Fitness trackers are good at counting things: steps you walked, calories burned, active minutes, how long you slept, and so on. While the accuracy of these devices can be dubious, a tracker can at least tell you how active you are compared to other days–well, assuming you keep wearing it. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than half of the people who purchase fitness trackers stop using them, and one-third stop in less than 6 months.
What fitness trackers and their apps aren’t good at–yet–is providing real insights. While looking at your fitness data can help motivate you to maintain a level of activity, data alone probably doesn’t tell you that much that you don’t already know. They don’t help you get healthier or more active. You have to do that yourself.
For fitness trackers and other health-related devices to be useful, they need to go one step further and provide real, actionable advice.
Read the rest of the article on Macworld.