I wore six fitness watches for 6,000 steps. This brand was the most accurate.

[AC News]

Can you count on any smartwatch to accurately detect if you've walked 10,000 steps? Our Fitness Editor did a (really tedious) test to find out.

I wore six fitness watches for 6,000 steps. This brand was the most accurate. : Read more

 

[gomezz]

For normal use it is more important that you can rely on the same device to consistently report steps, distance etc for comparison from one day or session to the next.

 

[Sandip Agarwal]

When measuring ppg data of these watches we should wear the watch 1 finger away from wrist bone:-

The correct way would be to test it this way
1 have only 2 watches at a time , 1 in each hand.

2 count the steps manually

3 swap the watches after 1 round of testing step 1 and take out average

Now publish the correct report

 

[johnf]

Recent studies have shown that the health benefits from walking 10000 steps versus 3500 is very little. Less than 3500 the benefits drop dramatically. If course, there is nothing wrong with walking more, but that time could be spent in other activities that provide more benefits. It's all a personal choice anyway so none of it matters as long as one does something to manager their weight and gets a regular medical checkup.

Tell your physician to read more.

Thanks for the excellent article though!

 

[gomezz]

Apparently the 10,000 step thing came from the advertising blurb for one of the early Japanese devices as the Kanji alphabet symbols for 10K look like someone running.

 

[Ranger Ric]

I wore six fitness watches for 6,000 steps. This brand was the most accurate.​

By Michael L Hicks published about 10 hours ago

Mr. Hicks, your comment"...Doctors tell us to try and get 10,000 steps a day,..." no, they do not. If a doctor does tell someone to achieve 10,000 steps a day their thinking and comment is based on a myth. So where did the concept of 10,000 steps a day come from? Read: https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/11/30/10000-steps-myth-or-fact-13636 therein it reads, quote:
"...In 1965, Japanese company Yamasa Toki introduced their new step-counter, which they called Manpo-Kei. This translated into “10,000 steps meter” and they marketed their device with the slogan, “Let’s walk 10,000 steps a day.” Japanese walking clubs were fairly popular at that time and the idea of a 10,000-step target seems to have caught on because the slogan was catchy and people tend to like nice round numbers. The rest, as they say, is history..."
Unquote.

The above knowledge has been around since 1965. So, whenever someone tells me 10,000 steps a day I provide the above information. I have been informing folks the above for decades So, back to your statement about doctors recommending 10,000 steps per day, it is truly a myth.

 

[fechhelm]

And yet none of the fitness trackers work as well as the phone in my pocket when grocery shopping or cutting grass.

 

[eng3]

I agree, the 10k steps is just a marketing myth someone made up. None of my doctors have ever told me to walk a certain number of steps. Steps can vary. How fast are you walking? Are you walking up or down a slope? Are your legs long or short? Sure, walking 10k steps is better than 0 steps, you don't need a fancy study to show that. The whole point is to get off your couch and get your heart (and other muscles) working. It's funny when I see some people get up every hour when they don't reach their goal and walk around in circles to reach a magic step limit. Sometimes while eating a snack at the same time.

That's why even Google Fit follows the AHA recommendation to go by MINUTES. "Moderate" Exercise for 150min per week or about 30min 5 days/week or 20-30min per day. Ofcourse "Moderate" is hard to measure since it is hard for one to know if they are exercising enough and it is easy to cheat yourself. There are various definitions like heart rate of 180-(age) or exerting yourself until it is hard to hold a conversation or sing or when you start sweating. Ofcourse, none of these are perfect measures. Maybe you have a poor lungs, maybe you're in a hot room, maybe your on blood pressure medication that lowers your heart rate. The fitness watch makers invented "Active Minutes" to based it on your heart rate and a zone based on your max heart rate. This is a far better measure to go by than steps.

Sorry for the rant, I find it annoying when marketing hype confuses the general population with actual clinical guidelines.

How about a review comparing heart rate accuracy both resting and while exercising?

I remember comparing many and settling on the fitbit as being fairly accurate. My main use is while I'm exercising to make sure my HR is in a certain range I made up. Just for fun, I also try to see how accurate it is at guessing my carlorie burn. I find it is way off and thinks I burn a lot more than I do. If I ate as much as it thinks I burn in a day, I would gain alot of weight. I think there's even a clinical study that showed this. Ofcourse it's hard to know what your BMR is, but it's obvious the the formula doesnt work for everyone. I have to lower my height by about a foot to get it close to my actual calorie burn. I am getting ready to dump the fitbit because it no longer automatically syncs with my phone it literally will take over an hour to do a manual sync sometimes.

 

[belodion]

All this within a couple of minutes of trying to read. I have no idea what you wrote.

 

[Hielko]

The biggest problem with the step counting is the number of fake steps. For example the steps during biking (Samsung watches and Samsung Health on the phone), or steps during your sleep, or steps when cooking. With a concrete walking or running activity I believe that most step trackers will be more or less accurate. But it is with all the other things you do during the day (or night) that step tracking becomes highly unreliable.

 

[gomezz]

I agree, the 10k steps is just a marketing myth someone made up. None of my doctors have ever told me to walk a certain number of steps. Steps can vary. How fast are you walking? Are you walking up or down a slope? Are your legs long or short? Sure, walking 10k steps is better than 0 steps, you don't need a fancy study to show that. The whole point is to get off your couch and get your heart (and other muscles) working. It's funny when I see some people get up every hour when they don't reach their goal and walk around in circles to reach a magic step limit. Sometimes while eating a snack at the same time.

That's why even Google Fit follows the AHA recommendation to go by MINUTES. "Moderate" Exercise for 150min per week or about 30min 5 days/week or 20-30min per day. Ofcourse "Moderate" is hard to measure since it is hard for one to know if they are exercising enough and it is easy to cheat yourself. There are various definitions like heart rate of 180-(age) or exerting yourself until it is hard to hold a conversation or sing or when you start sweating. Ofcourse, none of these are perfect measures. Maybe you have a poor lungs, maybe you're in a hot room, maybe your on blood pressure medication that lowers your heart rate. The fitness watch makers invented "Active Minutes" to based it on your heart rate and a zone based on your max heart rate. This is a far better measure to go by than steps.

Sorry for the rant, I find it annoying when marketing hype confuses the general population with actual clinical guidelines.

How about a review comparing heart rate accuracy both resting and while exercising?

I remember comparing many and settling on the fitbit as being fairly accurate. My main use is while I'm exercising to make sure my HR is in a certain range I made up. Just for fun, I also try to see how accurate it is at guessing my carlorie burn. I find it is way off and thinks I burn a lot more than I do. If I ate as much as it thinks I burn in a day, I would gain alot of weight. I think there's even a clinical study that showed this. Ofcourse it's hard to know what your BMR is, but it's obvious the the formula doesnt work for everyone. I have to lower my height by about a foot to get it close to my actual calorie burn. I am getting ready to dump the fitbit because it no longer automatically syncs with my phone it literally will take over an hour to do a manual sync sometimes.

 

[gomezz]

I usually hit 10K a day and sometimes much more but last week was not well for a few days so did much less as I stayed indoors rather take my daily constitutional. Still managed to only fall half a day's worth short over the week and when averaged out over the previous and following weeks will still be comfortably above.

In any case what I find a better indicator of my general fitness and health is what my resting heart rate is.

 

[northwoods69]

Made an account just to leave this screen shot.
it's sites like this why I just watch tech news on Youtube without ads and this mess.

And why wasn't the pixel watch included in this test for steps?

 

[finbaar]

Made an account just to leave this screen shot.
it's sites like this why I just watch tech news on Youtube without ads and this mess.

And why wasn't the pixel watch included in this test for steps?

Try reading the article.

 

[finbaar]

Wow, a lot of people missing the point of this article. One even complaining that "you must wear the watches correctly". Come on people, try harder.

The conclusion is - it doesn't matter, the watches will measure your steps. Anything will do fine.