The smartwatch, like smartphones, uses touchscreens, use apps, records heartbeats and other vitals of the human body. With the advent of technological advances, small and large players built this huge smartwatch market. These watches get worn around the wrist, like the rest. Smartwatches get used for many activities – monitoring heartbeat, calories burnt, distance covered, sleep monitoring.
You can easily track the calories you eat by using a calorie tracker, but a smartwatch can be very useful in tracking the number of calories you have used.
Let us understand their basic features as enumerated below:
Notification:
Smartwatches display various messages on your wrist screen. Few are from your smartphones, while others depend upon the watch type or app that gets used. These days, smartwatches alert authorities that you are in danger from a fall or a car accident.
Apps:
Along with notifications displayed from your smartphone, the smartwatch displays data and information from the app it gets connected to. You either use an Apple or a Google environment, and the apps also get developed accordingly. Smartwatches are dedicated tools, and the apps too provide notifications accordingly.
Media management:
Many smartwatches connected to your smartphones can manage your media functions like play, pause, and volume control. However, both your devices need to be in a similar environment to provide this solution.
Answer messages by voice:
Latest smartwatches support voice commands to perform tasks accordingly.
Fitness tracking:
You can wear a specific fitness band to track your fitness quotient. Or, your smartwatch should have some function or connected app, which will provide you with information about your physical well-being.
GPS:
Most smartwatches today have GPS tracking options.
Battery life:
Most smartwatches can manage a single day with an overnight charge – some need to charge every third day or so.
Let us now discuss fitness or health-related smartwatches. As we have seen, one of the essential functions of these watches is to monitor your health quotient. Let us now find out if this information can help the device measure calories used or burnt! Smartwatches or fitness trackers have now become a household need to stay healthy!
How do smartwatches measure calories burn?
For your smartwatches to detect the number of calories that you have consumed and those that have been utilized or burnt, you need to provide the following information to the device:
Basal metabolic rate:
When we set up the smartwatch for the first time, we have to enter our age, gender, height, and weight. This data gets used to calculate your basal metabolic rate, which gets used in the app algorithm to calculate the calories you burn.
Activity level:
The smartwatch or fitness tracker has an accelerometer built-in, which measures your activities during the day. This data gets used in the system algorithm to calculate the calories that you have used.
Manual entries:
You must provide detailed information daily to your smartwatch so that the measurements are near-accurate. You have to inform the device the what you ate, the portion size, and what else you consumed in-between. If the food details are not present in the app history, you may create the data. The quantity of water that you drank during the day also has to be entered manually. Over some time, some of your food patterns will be similar, and hence entering will be easier.
Along with the activity level that gets recorded by the smartwatch, few other measurements gets collected by the device:
Heart-rate:
This gets calculated through a process called photoplethysmography (PPG). There is a LED green light on the underside of your watch. Since blood absorbs green light, the sensor present in the device calculates the number of times your blood absorbs the light, and thereby the heartbeat gets calculated!
Steps:
The accelerometer in the smartwatch device calculate the number of steps you take during the day or a period. You could walk, jog or run. Since you wear the smartwatch on your wrist, your hand movement sometimes confuses the machine with the legs. This depends upon the quality of your smartwatch.
Sleep:
The accelerometer provides data to your device when you are at rest. This data gets interpreted as your sleep hours. These days, with the advent of technology, your smartwatches and fitness devices measure the quality of your sleep, including the REM (rapid eye movement) state. For these data, the heart rate monitor data also gets used. However, the accuracy of these data varies among devices! Overall, sleep or rest hours are more or less accurate.
All these data get processed by the application software algorithm, connected to the device, and calories burnt get calculated. The data may not be very accurate, but it gives you a fair idea about your fitness and health. Different types, models, and brands promote various technologies, which they state offer accurate measurements. It would help if you chose the watch that serves your purpose. For any serious health issues, you must consult your physician.
Since the watches get worn in wrists, the hand movement sometimes does not provide accurate physical activity data. You could place your smartwatch in your track pant’s pocket so that your leg movement is measured. You can then verify the data and check how accurate the device measures steps!
Given below are some of the best smartwatches that measure calories well. Let us go through their features and customer feedback to understand these devices better.
Fitbit Charge 4 Special Edition Fitness and Activity Tracker
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 12,600/-, is one of the best fitness trackers to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all the data about the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The built-in GPS provides exact data concerning the distance traveled. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for seven days at a stretch.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with Fitbit products. The company has been upgrading its products routinely, and its focus has been the health sector!
Garmin Forerunner 45
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 16,000/-, is one of the best running watches to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all the data about the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding distance, height covered, and time taken for the same also get monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The built-in GPS provides exact data concerning the distance traveled. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Tracking facility:
GPS provides live tracking, and particular difficulties get notified to stored contacts.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for seven days at a stretch without GPS use.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with the Garmin coach app. The company has been upgrading its products routinely, and its focus has been the health sector!
Amazfit 5 Fitness Tracker
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 9,000/-, is one of the best fitness watches to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all the data about the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding walking, running, swimming distances, and the time taken to cover the same also gets monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for 15 days at a stretch.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with this Amazon product. In addition to calorie details, this smartwatch offers oxygen saturation levels and tracks women’s menstrual cycles!
POLAR Unite Waterproof Fitness Watch
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 18,000/-, is one of the best fitness watches to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all the data pertaining to the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The built-in GPS provides exact data concerning the distance traveled. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all them go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function over some time without GPS use.
User feedback:
Customers are generally Polar enthusiasts and rely on their training app for their fitness regimen. They are relatively happy, though the price is a little too steep!
Samsung Galaxy Fit2 Smart Band
This fitness watch costs INR 4,000/- and its features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all data about the fitness parameters on your AMOLED display.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding walking, running, swimming distances, and the time taken to cover the same also gets monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for 21 days at a stretch.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with this Samsung product. In addition to calorie details, this smartwatch offers water-resistant properties for continued wear.
Withings Pulse HR – Water-Resistant Health & Fitness Tracker
This fitness watch costs INR 20,000/- and its features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all data about the fitness parameters on your device screen
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding walking, running, swimming distances, and the time taken to cover the same also gets monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function over some time.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with the product since it connects to many well-known fitness apps. However, it is pretty expensive vis-à-vis similar featured watches.
GOQii Smart Vital Fitness
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 4,500/-, is another fitness watch to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all the data related to the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding walking, running, swimming distances, and the time taken to cover the same also gets monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all them go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for seven days at a stretch.
User feedback:
User feedback for this product is excellent, since at this price, along with the essential health parameters, it also measures your blood saturation and body temperature!
New Apple Watch SE
Apple smartwatch is a very end device that costs around INR 35,400/- is one of the best fitness watches to measure caloric burn. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all also the data related to the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and, finally, calorie burn.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The built-in GPS provides exact data concerning the distance traveled. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all these go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function over 18 hours without GPS use.
User feedback:
Apple customers generally like this device, even at this price. In addition to all the required fitness parameters, it can receive calls and operate music functions. Works with wifi and Bluetooth technologies!
Fitbit Ace 2 Activity Tracker for Kids
This smartwatch, which costs around INR 12,900/-, is one of the best fitness watches for children. Its salient features are as follows:
Notification:
You receive all data pertaining to the fitness parameters.
Apps:
The fitness app provides data concerning heart rate, cardio counts, sleep zones, and calorie burn. Data regarding walking, running, swimming distances, and the time taken to cover the same also gets monitored.
Fitness tracking:
This smart fitness device measures calorie utilization very well. It uses 24/7 heartbeat rates and measures against heart rates during exercise and sleep times. The rest data and information during your gym workout – all them go into determining your caloric burn.
Battery life:
Once charged, the watch can function for seven days at a stretch.
User feedback:
Customers generally seem happy with this Fitbit product. In addition to calorie details, this smartwatch comes in pastel shades and is kid-safe!
Conclusion
Smartwatches have got devised primarily to connect to your smartphone device and track your health wirelessly. Their design integrates an accelerometer, which measures your footsteps and movements. At the same time, the green infra-red light and the sensors monitor your heart rate. The built-in GPS helps the device to track your activity better and provide near accurate data to the app. Your sleep or rest state also gets tracked.
All these data get fed into the algorithm of the fitness app. When installing the smartwatch, you have given your BMR or primary data to the system. Also, you regularly provide details concerning your food intake. Based on this various information, the smart app calculates the calories you have burned and whether you are falling short of your target set!
It is a combination of data collected by the smartwatch and then processed by the application software that offers you the desired results. Few more parameters can help in accurately provide your caloric burn. However, these smartwatches can measure your health quotient relatively well. You must rely on data over a while and change your routine for better results.
Many smartwatch options are available in the market. However, Fitbit and Garmin are market leaders, and they have many options to suit your needs. In case of any serious health issues, it is advisable to consult your physician. These smart devices provide indicative information since they depend upon external data.
Leave a Reply