Uhoh. Fitness trackers.

geneticsteacher wrote: »

On the evening news tonight, there was a story on fitness trackers. Fitbit, Garmin, and jawbone were tested and found to over estimate calories burned by 2x, 3x, and 4x. Sorry, I don't remember the models tested.

Without that crucial bit of info, it's not terribly useful news. My Garmin (Fenix 3 HR + Vector 2) underestimates my bike calories by somewhere from 10 to 15 %.

Wysewoman53 wrote: »

fmosracing wrote: »

I lost 60 lbs last year after being given a FitBit for my 49th birthday. I used it to estimate my burn in conjunction tracking my calorie intake. I think people who want to consider it to be extremely precise and accurate misunderstand the device. However, claiming it's off my multiple times (x2, x3, etc) seems pretty unlikely, unless the test was rigged to drive the inaccuracy (like, say, claiming your car doesn't properly estimate mileage when you've only measured it while accelerating up an entrance ramp or coasting down a hill).

I understood that it was measuring with a yardstick, not a micrometer. I understand that my experience is anecdotal, but it's also a simple device that quite literally changed my life.

I couldn't agree more!! My tracker changed my life as well. I don't really care what the 'science' says.

This news report is far from science. If a scientist tried to publish a paper with a sample size of 1, they would be considered crazy.

I love my fitbit! It keeps me motivated. I don't expect scientific precision -- just an estimate that can help keep me on track with activity and calories.

I dunno...I've lost 45 pounds following the calorie allotment afforded to me each day from my fitbit's estimated burn...I know that everyone is different, but it seems to be working just fine for me!

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

Zipp237 wrote: »

They're just fun fitness toys. They don't claim to be accurate and I doubt anyone relies on them for anything other than fun. People have been playing with fitness toys for as long as I've been alive. Haven't seen it hurt anyone yet. Some people feel that they're helpful. They they're not accurate, so what.

I think taking money from people by saying your product will do something, when in fact it can't do it, is harm.

There may be small print saying it's an estimate, but all the marketing for these devices talks about how they will calculate your calorie burn, and these forums are full of people talking about how tracking exercise manually via mfp is so terribly inaccurate and you should use one of these instead. In fact, it seems their results are every bit as much of a generic rough guess as mfp's exercise numbers, which makes them not fit for purpose, imo.

In fact they don't record enough data to get close to a "calculation" of calorie burn, so it's not a question of inaccuracy, it's a question of claiming they can do something when they are totally unequipped to do it. All very well to say it's just a toy and people shouldn't take it seriously, but that's not the way it's marketed, and a lot of people DO take them seriously.

What people say on MFP is irrelevant. Unless the company has paid them, you cannot hold the company responsible for what "some guy on the Internet" said.

The Fitbit people and all the other device companies say very plainly that they aren't accurate. It may be in small print, but that is where you have to look if you want the truth. The important stuff is always in the small print, not in the advertisement. If someone learns this lesson with a fitness device, it's a very cheap way to learn that lesson.

No tracker and no computer app can tell you how many calories make a pound and how much exercise burns one. Not exactly. Your body isn't the same as mine, which isn't the same as the next guy's. They're just giving you estimates.

If an individual happens to gain and lose by the numbers in the MFP app and the fitbit, precisely, it's a fluke. 3600.0 calories is rarely a pound in a human. The walk you do is going to burn more than the walk of someone else and probably more or less than the walk you took yesterday, even if you went the same distance.

That doesn't mean they cannot help people. It also doesn't mean that people cannot enjoy them. If it motivates them, maybe it's worth $50 or $500 or whatever they've paid. A friend of mine keeps bugging me to get one so we can compete. She tells me how many steps she walked. It motivates her and she enjoys it, so it did her good.

I'm not buying one, but I've seen for myself that they help people, so I'm pro-devices.

Great thing I have a Microsoft Band 2 then

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

I think taking money from people by saying your product will do something, when in fact it can't do it, is harm.

...

In fact they don't record enough data to get close to a "calculation" of calorie burn, so it's not a question of inaccuracy, it's a question of claiming they can do something when they are totally unequipped to do it. All very well to say it's just a toy and people shouldn't take it seriously, but that's not the way it's marketed, and a lot of people DO take them seriously.

You're painting with a very broad brush. I agree with what you say for 90 % of the trackers out there, but I'm uncomfortable with saying the whole lot of them is bad.

Speaking of how much detail they capture, my Garmin tells me that when I run, I have a perfect 50/50 split in terms of how much time I spend on each foot, except when I'm turning or running on a tilted surface. But when I ride a bike, it's typically in the ballpark of 45/55 L/R balance. On the bike it gets closer to 50/50 at higher power outputs but diverges even further when I'm just tooling around.