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Nobody is asking: Are these step counters accurate? It can be very enlightening to wear two of them (one on each wrist) for a few weeks. I find one is often g

Nobody is asking: Are these step counters accurate? It can be very enlightening to wear two of them (one on each wrist) for a few weeks. I find one is often going to read 50% more than the other one.

sudosysgen 3y ago
If you want you can turn on automatic GPS tracking on most smartwatches so you won't have to worry about that. That said, I haven't had that experience - my watch and my phone are bang on if I am to count the steps myself manually.
lacrimacida 3y ago
You may be moving your arms in different ways. To compare reading counts between two devices I’d use both on the same wrist. But I think in the end it really doesn’t matter how accurate they are if the effect is one that these devices make us move more.
sulam 3y ago
Most tracker apps have a setting you can apply that indicates which wrist you’re wearing it on, your dominant or your non-dominant hand. This is mostly so that the steps algorithm can adjust (somewhat imperfectly) for how your dominant hand sees a lot more motion throughout the day. As such a couple questions are interesting here: 1) are you using that setting, and is it set correctly? 2) are you by any chance ambidextrous? Regarding accuracy in general, a quick scan of the abstract didn’t comment on it, just noting that people who wear trackers tend to be more active and have the health benefits associated with that. In general, step tracking at the wrists is actually fairly difficult and many activities both interfere with recognizing steps (walking a stroller is a big one) or register as steps despite not having taken any (washing the dishes will get you a lot of steps). There’s a reason Fitbit has allowed for wearing a tracker on your hip for many years. You can also enable step tracking on your phone, and it will be quite accurate as long as your phone is in a hip pocket. All of that said, the latest research on the subject shows that you’re best off being active, where activity is defined as 150 minutes per week of heart-rate elevating activity, whether that’s walking or something else. There’s also a strong effect for walking immediately after a meal that has some separate benefit with respect to regulating blood sugar. If you can combine the two, even better.
ikr678 3y ago
They might not be step accurate against each other, or on different wrists, consistently wearing the same one in the same place will give you enough to benchmark your progress - eg the readings will be consistently wrong by the same margin of error.

Nobody is asking: Are these step counters accurate? It can be very enlightening to wear two of them (one on each wrist) for a few weeks. I find one is often going to read 50% more than the other one.

sudosysgen 3y ago

If you want you can turn on automatic GPS tracking on most smartwatches so you won't have to worry about that. That said, I haven't had that experience - my watch and my phone are bang on if I am to count the steps myself manually.

lacrimacida 3y ago

You may be moving your arms in different ways. To compare reading counts between two devices I’d use both on the same wrist. But I think in the end it really doesn’t matter how accurate they are if the effect is one that these devices make us move more.

sulam 3y ago

Most tracker apps have a setting you can apply that indicates which wrist you’re wearing it on, your dominant or your non-dominant hand. This is mostly so that the steps algorithm can adjust (somewhat imperfectly) for how your dominant hand sees a lot more motion throughout the day. As such a couple questions are interesting here: 1) are you using that setting, and is it set correctly? 2) are you by any chance ambidextrous? Regarding accuracy in general, a quick scan of the abstract didn’t comment on it, just noting that people who wear trackers tend to be more active and have the health benefits associated with that. In general, step tracking at the wrists is actually fairly difficult and many activities both interfere with recognizing steps (walking a stroller is a big one) or register as steps despite not having taken any (washing the dishes will get you a lot of steps). There’s a reason Fitbit has allowed for wearing a tracker on your hip for many years. You can also enable step tracking on your phone, and it will be quite accurate as long as your phone is in a hip pocket. All of that said, the latest research on the subject shows that you’re best off being active, where activity is defined as 150 minutes per week of heart-rate elevating activity, whether that’s walking or something else. There’s also a strong effect for walking immediately after a meal that has some separate benefit with respect to regulating blood sugar. If you can combine the two, even better.

ikr678 3y ago

They might not be step accurate against each other, or on different wrists, consistently wearing the same one in the same place will give you enough to benchmark your progress - eg the readings will be consistently wrong by the same margin of error.