These devices range from smart watches to purpose-built health trackers, and they are capable of tracking a variety of data that allows users to better understand their own habits and activities. A mindful practice that allows you to enjoy healthy food and understand portion size and fullness is a more sustainable approach.Technology makes it easier than ever to stay healthy, but how do fitness trackers work and how accurate are the measurements they take?įitness trackers have become the go-to accessories over the last several years, and it seems that everyone is wearing some sort of smart device to help them reach their health goals and maintain healthy habits. Counting calories feels like a short term solution that might not be long lasting. The true skills of wellness, weight loss, and health are built in a mindful way that take time, practice, and persistence. Being restricted by data regarding calories, especially when it’s inaccurate, can be stressful, cumbersome to manage, and in the end… defeating. I believe that being able to enjoy food and prepare nourishing meals that are satisfying is an important part of life. I work with my clients on understanding what it means to stop at 80% fullness and how to build this skill into your nutrition practice. It seems to me that building the skills of portion control and fullness are more long term, sustainable concepts in the realm of health and wellness than are counting calories in and out for the rest of your life. It should be more about being connected to how you feel – while you are eating and after you are eating. My philosophy has always been much less about having to calculate calories in and out, that’s flawed science. So, where does this leave us and why is it important to know this information? Well, if you are relying on a treadmill, watch, or calorie calculator to indicate calories burned in order to guide your decisions about daily calorie intake, you may want to find a different strategy. As a matter of fact, you can see in this article that none of the smartwatches tested showed an accuracy rate above 20%. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the 2,000 calories you think you just burned crushing your workout is probably at least 50% off. The algorithm used in these devices is most likely based on age, gender, and maybe a few other simple inputs, that give you an estimate as to how many calories you are burning during a workout. So, unless your smartwatch or cardio machine is hooked up to a calorimeter and hydrostatic weighing pod, you are relying on a simple algorithm. Lean muscle mass is part of the equation as is total body fat percentage. This process is dependent on many things besides gas exchange, age, gender, and activity level. The only way to truly measure calories is to measure how much oxygen is going in and how much carbon dioxide is coming out. What are Calories?Ĭalories are a measure of energy. With so many variables at play, the only way to accurately determine how many calories you are burning is by getting into a laboratory. The most sophisticated smartwatch might know a few things about you that will help zero in on a guess as to how many calories you burned, but really, it is still a guess at best. The real problem here is that the calculation of the amount of calories burned is way off! The watch, the app, the cardio machine is misleading us when it comes to the number of calories burned while training. So, the obvious fix here is to refuel with more nutritious whole foods that are less processed and lower in carbohydrates and sugar, but you already knew that. For starters, the calories with which you choose to replenish post workout will determine how your body responds hormonally. So, that gives me license to consume an extra 2,000 calories today… snarfing down pasta, bread, wine, and ice cream. A one-mile run, 100 push-ups, 100 air squats, 100 sit-ups… Great job! My watch showed that I just burned 2,000 calories doing that workout.
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