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Fitness trackers ‘accurate on heart rate, but not calorie consumption’
Consumer fitness trackers generally offer much more accurate readings of heart rates than calorie consumption, a new study has shown.
The Stanford University School of Medicine research analysed the performance of seven different commercially available wristband activity trackers – the Apple Watch, Basis Peak, Fitbit Surge, Microsoft Band, Mio Alpha 2, PulseOn and Samsung Gear S2 – in 60 volunteers.
It was shown that six of the devices measured heart rate with an error rate of less than five percent, with some units proving more accurate than others, while factors such as skin colour and body mass index affected the measurements.
By contrast, none of the seven devices measured energy expenditure and calorie burning accurately, with even the best-performing tracker off by an average of 27 percent, while the worst was off by 93 percent.
The degree of the inaccuracy surprised the researchers, who said it demonstrates the difficulty of developing an algorithm that would be accurate across a variety of people, as energy expenditure depends on a wide range of individual factors.
Euan Ashley, professor of cardiovascular medicine, genetics and biomedical data science at Stanford University, said the results were noteworthy because many "are basing life decisions on the data provided by these devices".
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