How Accurate Are Fitness Trackers at Detecting Calories Burned?

Are Fitness Trackers Accurate?

Today, there is a gadget for anything and everything. Right from planning your day-to-day activities to tracking how much you sleep, a wearable tracker does it all for you. These trackers are more relied upon when it comes to counting the calories burned. Almost every other person who is watchful about his weight and calorie count believes a fitness tracker is the best way he can learn about his energy expenditure. But, how accurate are these fitness trackers? Say, your tracker shows that you’ve burned around 500 calories in the past hour. Does that really mean that you’ve shed 500 calories? Think again!

How Accurate Are Fitness Trackers for Determining Calories Burned?

Recent studies show that fitness trackers can be inaccurate to a minimum of 25%. The studies also found certain trackers with around 93% inaccuracy. There might be several reasons that account to this. A fitness tracker uses different types of sensors to detect the heart rate, steps walked, hours slept, and moves made. And when it comes to calculating the calories burned, parameters including the person’s age, gender, height, and weight, along with other lifestyle practices are taken into consideration. When the type of physical activity is correlated with all of these parameters, the end result could vary to a greater extent than what is achieved in reality.

So, changing eating habits or adapting to a different physical routine entirely based on these results isn’t the right thing to do. But, this doesn’t mean the fitness trackers are less useful. There are several fitness trackers in the market like Apple Watch and Fitbit Surge that have proved to have very less error percentage.

A Fitness Tracker around Your Hip Is More Accurate Than the One Tied around Your Wrist.

A. True
B. False

How Accurate Is Fitbit Calorie Burn?

Studies show that Fitbit Surge is highly efficient and has an error percentage of less than 25% which makes it a go-to fitness tracker to count your calorie burn.

It is greatly recommended to depend on a fitness tracker to calculate the calories burned. In fact, you’ll be well motivated to work harder in achieving your weight goals with a fitness tracker in hand. However, it is also important to eat a wholesome diet and skip the sedentary lifestyle practices to maintain a healthy weight and BMI.

Leia Smith

Leia is a fitness expert and a post-graduate in health and nutrition. She educates people through her articles based on research. Her works encourage readers to be aware of what makes food nutritious, the latest medical updates, weight loss, psychology, and a balanced diet. She believes in the well-known philosophy of all time, ‘precaution is better than cure.’ Explore Leia's other posts for more information and advice on a health-conscious active lifestyle.