The best fitness trackers can improve a user’s health, but not necessarily on their own. That’s because a fitness tracker can produce plenty of data, but it’s down to users to actually interpret the information provided.
While a fitness tracker can suggest you get up and go for a walk, for example, it still relies on the wearer choosing to be active. That may sound obvious, but it’s worth reiterating that wearing a fitness tracker will only get a user so far when it comes to achieving health-related goals and results.
Evidence does suggest that wearing a fitness tracker promotes a more active lifestyle, though. According to a study published in The Lancet, it’s clear that users were able to lose weight over a three-to-six month review period thanks to use of a fitness tracker.
The research suggests that there is no negative impact of wearable usage, and senior researcher Carol Maher said "a 2-pound weight reduction over three to six months, which was the typical duration of the studies included in the review, is meaningful from a population health perspective, offsetting about two to three years of weight creep that we tend to see in the general population."