It wasn’t all that way back when all “wearable health know-how” meant was a easy pedometer—succesful solely of measuring a person’s step rely. However now? Expertise has superior so considerably that there are two separate classes of wearables:
- “Conventional” health trackers: Able to monitoring exercise, steps, pace, sleep, coronary heart charge, blood strain, and respiratory.
- Smartwatches: Past monitoring well being and health information, smartwatches additionally provide smartphone options, like texting, calling, and different app integrations.
As such, considering of one thing health wearables can’t do between the 2 classes is actually a problem. Now, did that get you all excited in regards to the prospect of getting your consumer to purchase one so that they’d keep motivated and on monitor to achieve their health objectives?
Effectively … you may wish to maintain off that thought for a short while.
Sure, health wearables can present useful well being insights and, thus, function a motivating issue. However they’re additionally plagued with accuracy and psychological well-being points. So, right here’s a deep dive into the professionals and cons of wearable health know-how—structured round their options—that’ll allow you to determine if it’s appropriate on your consumer.
Day by day Step Depend
You’re seemingly no stranger to the well being advantages sustaining a excessive stage of non-exercise exercise thermogenesis (NEAT) can deliver on your consumer: much less threat of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular occasions, and loss of life from all causes are just some examples.
The one downside? With “work-from-home” nonetheless the default association, your consumer will seemingly spend the larger a part of their days inactive.
That’s the place wearable health know-how is available in.
Whereas your consumer might suspect that they’re typically inactive all through the day, seeing the precise variety of steps they take from a full day of staying in (e.g., 500) can really inspire them into getting off their sofa and hitting the really helpful 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day.
Nevertheless, this additionally brings up a con of utilizing health wearables: They’re recognized to undercount, or arguably worse, overcount the variety of steps a consumer takes in a day.
Smartwatches and exercise trackers use movement sensors to find out step rely.
Sadly, that additionally implies that they’re liable to registering steps in error from refined actions (e.g., washing palms, making ready meals, or utilizing the pc mouse) and even vibrations that have an effect on the physique (e.g., from driving in a automobile).
Listed below are a couple of ideas that’ll assist your consumer maximize the accuracy of their day by day step counts:
- Put on on the nondominant hand: Your consumer’s dominant hand will seemingly be extra energetic (e.g., stirring a pot or working equipment), so there can be extra alternatives for errors.
- Guarantee a decent match across the wrist: If the health wearable flops round in your consumer’s wrist, they’re extra more likely to get false step counts.
- Log non-active occasions: If attainable, have your consumer log their earlier than and after step counts after they spend an prolonged interval being inactive (e.g., working). They will then deduct the “false steps” from their day’s whole rely.
Power Expenditure
Many health trackers may also assist your consumer calculate the variety of energy they’ve burned in a day. Imaginably, this can assist them get a greater sense of their calorie stability—which is especially vital for shoppers trying to shed weight.
A disclaimer, although: Exercise trackers and smartwatches are notoriously inaccurate at counting energy burned throughout train and all through the day.
Based on a sequence of research from 2017, almost all health wearable gadgets concerned (together with FitBit Surge, Apple Watch, and the Microsoft Band) hovered round a 25% margin of error when counting energy burned.
To place that into perspective, a 25% margin of error implies that your consumer solely burned 2,000 energy—although their exercise tracker (or smartwatch) tells them that they’ve burned 2,500 energy.
As a weight administration specialist, let’s say you’ve decided that your consumer would do greatest by consuming 300 energy fewer than their whole day by day power expenditure (TDEE). So, guess how a lot they’re going to eat if their exercise tracker tells them that they’ve burned 2,500 energy? That’s proper: 2,200 energy.
And that, sadly, brings them proper right into a calorie surplus.
Worse nonetheless, analysis additionally exhibits that folks are inclined to reward themselves with decadent meals and enormous parts after exercising (significantly cardio)—and that they typically eat again all of (if no more than) the energy they burned throughout the session.
In fact, the accuracy of your consumer’s health wearable at estimating power expenditure is just about past your management. However what you are able to do, as an alternative, is to have your consumer monitor their meals consumption. This decreases the chance of them over-compensating for his or her bodily exercise. And talking of which …
Calorie Consumption
Due to app integrations, many smartwatches can assist make nutrition-tracking so simple as tapping a couple of buttons.
An apparent upside related to that is it empowers your consumer with the data of what they’re placing into their our bodies (e.g., variety of energy, macronutrient break up, nutritional vitamins, and minerals), plus how that impacts them.
In flip, this supplies your consumer with a transparent thought of the place their “downside areas” are—and the place to make adjustments.
Nevertheless, it’s additionally price noting that discovering a vitamin app that precisely experiences energy is an arduous process. A 2019 research, discovered that every one 5 evaluated apps (together with MyFitnessPal, Noom Coach, and Lose It!) didn’t signify numerous dietary info precisely.
Actually, although, this isn’t a dealbreaker.
As a substitute of viewing vitamin logging as a device to trace absolutely the values of energy, you might—as an alternative—assist your consumer see it as a device to develop wholesome consuming habits (particularly for individuals who’re not trying to shed weight).
Take this 2013 research printed within the Worldwide Journal of Behavioral Diet and Bodily Exercise, for instance.
Researchers discovered that members who tracked their weight-reduction plan for eight weeks ate two extra servings of greens a day than they did firstly of the research.
Look Out for Indicators of Obsession
Past information accuracy points, although, some of the crucial cons to think about about health wearables is the specter of a blurring line between the wholesome use of a health tracker and an unhealthy obsession with the numbers.
What begins as a constructive affect on well being can turn into a breeding floor for orthorexia.
A number of research have now discovered that the usage of tracker apps (e.g., calorie-counter apps) might be linked to disordered consuming. That’s why it is best to keep away from recommending health wearables for any consumer who has a historical past of consuming issues.
Additionally, you’ll want to look out for unhealthy behaviors in shoppers who have already got a health tracker.
Do they get anxious after they fail to burn the identical variety of energy they did within the earlier session? Are they making drastic adjustments to their train routine (e.g., 5 cardio classes in per week) to extend their calorie burn?
If that’s the case, you may wish to get them to take off their health wearables.
And, in fact, a a lot better choice could be to encourage them to search skilled assist—as a result of, typically, the stuff you see your consumer doing are simply the signs of one thing deeper (e.g., an unhealthy relationship with meals).
Takeaway
Earlier than getting your shoppers to hop on the health wearables pattern, it’s important to ask, “why do they want one?” and “how are they utilizing it?” An exercise tracker or smartwatch is usually a useful device to assist your consumer find out about their day by day exercise ranges, vitamin standing, and extra.
But when utilized in an obsessive method to realize “absolute management” over numerous features of their day by day life, it may find yourself doing extra hurt than good.
That’s why it is best to all the time undergo the method of weighing the professionals and cons on your shoppers. That method, they will make an knowledgeable resolution for themselves.
