10 Advantages of Fitness Tracker & 5 Disadvantages of it

Introduction: The use of smartphones has increased dramatically. As a result, the use of smartphone compatible devices such as smart watches, pedometers, activity trackers and fitness trackers have also risen. Let us explore benefits and limitations of fitness trackers.

What are Fitness Trackers?

• Fitness trackers usually come in the form of watches or wristbands.
• They are used for various measurements such as distance traveled, sleep tracking, calories burned, and heart rate monitoring.
• Modern fitness trackers are used with smartphones to receive calls, reply to texts or emails, and manage schedules.
• They provide storage capacity to store information for further analysis.

• With advancements in wireless technologies, fitness trackers are available with GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular connectivity. This makes them seamlessly connected with wireless devices at all times.
• The figure depicts some of the best fitness trackers from Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Apple, and Fitbit.
• Fitness trackers store all-day activities, remind users to move, and also provide battery status information for charging. They provide calendar alerts for users to remind them about useful events.

Advantages of Fitness Trackers

The following are some of the benefits of fitness trackers:

1. They track all day activity and help you reach your fitness goals.
2. Using one, you can set goals and track progress in order to improve.
3. They are also very effective in helping people lose weight.
4. They are cheaper and non-invasive.
5. They are easy to use with the touch of buttons using well designed apps.
6. They can be used for common sports activities at schools, colleges, and workplaces. This makes large group analysis very cost-effective.
7. The fitness tracker provides lots of information while you work out at home or at the gym, such as calories burned, distance traveled, and cardio level. Moreover, it provides previous days’ information in order to track from its memory storage. This motivates you to do regular exercises.
8. The regular use of fitness trackers keeps you hale and healthy.
9. Modern devices come with a large OLED display screen which is very convenient to use.
10. Emerging technologies and tools have made it affordable for all.

Disadvantages of Fitness Trackers

The following are some of the drawbacks of fitness trackers:

1. Some devices do not provide results with desired accuracies. There are chances of errors, injuries, and inaccurate diet information.
2. The devices can be tampered with by participants in sports and fitness related competitions.
3. The battery drains faster when you listen to music while exercising.
4. Fitness trackers with more features are expensive.
5. Wearing it for the whole day might cause inconvenience during working hours.

Conclusion : Fitness trackers offer a convenient way to monitor health metrics, encourage physical activity, and set personalized fitness goals. They can be motivating tools for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. However, they also come with drawbacks such as privacy concerns, data inaccuracy and potential over-reliance on technology. Overall, fitness trackers can be beneficial when used mindfully and as supplement to professional medical advice rather than a replacement.