Fitness trackers are more popular than ever. With a variety of wristbands and clip-on sensors you can measure your steps throughout the day, like a high-tech pedometer, and input your exercise program information and synch your progress on your smartphone or computer. These gadgets allow you to set personal fitness and health goals by tracking health behaviors such as how many calories you consume or burn, how many miles you’ve walked or run, and even telling you how well and long you’ve slept. You can even set an alarm that will buzz or beep if you’ve been idle too long to remind you to get up and move. The fancier models can also tabulate other metrics, including heart rate, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, perspiration, body weight and body mass. 
But how effective are they at tracking exercise? Most studies agree that if you wore all of the most popular trackers at once, you’d get different results from each one.
Fitness trackers are most effective as a motivational tool. They help to increase physical activity among wearers, and studies have shown that they are associated with significant decreases in BMI and blood pressure, as well as a consistent pattern of weight loss. Even a simple, low-cost, digital pedometer seems to be effective at just getting people to move, regardless of calories burned or other personal health measurements.
So while some trackers are more accurate than others, the point is to keep us aware of what we do or don’t do during the course of a day. If it helps you stay motivated toward healthy behaviors, that’s never a bad thing.
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