It wasn’t all that way back when all “wearable health expertise” meant was a easy pedometer—succesful solely of measuring a person’s step depend. However now? Know-how has superior so considerably that there are two separate classes of wearables:
- “Conventional” health trackers: Able to monitoring exercise, steps, velocity, sleep, coronary heart fee, blood stress, and respiratory.
- Smartwatches: Past monitoring well being and health knowledge, smartwatches additionally supply smartphone options, like texting, calling, and different app integrations.
As such, pondering 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 observe to succeed in their health targets?
Nicely … you would possibly need to maintain off that thought for a short time.
Sure, health wearables can present precious 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 expertise—structured round their options—that’ll provide help to determine if it’s appropriate in your consumer.
Every day Step Rely
You’re seemingly no stranger to the well being advantages sustaining a excessive stage of non-exercise exercise thermogenesis (NEAT) can convey in your consumer: much less danger of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular occasions, and demise from all causes are just some examples.
The one downside? With “work-from-home” nonetheless the default association, your consumer will seemingly spend the higher a part of their days inactive.
That’s the place wearable health expertise is available in.
Whereas your consumer could suspect that they’re usually 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 encourage them into getting off their sofa and hitting the beneficial 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 depend.
Sadly, that additionally signifies that they’re susceptible 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 every day step counts:
- Put on on the nondominant hand: Your consumer’s dominant hand will seemingly be extra lively (e.g., stirring a pot or working equipment), so there might 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 prone to get false step counts.
- Log non-active instances: If potential, 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 complete depend.
Vitality Expenditure
Many health trackers may assist your consumer calculate the variety of energy they’ve burned in a day. Imaginably, this might help them get a greater sense of their calorie stability—which is especially necessary for shoppers trying to drop some weight.
A disclaimer, although: Exercise trackers and smartwatches are notoriously inaccurate at counting energy burned throughout train and all through the day.
In line with a collection 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 signifies that your consumer solely burned 2,000 energy—despite the fact that 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 finest by consuming 300 energy fewer than their complete every day vitality 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 individuals are inclined to reward themselves with decadent meals and enormous parts after exercising (notably cardio)—and that they usually eat again all of (if no more than) the energy they burned through the session.
In fact, the accuracy of your consumer’s health wearable at estimating vitality expenditure is just about past your management. However what you are able to do, as an alternative, is to have your consumer observe their meals consumption. This decreases the probability of them over-compensating for his or her bodily exercise. And talking of which …
Calorie Consumption
Because of app integrations, many smartwatches might help 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 offers your consumer with a transparent thought of the place their “downside areas” are—and the place to make modifications.
Nevertheless, it’s additionally value noting that discovering a vitamin app that precisely reviews energy is an arduous process. A 2019 examine, discovered that every one 5 evaluated apps (together with MyFitnessPal, Noom Coach, and Lose It!) didn’t signify numerous dietary data precisely.
Actually, although, this isn’t a dealbreaker.
As a substitute of viewing vitamin logging as a software to trace absolutely the values of energy, you can—as an alternative—assist your consumer see it as a software to develop wholesome consuming habits (particularly for individuals who’re not trying to drop some weight).
Take this 2013 examine revealed within the Worldwide Journal of Behavioral Vitamin and Bodily Exercise, for instance.
Researchers discovered that contributors who tracked their weight loss program for eight weeks ate two extra servings of greens a day than they did firstly of the examine.
Look Out for Indicators of Obsession
Past knowledge accuracy points, although, one of the vital important cons to contemplate 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 develop into a breeding floor for orthorexia.
A number of research have now discovered that using tracker apps (e.g., calorie-counter apps) may very well be linked to disordered consuming. That’s why you need to keep away from recommending health wearables for any consumer who has a historical past of consuming issues.
Additionally, be sure you 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 modifications to their train routine (e.g., 5 cardio classes in every week) to extend their calorie burn?
If that’s the case, you would possibly need to get them to take off their health wearables.
And, in fact, a a lot better choice can be to encourage them to search skilled assist—as a result of, usually, 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 software to assist your consumer find out about their every day exercise ranges, vitamin standing, and extra.
But when utilized in an obsessive method to achieve “absolute management” over numerous elements of their every day life, it might find yourself doing extra hurt than good.
That’s why you need to at all times undergo the method of weighing the professionals and cons in your shoppers. That means, they’ll make an knowledgeable determination for themselves.
