Find Out What The Data From Your Smartwatch Actually Means

Over the last decade or so, a growing number of companies have developed tech that measures physical data. This is usually done for the purpose of tracking health and helping people come up with exercise plans.

That being said, when users look down at their Fitbit, Apple Watch, or other smartwatches, they might scratch their heads, wondering what the data represents. From steps and bloop pressure to pace and calorie burning, keep reading to learn what those metrics really mean and how they’re measured.

Calorie burning

One of the most popular uses for a smartwatch or a Fitbit tracker is to help determine how many calories a person is burning during a given workout or as part of a larger weight loss journey.

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Jonathan Borba/Unsplash
Jonathan Borba/Unsplash

Since this metric depends on a body’s energy expenditure, it’s hard to get uniform results because people have different metabolic rates. As Patrick Slade of Stanford University told CNET, “People can’t necessarily just scale the smartwatch estimates by a fixed amount to make them accurate for everyone.”