How do Fitness Trackers Work?
he hardest part of sticking to a diet and exercise plan is keeping track of your daily activities and calorie burn. Who am I Kiddin! The hardest part is obviously stay away from those industrial sized boxes of doughnuts at Krispy Kreme or Tim Hortons for our Canadian readers. Even so keeping an eye on your workout goals and nutrition can be quite challenging which is why companies have tried to capitalize on the growing wearable market by selling fitness trackers that you can take anywhere and wear on your wrist. These are very versatile multi-purpose devices that do everything from keeping track of what you're doing telling you how much you burned off compared to the last night's big ‘mac’ and even warn you to get the heck out of the Sun if you're exercising outside for too long so you don't end up looking like a lobster.
Inside a fitness tracker
So how does something that size do this much stuff? Well inside your average fitness tracker, you'll find tons of components, some of which are standard fare in smart phones such as accelerometers that allow the tracker to tell how many steps you are taking and a GPS to track distances. However, unlike your Smartphone some fitness trackers especially nicer ones have more advanced motion sensors that are not only more accurate but can use positional data to determine exactly what exercise you're doing. That way it can remember exactly which one you've done and track your workouts automatically.
Heart rate sensors
But what about heart rate tracking? This is important to different people that want to get their heart beating at a certain rate for conditioning or weight loss. Some trackers use light to figure out how hard your heart is working. They shine light at your skin that's powerful enough to light up your capillaries - those are the little blood vessels close to the skin surface and figure out how much blood is flowing based on how much light is reflected back. Higher end models like Polar H7 and Wahoo Tickr even measure your skin's electrical impedance, which fluctuates, based on how fast your heart beats. This is the same tech used in those heart rate monitors on Jim treadmills as well as those electronic fat percentage meters that tell you how bad you should feel about yourself.
Other sensors
Additional sensors measure everything from perspiration levels to wrist movements in order to track sleep patterns and give recommendations as to how you can improve your sleep habits so you have enough energy to actually drive yourself to the gym the next day. There are special ultraviolet sensors that only track UV light so your tracker won't scream a sunburn warning at you just because you've been sitting inside a bright room.
Calorie tracking
But as cool as all this sounds one key feature of many current fitness trackers still has some room for improvement - calorie tracking. Real calorimeters that can give you a precise measurement of how many calories you've burned are extremely expensive. So wearable trackers use user input data like age, weight, sex along with the data from motion and temperature sensors to spit out an estimate. Although these estimates can still give you a good idea of your actual calorie burn, they along with many other fitness tracker metrics that we have discussed especially stuff like step counting should be taken with a grain of salt especially if they can vary quite a bit between different models. The good news though is that in a recent study it was suggested that fitness trackers tend to underestimate how many calories you've burned. so if you're trying to burn as much as possible maybe don't feel too bad about that extra mac double you ate in the parking lot when you thought no one was looking.
Inside a fitness tracker
So how does something that size do this much stuff? Well inside your average fitness tracker, you'll find tons of components, some of which are standard fare in smart phones such as accelerometers that allow the tracker to tell how many steps you are taking and a GPS to track distances. However, unlike your Smartphone some fitness trackers especially nicer ones have more advanced motion sensors that are not only more accurate but can use positional data to determine exactly what exercise you're doing. That way it can remember exactly which one you've done and track your workouts automatically.
Heart rate sensors
But what about heart rate tracking? This is important to different people that want to get their heart beating at a certain rate for conditioning or weight loss. Some trackers use light to figure out how hard your heart is working. They shine light at your skin that's powerful enough to light up your capillaries - those are the little blood vessels close to the skin surface and figure out how much blood is flowing based on how much light is reflected back. Higher end models like Polar H7 and Wahoo Tickr even measure your skin's electrical impedance, which fluctuates, based on how fast your heart beats. This is the same tech used in those heart rate monitors on Jim treadmills as well as those electronic fat percentage meters that tell you how bad you should feel about yourself.
Other sensors
Additional sensors measure everything from perspiration levels to wrist movements in order to track sleep patterns and give recommendations as to how you can improve your sleep habits so you have enough energy to actually drive yourself to the gym the next day. There are special ultraviolet sensors that only track UV light so your tracker won't scream a sunburn warning at you just because you've been sitting inside a bright room.
Calorie tracking
But as cool as all this sounds one key feature of many current fitness trackers still has some room for improvement - calorie tracking. Real calorimeters that can give you a precise measurement of how many calories you've burned are extremely expensive. So wearable trackers use user input data like age, weight, sex along with the data from motion and temperature sensors to spit out an estimate. Although these estimates can still give you a good idea of your actual calorie burn, they along with many other fitness tracker metrics that we have discussed especially stuff like step counting should be taken with a grain of salt especially if they can vary quite a bit between different models. The good news though is that in a recent study it was suggested that fitness trackers tend to underestimate how many calories you've burned. so if you're trying to burn as much as possible maybe don't feel too bad about that extra mac double you ate in the parking lot when you thought no one was looking.
Moov Smart Coach – Your new companion
You may have heard of Moov probably because Moov had a wildly successful crowd funding campaign raising its goal in just 90 minutes and selling 1 million dollars in pre-orders in just 14 days. The device itself is small about the size of an Oreo and very lightweight. It’s a fitness tracker but it's definitely more of a coach / drill sergeant than a pedometer. It still tracks your steps, calories burned and distance traveled but only for your workouts. That’s because this device is one hundred percent focused on helping you train smarter. For now move can help you with running, walking, sprinting, cardio, boxing and swimming but soon will be able to also guide you through body weight and cycling workouts.
Unlike other devices out there, it won't remind you to work out but it will help you get the most out of your workout. But how? Well the Moov works in tandem with your phone or tablet at least for most of the exercises. For swimming, you won't really use your phone much. For walking, running, sprinting Moov is strapped your ankle and that's pretty much it. You select either brisk walking, running efficiency, sprint intervals or speed endurance and then you start your run. Moov will use Siri to provide timely feedback during your exercise.
Most running exercises are broken up into three or more segments. Moov will provide guidance with regard to speed, cadence and form during each segment and it will advise on whether to go up or down a level after each segment. It’s pretty simple but if you follow moves directions you will absolutely be at your knees by the end of the workout. It’s like having a relentless coach in your ear that won't let you give up. It’s pretty remarkable. Honestly at times, it can be annoying. Therefore, you should definitely use Moov if you're looking to improve and not just if you want to go for a leisurely run. You can still listen to music, access Siri and make calls while using the Moov. But I found that after taking a call the Moov system stopped working properly. I think this is just a minor software issue.
I was also able to test out the cardio boxing app, which I thought was more of a game similar to something that you find on the Microsoft Kinect or the Wii. I think the system is good and when I tried it, it was a taxing work out but it wasn't as mind-blowing as the running app and it requires two Moovs which didn't seem worth it for me. it will however provide a lot of interesting data that you won't see from the wii or the connect. I really am looking forward to the release of the cycling and bodyweight apps; but for now, I've got my hands full improving my running game.
Now I mentioned that the Moov guides you during your workout but it also provides a lot of data after your workout. Granted a lot of it is not actionable but it's still cool to see. for a run you can check out basic information like time elapsed, distance, calories burned, steps as well as running specific info such as segment information, difficulty level, results average, pace, cadence, impact, range of motion, pace and elevation. So it's pretty clear that i think Moov is terrifyingly good at its job and i have no doubt that after a few weeks with the Moov you'll get in much better shape.
I also think it falls short in a few areas and had some software glitches. I think the feedback can become a little annoying in certain instances particularly when it keeps telling me the same things I was hoping that the device would learn that that particular piece of guidance was not helping and then it would move on. Instead, it keeps pestering me. There is also no GPS. Therefore, you have to use another app for that and it won't sync or share any of your data with other prominent apps. Battery life is acceptable but I wish it were better. It seemed to get about four to five workouts for me.
Unlike other devices out there, it won't remind you to work out but it will help you get the most out of your workout. But how? Well the Moov works in tandem with your phone or tablet at least for most of the exercises. For swimming, you won't really use your phone much. For walking, running, sprinting Moov is strapped your ankle and that's pretty much it. You select either brisk walking, running efficiency, sprint intervals or speed endurance and then you start your run. Moov will use Siri to provide timely feedback during your exercise.
Most running exercises are broken up into three or more segments. Moov will provide guidance with regard to speed, cadence and form during each segment and it will advise on whether to go up or down a level after each segment. It’s pretty simple but if you follow moves directions you will absolutely be at your knees by the end of the workout. It’s like having a relentless coach in your ear that won't let you give up. It’s pretty remarkable. Honestly at times, it can be annoying. Therefore, you should definitely use Moov if you're looking to improve and not just if you want to go for a leisurely run. You can still listen to music, access Siri and make calls while using the Moov. But I found that after taking a call the Moov system stopped working properly. I think this is just a minor software issue.
I was also able to test out the cardio boxing app, which I thought was more of a game similar to something that you find on the Microsoft Kinect or the Wii. I think the system is good and when I tried it, it was a taxing work out but it wasn't as mind-blowing as the running app and it requires two Moovs which didn't seem worth it for me. it will however provide a lot of interesting data that you won't see from the wii or the connect. I really am looking forward to the release of the cycling and bodyweight apps; but for now, I've got my hands full improving my running game.
Now I mentioned that the Moov guides you during your workout but it also provides a lot of data after your workout. Granted a lot of it is not actionable but it's still cool to see. for a run you can check out basic information like time elapsed, distance, calories burned, steps as well as running specific info such as segment information, difficulty level, results average, pace, cadence, impact, range of motion, pace and elevation. So it's pretty clear that i think Moov is terrifyingly good at its job and i have no doubt that after a few weeks with the Moov you'll get in much better shape.
I also think it falls short in a few areas and had some software glitches. I think the feedback can become a little annoying in certain instances particularly when it keeps telling me the same things I was hoping that the device would learn that that particular piece of guidance was not helping and then it would move on. Instead, it keeps pestering me. There is also no GPS. Therefore, you have to use another app for that and it won't sync or share any of your data with other prominent apps. Battery life is acceptable but I wish it were better. It seemed to get about four to five workouts for me.