Fitness Bands

[Gornilla]

Are the devices a gimmick or are they worth buying to monitor activities?

[So Is Es]

Some info

 

 

You may have heard of the Fitbit or the UP band: $50-ish to $100-ish wristbands that measure your steps throughout the day, like a high-tech pedometer, and display your progress as a graph on your smartphone.

But this product category has exploded well beyond those common names. There's the Nike+ FuelBand, Garmin Vivofit, the Basis Peak, the Magellan Echo, the Misfit Shine, and on and on. Health tracking is also built into the Apple Watch and the Samsung Gear watches. Wearable fitness monitoring has become a $1.15-billion industry.

All these gadgets count steps. Most also measure sleep, revealing fascinating details about the one third of your life that you spend unconscious. The fancier models can also tabulate other metrics, including heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, perspiration, body weight and body mass.

That's the great appeal. These gadgets allow us, mere untrained mortals, to gauge what only doctors used to measure. We gain knowledge about the workings of our own bodies—by monitoring measurements continuously, not once a year at a physical.

Meet the quantified-self movement. It's a Web site, it's a conference, it's communities of people, some of whom are raising self-monitoring to the level of obsession.

Millions of people making a greater effort to get healthy and fit—who could argue with that?

There are a couple of obvious problems with the mad rush to quantify ourselves, though—and to sell us gadgets for it.

First, we're almost certainly ascribing more precision to these devices than they deserve. If you wear three brands of fitness band, you'll rack up three different step counts by the end of each day. And don't get sleep scientists started on the accuracy of those sleep graphs; according to researchers, it's brain waves, not wrist movement, that indicate what stage of sleep you're in.

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But you know what? It doesn't matter. These devices are succeeding not because of their scientific qualities but because of their motivational ones. We all know we should move more and sleep better—but with slow decline, most of us don't bother.

What the fitness bands do is to keep these issues front-of-mind. There it is, every time you turn on your phone: the latest stats on your progress. Most also show the results of friends who wear the same brand; it's fitness through humiliation.

In other words, the accuracy really makes little difference; the point is to keep us aware, to gamify our efforts. In that way, these bands really work. You wind up parking farther away, getting off the bus a stop earlier, going for a walk down the block to bring your 9,374 daily step count up to your 10,000-step goal.

The other concern is less easily dismissed: the data. Terabytes of personal health data, amassed daily in stunning quantities. It's the world's biggest health study—and nobody's running it.

Researchers would love to get their hands on that information. So would advertisers. Insurance companies would have a field day; they could offer active members lower rates than sedentary sloths. (Our rates are already higher if we're smokers or drivers with bad records.)

Who owns the data? Will the makers of the fitness bands sell personal information? Will it be anonymous and aggregated or associated with us by name? What if we want to contribute our data—to a doctor? To a research study?

It's the Wild West at the moment. We're collecting mountains of personal health data and just shoving them into underground caverns. The real promise of the quantified-self movement may not be fulfilled until we determine how to find the gold in those data—and who gets to do the looking.

[Dazshell]

Interesting observation from a dietician.  She said that a lot of people justify eating more when they wear them because they are now fooled into thinking they are exercising when they see how many steps/calories they have burnt in a day!  Even though they aren't actually doing any extra exercise!

[Fisan]

Who owns the data? Will the makers of the fitness bands sell personal information? Will it be anonymous and aggregated or associated with us by name? What if we want to contribute our data—to a doctor? To a research study?

 

Interesting you ask that.

 

I know someone that works at a certain "fitness band development company". This person told me that the physical technology they are developing is almost secondary to the data collection aspect. Selling user's metrics to other companies bring in much more $$$ than selling devices.

 

But I don't have a problem with that. I'm using Movescount for example, and similarly to Google Services I allow all my metrics to be submitted to the lab coat geeks to further develop and improve these devices we are using.

[Bub Marley]

Discovery giving all their vitality members free apple watches from next year on condition you meet your fitness targets. Stay tuned

[BarHugger]

A friend drove to his farm on a very bad corrugated dirt road the other day......his wrist thingymagic indicated a record 10,000 steps in 30min......

 

.....just shake it all off.

[Latent_Blue]

A friend drove to his farm on a very bad corrugated dirt road the other day......his wrist thingymagic indicated a record 10,000 steps in 30min......

 

.....just shake it all off.

OMW he must have lost at least a kg or 2!!!

[corriekuilder]

Discovery giving all their vitality members free apple watches from next year on condition you meet your fitness targets. Stay tuned

That would be nice,lol

[MrFine]

OMW he must have lost at least a kg or 2!!!

Was raking up all the leaves the other morning and within 30min my M400 said I have completed 100% of my trainning today.Did'nt even break a sweat.But alls good.Still works well when used for trainning sessions.

[Latent_Blue]

Discovery giving all their vitality members free apple watches from next year on condition you meet your fitness targets. Stay tuned

I should get a fitbit and find some dirt roads then!!!

[SwissVan]

Don't have one nor do i want one BUT

 

I think they have merit for your average non sporty person who is not active at all (at work or home). One function i like is if you can set it to keep reminding you to move i.e. if you sit all day at a desk at work and it senses when you been sitting for to long and then lights / vibrates / beeps telling you to get up and move...

[peds]

I used the polar loop with Heart rate monitor, it gives you good data but what do you do with it? it is limited and gives you the same data your iPhone or Android device can at this stage. To me they arent worth it unless there is a specific heart rate zone you need to train in.

 

And yes I agree with the statement that when you wear one of these devices you actually land up cheating more because you look at your wrist and say "Oh look i have reached my goal for the day". Just my 2 cents.

[peds]

Discovery giving all their vitality members free apple watches from next year on condition you meet your fitness targets. Stay tuned

People think you are joking, but in fact this is true. I wonder how strict it will be to meet that criteria or targets! either way I will be getting one.

[Grebel]

I recently started using the SHealth App on my Samsung and I must say that it certainly is a motivational tool... setting a calorie goal along with the daily step target has changed the way I do things daily. That walk into the factory isn't such a mission any more and that mid afternoon snack isn't all that appealing anymore [emoji6]

[Albatross]

aren't fitness bands made for golfers   

[SwissVan]

aren't fitness bands made for golfers   

 

Walking 18 holes of golf carrying / pushing your own bag (golf bag!!) will achieve the recommended daily activity goals easily....