We often buy fitness trackers and download health apps with the aim of improving our health, so it seems logical to focus on whatever data these apps present. However, these metrics are designed to be easily quantified by algorithms, not necessarily to make us healthier by chasing after them every day. Here are a few examples of how your apps could lead you astray.
Hurrying Through Your Warm-Up
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Every gadget or app that tracks your runs will provide details like the distance covered and the time spent running. From these two key metrics, your phone’s internal sensors will often calculate your running pace. You might find yourself saying, “Wait, I’m running twelve-minute miles?!” as you glance at your watch. “I need to pick up the speed next time.”
However, many running sessions should ideally begin with a gentle warmup, whether you’re starting with a slow jog or a brisk walk. The actual workout begins once that warmup phase is over. But if you track everything, that leisurely warmup can skew your overall pace. Plus, you might find it challenging to run at an easy pace if you treat the total time as an evaluation of your performance.
What you can do instead: Either log your warmup and any rest periods between intervals as separate laps or segments...or simply disregard the overall pace.
Getting up too late in the morning
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Sleep trackers are useful tools that can reveal whether we're getting sufficient rest and offer tips to improve it. However, these devices often focus too much on scoring each night, leading us to think, “How can I improve my sleep score tonight?” instead of asking, “How can I improve my overall sleep quality?” For example, if you plan to wake up at 6 a.m. and stay up until midnight, you could increase your sleep score by sleeping in until 8 a.m. But if your ultimate goal is to improve your sleep in general, it would be better to keep the alarm set for 6 a.m., regardless of how late you stayed up. You’ll likely be more tired the next evening, and soon you’ll get back on track. Instead of focusing on nightly scores, concentrate on developing habits that promote good sleep, such as maintaining a dark bedroom and sticking to a consistent routine.
When your scores are low, it might be tempting to skip workouts, but that approach isn’t always the best strategy.
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Many fitness apps and gadgets offer a 'readiness' or 'recovery' score to help you determine the intensity of your workouts. But a seasoned coach will advise that avoiding fatigue altogether is not the best path to progress. A well-structured training program will include tough days, sometimes even whole weeks, where you push yourself and feel worn out. While sleep trackers can help you gauge how well you're recovering, taking rest days whenever you get a low recovery score means you’ll miss out on valuable training opportunities. Your body is tough enough to handle the stress of training. Instead of following your recovery scores rigidly, invest in a solid program or coach and trust the process. Compare your scores to your expected recovery given your training. A low score after a challenging week? That’s typical. A high score after a tough week? It may suggest your program isn’t tough enough. But a low score after a lighter week might indicate you're overexerting yourself.
Avoiding workouts that don’t contribute to your step count might seem like a way to stay on track, but it’s important to remember that not all exercise is about reaching a step goal.
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Step-tracking gadgets, now found on almost every phone, can be great motivators to help us increase daily physical activity. Whether it’s a shopping trip or a walk with your dog, every little bit adds to your step count. However, it’s important to keep in mind that 10,000 steps is an arbitrary number—feel free to set your personal goal higher or lower. The risk with these devices is that they may make us prioritize workouts based on their ability to rack up steps. If you’re torn between a spin class or a hike, or a jog versus strength training, it's easy to let the step count become the deciding factor. Instead, think about what your body truly needs, not just which activity will push your step count higher.
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Strength training offers numerous benefits, such as helping to prevent minor injuries, making daily activities easier, supporting better quality of life as we age, and helping maintain a healthy body composition during weight changes. Its purpose isn’t to keep your heart rate elevated for a specific amount of time, which is what cardio does. But when you use a gadget to track your strength workouts, it's easy to fall into the trap of treating it like a cardio session, trying to keep your heart rate high. This may lead you to take shorter rests between sets, which will ultimately prevent you from lifting as much weight. As a result, you’ll miss out on the key benefits of strength training because you’re pursuing the wrong objective. Instead, either avoid tracking your strength training with a gadget that measures heart rate, or simply use it to log the duration of your workout and note that it was completed. Make sure to take breaks between your exercises and see just how strong you truly are!
Believing that your watch accurately tracks the calories you’ve burned is a common but misleading assumption.
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Fitness trackers often claim to accurately measure how many calories you're burning during exercise or even throughout the day. But the reality is that calorie burn is far less predictable, and your watch is just making a wild-ass guess. Instead of relying on these figures, focus on tracking your food intake and monitor your weight. If your watch suggests you're burning 2,500 calories a day, but you maintain your weight on 2,300 calories, that’s your real burn rate. Adjust your diet accordingly to see how your body responds.
Obsessing over how well you’re sleeping can sometimes cause more stress than it’s worth.
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Sleep trackers do a decent job of measuring the time we spend in bed, but they often fail to accurately determine when one sleep stage transitions to another. I clearly remember the first week I wore both an Oura ring and a Whoop band—Oura told me I wasn’t getting enough REM sleep, while Whoop said I was getting too much.
Setting yourself up for failure by focusing on a streak can often lead to unnecessary stress and disappointment.
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A longtime pet peeve of mine is the app that pushes you to form healthy habits, only to reward you with a streak that you’ll inevitably break and then feel guilty about. Streaks always come to an end. Do you really want to be the person who feels compelled to track a meditation “workout” every day on vacation just to avoid losing a streak? It’s not worth it. And if you do, recognize that you’re playing a game with your app, not creating a health-promoting habit. Instead, break the streak on purpose. Skip tracking a workout intentionally and give yourself the freedom to rest—it's probably exactly what you need.
Obsessing over calorie intake can lead to unnecessary stress, but it’s important to understand that it’s okay to track them in moderation. Finding a healthy balance, where you can monitor your calories without letting it control your eating habits, is key.
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Restrictive diets may be a trigger for disordered eating in some individuals, and tracking calories can sometimes exacerbate this issue. If you can track your calories while keeping a healthy mindset, that’s fantastic. But remember, it’s not necessary to obsess over the numbers.
For instance, you may start feeling overwhelmed by the idea of consuming a larger meal. It’s perfectly fine to have an 800-calorie lunch, as long as it includes healthy foods like lean proteins and vegetables. If you’re concerned about seeing a high number, you might choose to eat less, which could leave you feeling hungry and reaching for more snacks later. Alternatively, you might skip logging some snacks or toppings out of fear of adding to your total, but tracking more accurately could reveal that your body can handle a larger intake than expected.
Instead of stressing about calories, consider that eating is a vital source of energy for your body. If you still prefer to track your calories, try using a tool like Cronometer, which doesn’t focus on making you feel guilty about the numbers.
Striving for a ‘perfect’ result in anything you do can lead to frustration and unhealthy expectations. Whether it’s a specific number or outcome, it’s important to recognize that perfection is not always the goal. Allow yourself the freedom to embrace progress over perfection.
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What defines a healthy HRV reading? A good resting heart rate? What’s considered a strong VO2max? How fast should you run?
These numbers are not meaningless—they do provide some insight—but they shouldn’t define you. Each statistic holds value within context, but outside of that, they’re just numbers.
For instance, if you run a 10-minute mile, that doesn’t mean it’s “good” or “bad.” With time and training, you could improve your pace if you wish. HRV (heart rate variability), for example, can help you assess how well your body is handling stress, whether from training or life. But it’s not a meaningful comparison to others.
Instead, focus on the bigger picture: What truly matters is what those numbers reflect about your overall health, not the numbers themselves. Whether it’s improving your heart health or training for a race, focus on progress rather than daily metrics.
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