FitBits and other wrist worn fitness trackers are a popular way of counting steps walked, calories burned and measuring heart rate but new research has cast doubt on their accuracy. Researchers at Stanford University in California analysed 60 participants who wore a variety of wrist-worn activity measuring devices whiel they were sitting, walking, running and cycling. They were simultaneously assessed with other methods to measure heart rate and energy use.
The study said that overall, the wrist-worn devices 'adequately' measure heart rate but 'poorly estimate' the amount of energy used, which in many devices is measured in calories (kcals). The researchers said an error rate of 5% was what shoudl be considered acceptable, but the median error rate of the devices across tasks varied from 27.4% to 92.6% in some cases. Even in the activity which produced the lower error rate, which was walking, it was still found to be 31.8%. They concluded that none of the wrist-worn monitoring devices reported the energy expenditure 'within an acceptable error range'.
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