone in the world. That it can also tell you the answer to any question you can think of. Chances are, you'd call me crazy. But here we are in 2024, where everyone has a smart watch.
In this section, usually we break down an individual study. Today we're tackling the topic slightly differently. Instead, we’re going to give you a whole heap of studies. Our goal is to persuade you to trust your smartwatch a little less when it comes to smartwatch fitness tracking.
Smartwatch Fitness Tracking - What Can You Actually Track?
When it comes to health and fitness, people tend to use smart watches to track 4 things:
Distance walked/run
Heart rate
Steps
Calories or energy burnt
We have good news and bad news. First, the bad news.
Smart watches are notoriously bad at tracking calories burnt. They straight up suck. Here are 4 studies to back this up:
Study #1 - Apple Watches
Our first study (1) found that Apple Watches tend to overestimate calories burnt. The average error ranged from 6% up to 53%! This means if your watch tells you you’ve burnt 600 calories, you might have burnt as little as 280 calories.
Study #2 - Apple Watch + Fit Bit + Polar Vantage
A second study (2) looked at 3 devices (Apple Watch, a Fit Bit and a Polar Vantage V). When measuring calories burnt, they averaged about 13% - 30% error. Another huge margin of error.
Study #3 - Fit Bits
A third study (3) was a meta analysis on Fit Bits. It found that fit bits can vary between devices. As well as this, they may result in an underestimation of calories burnt by a whopping 40%!
Study #4 - Apple Watches & Polar Watches
A fourth study (4) found that Apple watches tend to overestimate calories burnt 58% of the time. Polar watches were even worse, overestimating calories burnt 69% of the time.
You get the idea. Smart watches are extremely poor at estimating how many calories you burn in a workout. But now for the good news!
The Good News
Smart watches have been shown to be accurate when it comes to tracking heart rate and step count (4). As well as this, on average those who pay attention to their step count tend to move more than those who don’t. This is a big win for those who sit down all day for work!
Main Takeaway
Next time you finish a workout and your watch tells you you’ve burnt X number of calories, IGNORE THIS NUMBER. Unless we’re doing long endurance training, we actually burn a very small number of calories during a workout. This is why altering your diet is a much more effective method if weight loss is your goal.
But if you’re using your watch to gamify daily step counts and keep more active throughout the day - Keep up the good work!
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