If you have been keeping track of the latest gadgets to hit the fitness scene, you perhaps have already discovered one or two f the latest ‘activity trackers’ now available.
What are these all about and why are they considered so helpful? People everywhere are merely jumping on the bandwagon; picking up their choice of a gadget.
What Do You Need To Know?
What Are Activity Trackers?
Activity trackers are basically fitness trackers in the form of small gadgets that can be worn on the body and help determine several fitness stats such as how many steps you have taken, how many hours have you slept, how many floors you have climbed, and an approximation of how many calories you have burned in a day.
Each of these activity trackers offer relatively different metrics, so shopping around to find the one that offers you what you are looking for will certainly pay off.
Will They Actually Work?
You perhaps be asking this question now ‘how accurate these activity trackers are and if you can actually rely on them? The answer is a yes and a no. in a way, these activity trackers can be quite accurate. Most of them are proven within around +/- 10 to 20 percent depending on the gadget, so they give you a generalized idea of about how many calories you have burned during the day.
For the step counts, they are extremely accurate as they are more of a pedometer.
The prime thing to know though is they will not quite accurately assess the calorie consumption rate during certain activities like weightlifting or cycling as there is no way to assess the calories burn here. The activity trackers that actually read the body’s chemistry and have metal plates touching the skin, perhaps be a bit more accurate in this regard, but they are never 100 percent accurate.
How To Use Activity Trackers Effectively
So if you want to make use of these activity trackers, go ahead. Make use of them as a guideline only though. Still, ensure to count your calorie intake and track the body weight. Adjust as required. The tracker is better used as a baseline for measuring the days you have been more active on with the less active ones.
For example, you can make use of the tracker to reach a specific step count goal of say 6000 steps. If you notice that you have just made 4000 by the evening, get up and do something to make up for the rest of the steps to reach your step count goal.
This practice over time will help you reach your weight loss goals effectively and improve your health standing for sure. For many, activity trackers serve as an amazing wakeup-call to see how inactive they have been.
