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 rely. However now? Expertise 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 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 truthfully 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 succeed in their health objectives?

Effectively … you would possibly need to maintain off that thought for a short while.

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 aid you determine if it’s appropriate to your consumer.  

Every day Step Rely

You’re doubtless no stranger to the well being advantages sustaining a excessive degree of non-exercise exercise thermogenesis (NEAT) can carry to your consumer: much less danger of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular occasions, and loss of life from all causes are just some examples.

The one drawback? With “work-from-home” nonetheless the default association, your consumer will doubtless spend the higher a part of their days inactive.

That’s the place wearable health expertise 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 actually inspire them into getting off their sofa and hitting the really useful 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day.

Nonetheless, this additionally brings up a con of utilizing health wearables: They’re identified 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 vulnerable to registering steps in error from refined actions (e.g., washing fingers, making ready meals, or utilizing the pc mouse) and even vibrations that have an effect on the physique (e.g., from driving in a automotive).

Listed below are a couple of suggestions that’ll assist your consumer maximize the accuracy of their each day step counts:

• Put on on the nondominant hand: Your consumer’s dominant hand will doubtless be extra lively (e.g., stirring a pot or working equipment), so there will probably be extra alternatives for errors.
• Guarantee a good 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 potential, have your consumer log their earlier than and after step counts once they spend an prolonged interval being inactive (e.g., working). They’ll then deduct the “false steps” from their day’s complete rely.

Vitality Expenditure 

Many health trackers may assist your consumer calculate the variety of energy they’ve burned in a day. Imaginably, this will help them get a greater sense of their calorie stability—which is especially essential for purchasers trying to drop some pounds.

A disclaimer, although: Exercise trackers and smartwatches are notoriously inaccurate at counting energy burned throughout train and all through the day.

In response to a collection of research from 2017, almost all health wearable units 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—though 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 each 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 reveals that folks are likely to reward themselves with decadent meals and huge parts after exercising (notably cardio)—and that they usually eat again all of (if no more than) the energy they burned in the course of 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 will 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 cut up, nutritional vitamins, and minerals), plus how that impacts them.

In flip, this gives your consumer with a transparent concept of the place their “drawback areas” are—and the place to make adjustments.

Nonetheless, it’s additionally value noting that discovering a diet app that precisely stories energy is an arduous job. A 2019 research, discovered that every one 5 evaluated apps (together with MyFitnessPal, Noom Coach, and Lose It!) didn’t symbolize numerous dietary data precisely.

Actually, although, this isn’t a dealbreaker.

As an alternative of viewing diet logging as a software to trace absolutely the values of energy, you might—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 pounds). 

Take this 2013 research revealed within the Worldwide Journal of Behavioral Vitamin and Bodily Exercise, for instance.

Researchers discovered that individuals who tracked their weight loss program for eight weeks ate two extra servings of greens a day than they did originally of the research.

Look Out for Indicators of Obsession

Past information accuracy points, although, one 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 optimistic 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) 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, be sure you look out for unhealthy behaviors in purchasers who have already got a health tracker.

Do they get anxious once 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 periods in per 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 significantly better possibility could 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 purchasers 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 generally is a useful software to assist your consumer study their each day exercise ranges, diet standing, and extra.

But when utilized in an obsessive method to achieve “absolute management” over numerous features of their each 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 to your purchasers. That manner, they will make an knowledgeable determination for themselves.

References