Are smartwatches & health trackers fit for purpose?

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Hello and welcome. I'm Harry kind. I'm Grace Forell. And this is Get Answers for living your best consumer life. When life gives you questions,

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which get answers on get answers today, we aren't blowing away those January blues and trying to answer your questions about the gadgets that can make getting active that little bit easier. So Grace, do you have a New Year's resolution? Do you know my New Year's resolution is carving out time for things better, because I'm just very busy. And there's lots going on. And I find that I need to carve time out for stuff. Otherwise, it just doesn't get done. And everything just kind of gets blurred. I would also like to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier because I find that I'm just at my most productive first thing in the morning. What if only there were a gadget that could tracks?

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Like I was thinking about what we're talking about episode? Well, I'm trying to be less sedentary, that pretty similar, you know, just being that mindful about exercise. And I'm basically not alone. It's a very basic New Year's resolution. And analysis of Google search data reveals that searches for gym membership are a whopping 234% higher in January than any other months. So it's pretty predictable. Yeah, yeah. You'd think it would like not always happen every single year, but it does. It is yeah, and we are sadly predictable. People only wanted to get fit for one month. But we are embracing good intentions, all those for health and fitness. And we're going to see if the world of smart tech so that's gadgets from the likes of Fitbit, Apple Watch and others, can they really make a difference to our lives? To do that, I'm pleased to say that we're joined in the studio by two guests who can only be described as well fit. It is the brilliant fitness influencer and qualified personal trainer, Amy Lou Jones. Hello, and wearable tech expert from the which product testing team. It's Amy Axworthy. Hi. Yeah. Hello, both and welcome to the show. Right, so many Amy's so little time, we've got Amy J and Amy a Amy J being influencer Amy a being which person? Tell us about yourselves. Amy Jay. I mean, this is a very basic question. How did you first get into health and fitness and become interested in it? Well, I first started working out probably about seven years ago, but that was just going to classes with friends. But then I suffered quite a bad problem with my spine. And my physio basically said, if I didn't want to be in pain for the rest of my life, I had to get my body very strong. So that's when it became a non negotiable for me. And I guess I started bugging them. Very nice. And to this day you blog on Instagram, you share your advice and inspiration for your followers? I do indeed. Well, Amy, a Can you give us a little bit of definition of what we're talking about here? When we say fitness trackers, wearables Health Tech, what do we mean really? Yeah, so a wearable device is a smart device, basically, that can track different elements of your health and your fitness, as well as doing a lot of other smart and cool features as well. The differences between smartwatches and fitness trackers are becoming very blurred nowadays. But in general, a smartwatch is a bit more sophisticated and often pairs with like your smartphone a bit more seamlessly. They're often made by the same manufacturers. But equally fitness trackers can still give you a lot of the benefits that you'll find in smartwatches. Am I right in thinking smartwatches are more typically like the big round face that you can see your notifications on. And then fitness trackers are more of the kind of the slim band. Yes, exactly. So a lot of smartwatches have been called you know, a smartphone on your wrist. So they try to have a bit of a bigger screen so you can do a lot more on them. Whereas with a fitness tracker, you genuinely don't need all that real estate of the screen. So you can see everything a lot smaller. So that might suit people wanting something a bit more subtle in their day to day lives. I suppose go back years and years starting from things like pedometers or bike computers. I remember having one of those growing up and now all internet connected tracking you all the time. Yeah, it feels like we've come a very long way from a pedometer being kind of the only tracking you can do. There's a whole plethora of features out there that you can utilize. Amy, you use a fair bit of tech, these kinds of fitness trackers and and others when keeping fit. What gadgets Do you have? I personally use a Fitbit. That's the one that I use my views for years and years, but also not just kind of dedicated smart tech, you use your computer, use your phone and all sorts. How do you do that? I do. Indeed, I'm frequently teased for being the person who has the most apps on their phone than anyone probably in the world. That's because I have an app for pretty much everything. It's because I'd often find that there was something I wanted to do or try but I didn't know how to go about it like when I'd only run for one minute and then I suddenly wanted to do a 10k Obviously it took a bit of time. So I've got apps on my phone for things to do with running. I've got stretching ones. I've got ones to help me sleep, I've got meditation. I've got ones where I've got my training programs, my

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Personal Trainer, I also have an Excel spreadsheet of my 2024 goals, because I wanted to make a vision board. But that's just not how my mind works. Wow, that is inspirational it is and a lot cheaper than a very fancy watch, I should think, when it comes to your actual fitness tracker, What features does it happen? And what do you actually use it for? The ones I personally use the most are the ones to track my important daily habits. So how well I've slept, my steps and my fitness for the week. And I just find that even though these things are quite embedded in my life now, say I'm working from home, I look at my watch. And I'm absolutely horrified at how few steps I've done, because all I've done is gone to the toilet or gone to eat snacks all day. And that's my prompt to get out and actually get my steps in. So it kind of keeps maintaining my behaviors. It's very useful. I mean, what aren't limits when it comes to these? What features are out there in smart devices? Yeah, so smart devices have come a very long way. And there are lots of different health and fitness features that you can use the most common that we see nowadays a heart rate monitoring. And some people might say, Why do I need to know that? What's the importance of it. But it can sometimes be really important when you're exercising to make sure your heart rate doesn't get too high. Or even in your day to day, you know, if you're feeling quite stressed, you might be able to kind of think, Oh, my heart rates a bit high. Maybe there's something going on here that I haven't thought about yet. Well, Amy, that's a horrible segue to make. But you've got some experience of heart rate. And then the importance I do indeed, so I suffered a stroke in 2022. And obviously, I had lots of tests because I shouldn't have had a stroke. And one of the things that I found out was that one of the reasons you can have a stroke is a problem with your heart. And it was actually the breathing analysis, which is all related. My heart rate was always incredibly high. Like people have been saying to me for a long time, your heart rate shouldn't be this high. Like when I was running, as soon as I stepped one step and running, it would go up to like 140. And then it would stay even when people can walk past me when I'm running. I'm that slow. But yet my heart rate was still that high. So in terms of the breathing analysis on my Fitbit, it shows that I kept going into like to hire an oxygen variation while I was asleep. And obviously oxygen is related to breathing is related to heart. So I had a feeling that the thing that would come back would be that I had a problem with my heart which the doctors confirmed. And how are you doing now? I'm good. Yeah, had an operation nearly a year on my heart. And I'm thinking Well, fantastic. Very good to hear. Amy, what other features are there at there? Yeah. So you mentioned measuring the kind of oxygen levels in your blood, that's a lot more of a common one. Now, sorry, how can a watch measure the oxygen levels inside your blood? Well, this is the thing, it's really important to know that these are not medical grade devices in the same way that you might use an actual separate device. But they can give you a guide as to they use different sensors on your skin. And that's the case for every measurement that is done. And they will do it slightly differently, which is another thing to know. And they will have different accuracy levels because of that. But it can act as a really good guide. If you think oh, maybe something's not quite right here, we always recommend go and see your doctor. And not just rely on that data. But it can definitely be a good prompt to double check something. It's amazing to think because I'm wearing a smartwatch now that there are sensors in there that are kind of analyzing my skin. And taking all these readings, it blows my mind. It's exciting tech, and it's all being trialed out. And I suppose we just have to take it with a pinch of salt. Yes, exactly. We test the accuracy of all of these devices. And we compare it to medical devices where we can in our reviews, so you can get a really good impression of how accurate a device is. For example, over the last year, one of the worst devices that we tested was well over 20% out of where it should have been when testing a heart rate was someone running. And if you're trying to control your heart rate, maybe your doctors recommended it doesn't go above a certain level that you know is different enough that something could go wrong, then the best we see a you know within 1% I'm sure people listening will be thinking well, which ones are the most accurate ones. Yeah, so you have to subscribe to get all of our test results. But I can say the more expensive devices, that doesn't necessarily mean you're getting the best device and the most accurate, we've got plenty of Best Buy smartwatches under 150 pounds, you don't have to go anywhere near 500 600 700. Some of these devices are on the market for and fitness trackers are even cheaper. We've got Best Buys around the 100 pound mark and even cheaper ones in our great value range where you get a really good device for an even cheaper price. And in general, the more you pay for a wearable just means that it has more sports tracking, maybe it can survive harsher conditions for people who want to do things like mountaineering or snow sports. For a lot of us that's just not important. And you don't need to spend that extra money for the same level of device tracking. What's really good to know. Yeah, it's really useful because actually, if you're just using this for your day to day life, maybe a bit of jogging, you don't need to know your altitude. Yeah, see it

Exactly, yeah. What are kind of craziest things that are out there at the moment with or some things that really you think, what is the use of this feature? Yeah, so a new one that we've seen is like the test of your swimming efficiency, which a lot of us might not, you know, have thought about might think, Oh, maybe I want to know how fast I'm going or my heartrate whilst I'm in the water, but swimming efficiency, what is that

any kind of energy measurements are becoming more of a thing. So because a lot of trackers can track your stress levels, and when you sleep, it will try and make estimates on where you have the most energy during the day. So that might tell you, Oh, maybe now is the best time for me to do my work or go for a workout. But really interesting, but equally brand new kind of measurements that they use both sensing what your body is up to, it might use your body temperature, but also it's really dependent on information you put into the different apps and on the smartwatch as well. So it's definitely, you know, take it with a pinch of salt. The moment you put it on, it won't tell you right, you're stressed now. And now you're now you're relaxed. Now you should exercise and now you should sleep. But you can definitely the more you put into it, the more you'll get out. Yeah, I don't need a watch telling me when I'm stressed. Yeah, I mean, what of that do you think motivates you? Is it a load of data, a load of measuring? Is it a kind of a handy reminder, what do you think, is the mentality of it all that can help you get fitter. I like the fact that my Fitbit has a little party and celebration and vibrates and fits off little streamers when I hit my goals. So things like that genuinely make me happy. So I think it's nice having a constant reminder on your wrist of what your goal is. Because a physical prompt can be really helpful. And those goals, they don't have to be, you know, getting onto love Island, right? It's all about getting more active. Generally, we can all improve our fitness and feel healthier, it must have been really useful for you in your rehabilitation completely. And if I'm completely honest, my fitness is nowhere near what it was prior to all of this. And a big goal this year for me is to get back to all the things that I love doing. But I think walking people enormously underestimate how important walking is for a long time. That was all I could really do. I am a massive advocate of walking I think is really underrated. I would say it's my favorite form of exercise actually just going for a long, brisk walk. There's nothing better. And I think that's the great thing about trackers, you have them on all day and they record all of your activity. It's not just thinking, Oh, the only thing I've done today is gone for a run. It's like no, you've been walking, you've gone to work, you've gone to see friends, all of that really matters and should be incorporated into how you see your health and wellness.

On the subject then of watches. Great. You've not actually used a smartwatch before. But you have been our guinea pig for today's podcast I have Yes, Amy, thank you so much for loaning me this. It's a Huawei. Very, very high tech, very big watch, I must say. And I've been wearing it for the last week. So it's the first time I've ever worn any kind of fitness tracker. And I was I was a little bit skeptical of them beforehand. Because you probably know in yourself when you're tired. Or you probably know when you need to sort of get up and move about I felt that I had a good sense of that already. And I worried that seeing my sleep data might make me feel more tired than I was because I'm very much It's mind over matter. Sometimes I think if you have a bad night's sleep, and this is you know, I say this as a mum of two children, sleep deprivation with a newborn. And I think if I've been wearing it with newborn babies, and then looking at the amount of sleep that I was getting, which was snatches, sometimes just minutes, you know, over the course of a night, I probably would have felt worse than I did just being like, just get up and you just need to get on with your day. But now, you know, I'm in a sort of slightly different stage of my life. I was a bit worried that seeing my sleep data would make me feel a bit stressed. But actually it wasn't the case. Fantastic. Well, before we get your final conclusions on this grace, let's have a listen to how you got on this week. Well, it's day one of wearing my fitness tracker. I'm a day late. I wanted to set it up on Tuesday so that I could wear it for a full week before we recorded this episode. But it took me so long to set up. That part was harder than I thought it would be. But I'm all set up. Now. I've got it on my wrist. It's a really kind of big, quite masculine looking watch that's quite heavy. And I'm sure it can do all sorts of exciting things like track me going up and down mountains and things but I don't think it's going to be able to track much exciting stuff this week bit of walking, maybe a bit of yoga if I'm lucky. Annoyingly, I wasn't wearing it first thing this morning when I did the school run and that's when I really get my steps in because it's 20 minutes then 20 minutes back. It's really like my most active part of the day.

It's Sunday evening. I have been wearing this watch for the entire weekend. I made a note not to take off at all so I could really measure and track my data. I'm actually in bed and it's only 9pm

Being able to actually track my sleep on the app has just brought to life really how exhausted I am. It's just funny when you actually see it, they're kind of in stats, and I've been up before six every day that I've worn it. And I've been averaging sort of six or seven hours sleep a night, which is not enough for me, just seeing the data has really made me conscious that I need to take care of myself. And that's why I'm treating myself to an early night. I don't know if I would have done that. To be honest, if I if I hadn't been tracking my sleep, I probably would have just plowed through. So there's definitely benefits to it. Yeah, I'm quite used to wearing it. Now. I think I'm going to be quite sad when Tuesday rolls around, and I have to give it back. Right, wake up grace. We're recording the podcast.

It sounded like actually, you you got a fair bit out of that. How do you how do you feel about having to now give it back to Amy? I know, I feel like I have been converted? Yeah, I've gotten very used to it. And I love the way it tells me to get up and move around. I am going to miss it. But you know, alas, it is time to give it back to me. So I'm taking it off right now. It's funny listening to it back actually, because I say in the early part of that clip, yeah. When I do the school run, that's when I'm really active, right? It's like 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back. After wearing that I thought I was doing 10,000 steps a day. I'm not. That's 6000 steps a day. So I am way below what I thought I was. So again, it's just another very useful thing that I'm going to take away from it. It's amazing to have that data and to just be reminded about what we're actually doing. We can get into these beliefs about ourselves. But yeah, you're presented with the whole cold, hard facts of what you're actually doing. What did you use on this? Because this has got a lot of features? It does. Yeah, so mostly the sleep tracking, I found the kind of deep sleep, REM sleep really interesting. Apparently, if you don't get enough REM sleep, it can affect your ability to discern people's facial expressions. Honestly, it's

like doing a really strange expression right now. Yeah, no, I got that one.

But yeah, so sleep steps. Also the notification. So things when meetings are about to start that kind of thing, the time, let's not forget that you can just look at your watch for the time as well. So yeah, a couple of the features. Obviously, I could have gone way further if I had more time with it. Well, we will be back with you shortly on how we test those kind of watches that might be more for everybody more general purpose, right after the break.

So Amy, we've heard her grace got on with her fitness tracker. And we've also heard how Amy J uses hers. So if you're looking to buy one of these, what features should you be looking for? And what are we actually testing here at wit. So the first piece of advice I would say is, think about what is most important to you and what you're going to use it for. We've talked a lot about all the kind of crazy fitness tracking abilities that a lot of these watches have. And you might be interested in, in having some of those if you like to do extreme sports, but also think about things like how it works in your day to day life. You need one with a good battery life. Because if it just dies on you halfway through the day, then you know what is the point if you're trying to get an overall picture of your health, you want to think about how it's like to wear all the time do you want it to be quite discreet, so fit under a shirt, and also the quality of the screen. You need to be able to see what's on it and be able to kind of read what you need, like during the day that you want to get from your device. The other thing to bear in mind is do you want to have all of the kinds of the data from your smartphone on your smartwatch. For some people that works perfectly for them, you know, the easier our lives are, the more likely we are to use something. So if you can connect it seamlessly to your phone and things like reminders, jump over to your smartwatch, you're going to be more likely to keep to your kind of health and fitness goals of his on your wrist and reminding you all the time without you having to put in all that extra data. But it's also important to note that not every device works with every smartphone, for example, the new Apple watches you have to have an iPhone, unfortunately for them to work. So it's always do you need to have an iPhone, or do you need to like be with someone say like my husband has an iPhone? Yeah. And so could he get me set up. But then I use it with my Android, you wouldn't be able to control it from your Android phone at all. Unfortunately, the manufacturer has made that decision but equally like the Google watches don't work with iPhones. So you know, there's kind of give and take but double check before you buy because there's a chance it might not work with your phone. maybe thinking about that data and constantly being available. Do you ever worry that it's too much some people might not like constantly knowing exactly how far they've walked or how many calories they've burned. Definitely and this is something I think about a lot in terms of fitness that

There can be some disordered thoughts around calories, etc. So I think if people have had a history where that's been difficult for them, I think it probably doesn't help for me that's I've never been a calorie tracker, etc acidity and things like that doesn't bother me other than thinking, oh, gosh, like you're saying earlier grace, I've done well, under what on average I probably should have done today. So again, I think people need to bear that in mind about whether it will support their fitness goals, or it will take away from them. You don't want an unhealthy relationship with your wrist really telling you what to do and making you feel bad. I mean, talking about unhealthy things on your wrist, you've looked at some really dodgy you know, pork, what quality fitness bands as well in the past? Yes, we have. We have bought fitness trackers from online marketplaces, which don't usually have a brand. Or they might be kind of just ripping off the look of a popular smartwatch or fitness tracker. But the problem is, is that when we get those in the lab, and we test them, they have a whole host of problems. What kind of prices are you talking about with those? Oh, you know, anything from two pounds for and when you think, a piece of technology for two pounds, what am I really getting here. But also, it's not necessarily oh, maybe it just won't work. But maybe my child who really wants one will love it, they actually do have some serious security problems we found and when you're putting data into something, you need to make sure that that device is safe. So whilst you don't need to spend a fortune, if the price is ridiculously cheap, it probably is too good to be true. I guess if you're trying to get fit without spending a load of money, you can use a little bit of tech, you can use something as simple as a calendar or an Excel spreadsheet. What would you say 2024 would be your advice for people looking to get fit. I think small is a really important word here because you could have lots of things that you want to achieve. But I think if you try and change everything at once, you're less likely to change anything at all. So I would say pick your small goal, focus on that for a good month before adding other things. And the things that helped me to embed those things are physical prompts, as I mentioned before, so seeing my Fitbit on my wrist, but also if it's a goal that is important to me, I'll make sure that that app is on my home screen. So I constantly see it. And I'm like, oh yes, no, I want to do that. And also, lots of phones have reminders. So I set up reminders that ping throughout the day reminding me to do things because it's really hard to do things on a daily basis until they become a part of your day to day routine. It's easy to forget. So quite old school things and even you were saying post it notes. Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. So I do again, my morning routine, which I've tried to embed this year, I have it written out on a piece of paper and stuck on my mirror in the morning, like drink water, stretch for it until that becomes a habit which I'm getting there already. It's helpful. We're on the subject of tech helping you with your fitness goals. One of those texts will be social media. Amy, where can we find you? I'm mostly on Instagram at Mimi Liu J but I am also on Tik Tok and threads. Oh, take that math. That is fantastic. It's been so brilliant to have you both on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today and talking about fitness trackers. Thank you for having us.

We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Now we'd love you to get involved. So can you send us your suggestions for other things we should cover? Whatever it is, we promise we will leave every episode feeling wiser about what you buy. We're on email at podcast at which Dakota, UK and at which UK on socials. Another request from us is to leave a rating and a review wherever you're listening. That would be amazing. Doing that really helps us reach more people. Grace, what are we up to next time? Well, we'll be hitting the road and talking cars and everything you need to know if buying a new motor is on your to do list this year. Whatever your questions are around buying a new car, we will do our absolute best to answer them so send them our way. Remember, if you want more great stuff to listen to before then check out the witch money pod for your personal finances. And we've got the very best stories from which magazine narrated for you over on which shores today's get answers with presented by me Harry kind alongside Grace Pharrell produced and recorded by Robert Lee Jones and edited by Eric Breyer. And thanks again to our wonderful guests which expert Amy Axworthy and the wonderful brilliant Amy Lou Jones. We'll see you next time. Bye bye bye