There’s been a new trend in the fitness world the last few years – digital devices that track the amount of calories you burn. As people are becoming more aware that an overall calorie deficit is how the body burns fat, they are becoming more interested in tracking calories consumed and calories burned.
The most popular devices include the Polar wrist-watch, Holistic Wrist Jawbone Up, Nike+ FuelBand and Fitbit activity trackers. You wear these gadgets and they track your overall activity levels for the day and allow you to upload your data for daily tracking and further analysis. In most cases, there’s also free iPhone apps to make the process all the easier.
The problem? None of those devices out there work.. very well.
How Should it Work?
While calorie-tracking devices use “best-guess” algorithms to count your total daily steps, the results are usually quite inconsistent and there’s a number of variables that simply don’t get accounted for.
Were those steps all up-hill? Were you climbing stairs for your entire workout? Were you jogging as opposed to walking? Try checking your caloric output after an intense weight-lifting session. The device had no idea that you were doing squats so intensely that you felt like puking after 40 minutes. You’ll be pretty discouraged to learn that you seemingly only burned 50 calories while giving it your all.
At the end of the day, these devices most often prove to be little more than glorified pedometers. More advanced units will also take heart rate into consideration and adjust the caloric burn for a few more activities. Still, there’s no way to track your bench press efforts or weight training of any kind.
The gadgets are still useful, in that you can establish a benchmark for specific activities and they encourage you to meet or beat prior results, but they certainly lack some advanced metrics that would be of great benefit to everyone trying to achieve more specific fitness goals.
There’s no denying the burgeoning market for devices that track calories burned. In another century, we’ll no doubt be looking back and laughing at today’s units that are clearly in the beginning stages of what will ultimately prove to be a lasting fitness trend.
Amiigo Fitness Tracker Bracelet
If you’re the guy who can’t wait for tomorrow and you want the latest super-cool gadget, we present the Amiigo Fitness Tracker Bracelet.
The bracelet comes with it’s own smart-phone app and an attachable shoe-clip and it is the first of it’s kind. This indiegogo startup project will be released in the coming months and it’s revolutionary.
The device is smart enough to distinguish outside jogging from the treadmill or eliptical machine and even adjusts calories burned for a sloppy stride vs a more athletic gait. Want to compare your gait to a professional athlete? It can do that too.
Calories burned and full metrics for sit-ups, curls, squats, crossfit, swimming or rugby? It’s all possible now. Record data for any exercise. The Amiigo will track heart rate, calories burned, speed, intensity and any type of exercise you throw at it. It also tracks variables never before possible, such as blood oxygen levels and skin temperature.
The Amiigo is a more fun way to achieve your fitness goals. You can share data and compete against your friends, share results on Facebook and earn points for new milestones.
The unit is Bluetooth ready, micro-adjustable and available in whatever color you prefer. At just over $100, it’s the fitness device you’ll wonder how you lived without after using it for a few training sessions.
Pre-order now and take your fitness to the next level.
