17 - The Truth About Fitness Trackers.. BS Or Accurate?

Wearables like Whoop, Oura ring, FitBit, Garmin, etc. can be great for tracking stuff like heart rate, sleep duration, or step count. However you’d be surprised how inaccurate they turn out to be when it comes to how many calories you burn on a daily basis.

In this episode we first discuss the research on fitness trackers and how tracking calories burned may actually be holding you back from effectively losing weight. We then talk about how you can use your fitness tracker in a better way and share what we personally use.

Finally you'll learn how to manage energy balance without tracking calories burned and how to not get too hung up on the numbers while still having effective workouts.


Related article:
https://www.vestersnutrition.com/are-fitness-trackers-accurate/


Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction

03:49 - How accurate are fitness trackers? Here’s what the research shows

08:35 - Why that’s a problem for weight loss

14:02 - How to use your fitness tracker in a better way + What we use

24:54 - How to manage energy balance without tracking calories burned

31:43 - Outro: Effective workouts + not getting too hung up on the data


Studies mentioned:

-“Accuracy of Heart Rate Watches: Implications for Weight Management.” (PMID: 27232714) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27232714/

- “Reliability and Validity of Commercially Available Wearable Devices for Measuring Steps, Energy Expenditure, and Heart Rate: Systematic Review.” (PMID: 32897239) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32897239/

- “Wrist-worn devices for the measurement of heart rate and energy expenditure: A validation study for the Apple Watch 6, Polar Vantage V and Fitbit Sense.” (PMID: 34957939) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34957939/

- “Accuracy and Acceptability of Wrist-Wearable Activity-Tracking Devices: Systematic Review of the Literature.” (PMID: 35060915) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35060915/

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