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? Expertise has superior so considerably that there are two separate classes of wearables:
- “Conventional” health trackers: Able to monitoring exercise, steps, pace, sleep, coronary heart charge, blood stress, and respiratory.
- Smartwatches: Past monitoring well being and health information, smartwatches additionally supply 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 shopper to purchase one in order that they’d keep motivated and on observe to succeed in their health objectives?
Properly … you would possibly need to maintain off that thought for a short time.
Sure, health wearables can present beneficial 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 enable you to resolve if it’s appropriate on your shopper.
Each day Step Depend
You’re probably no stranger to the well being advantages sustaining a excessive stage of non-exercise exercise thermogenesis (NEAT) can deliver on your shopper: much less danger of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular occasions, and demise from all causes are only a few examples.
The one downside? With “work-from-home” nonetheless the default association, your shopper will probably spend the larger a part of their days inactive.
That’s the place wearable health expertise is available in.
Whereas your shopper could 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 encourage them into getting off their sofa and hitting the really useful 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 shopper takes in a day.
Smartwatches and exercise trackers use movement sensors to find out step depend.
Sadly, that additionally implies that they’re liable to registering steps in error from delicate actions (e.g., washing fingers, getting ready meals, or utilizing the pc mouse) and even vibrations that have an effect on the physique (e.g., from using in a automobile).
Listed here are just a few suggestions that’ll assist your shopper maximize the accuracy of their day by day step counts:
- Put on on the nondominant hand: Your shopper’s dominant hand will probably 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 shopper’s wrist, they’re extra prone to get false step counts.
- Log non-active instances: If attainable, have your shopper 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 whole depend.
Power Expenditure
Many health trackers may also assist your shopper calculate the variety of energy they’ve burned in a day. Imaginably, this may help them get a greater sense of their calorie stability—which is especially vital for purchasers trying to shed extra pounds.
A disclaimer, although: Exercise trackers and smartwatches are notoriously inaccurate at counting energy burned throughout train and all through the day.
In keeping with 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 shopper solely burned 2,000 energy—although 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 shopper would do finest by consuming 300 energy fewer than their whole day by 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 exhibits that folks are likely to reward themselves with decadent meals and huge parts after exercising (significantly cardio)—and that they typically eat again all of (if no more than) the energy they burned throughout the session.
In fact, the accuracy of your shopper’s health wearable at estimating power expenditure is just about past your management. However what you are able to do, as a substitute, is to have your shopper observe their meals consumption. This decreases the probability of them over-compensating for his or her bodily exercise. And talking of which …
Calorie Consumption
Due to app integrations, many smartwatches may help make nutrition-tracking so simple as tapping just a few buttons.
An apparent upside related to that is it empowers your shopper 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 gives your shopper 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 diet app that precisely experiences 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 varied dietary data precisely.
Truthfully, although, this isn’t a dealbreaker.
As an alternative of viewing diet logging as a instrument to trace absolutely the values of energy, you could possibly—as a substitute—assist your shopper see it as a instrument to develop wholesome consuming habits (particularly for individuals who’re not trying to shed extra pounds).
Take this 2013 research printed within the Worldwide Journal of Behavioral Diet and Bodily Exercise, for instance.
Researchers discovered that contributors who tracked their eating regimen for eight weeks ate two extra servings of greens a day than they did initially of the research.
Look Out for Indicators of Obsession
Past information accuracy points, although, one of the crucial crucial 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 change into a breeding floor for orthorexia.
A number of research have now discovered that using tracker apps (e.g., calorie-counter apps) could possibly be linked to disordered consuming. That’s why it is best to keep away from recommending health wearables for any shopper who has a historical past of consuming issues.
Additionally, make sure you look out for unhealthy behaviors in purchasers 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 periods 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, after all, a a lot better choice could be to encourage them to search skilled assist—as a result of, typically, the belongings you see your shopper 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 is usually a useful instrument to assist your shopper find out about their day by day exercise ranges, diet standing, and extra.
But when utilized in an obsessive method to realize “absolute management” over varied facets of their day by day life, it might 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 on your purchasers. That method, they’ll make an knowledgeable choice for themselves.
