Fitness trackers and wearables come in handy to help monitor our exercise habits, especially when we're trying to get more active time. If you use step counting apps, you know how helpful they are for tracking your fitness goals. But how accurate is your step counting app actually? It turns out that The accuracy of your phone's step - counting app may not be that great — but that could actually be a good thing.
Your iPhone's step count may not be the best pedometer ever made , but the great thing about it is that the number of steps you take may be more accurate than your phone's, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Exercise Science There are even more steps to count. Tonic reports that researchers at the University of British Columbia designed a two-part study, one conducted under laboratory conditions and another in a real-world setting, to compare the iPhone's Health app to a device specifically designed for this purpose. A wearable waist-worn pedometer is designed to perform comparative step counting. They found that the iPhone pedometer underestimated the number of steps walked in a typical day by about 1,340 steps. This means that if your iPhone pedometer says you take the recommended 10,000 steps per day, you're probably taking about 20% more than that number. That's not the worst news in the world, right?
International Business Times further noted that in the study involving 33 participants, each participant used two iPhones (one personal and one shared) to assess device accuracy and possible user error. . The researchers found that the iPhone pedometer app was more accurate when participants walked at higher speeds, but less accurate at slower speeds. And shared devices are more accurate than personal phones. Tonic reports that some user errors have been reported, such as participants forgetting their phones when going to the restroom or getting water. Walking slowly throughout the day may also reduce application accuracy during certain tasks, according to previous lab reports.
This study shows that while the iPhone's pedometer may not be completely accurate, it can still give you a rough idea of how many steps you take each day. According to Tonic, study author Guy Faulkner said in a press release that to get the most accurate readings, "you must have [your phone] with you at all times."
It's also worth noting that in this study, the researchers did not look at other phones' step-counting apps, or other fitness trackers like the Apple Watch, Fitbit, or other wearable devices. According to the Berkeley Science Review , fitness trackers are still fairly new, and research on their accuracy is limited. Berkley said that while the iPhone's step counting may have some flaws, the Fitbit has withstood the scrutiny -- at least as far as step trackers go.
But, at the end of the day, it's important to remember why fitness trackers are useful in the first place. While walking 10,000 steps a day is a big goal, USA Today notes that the key to setting that goal is to sit less and move more to improve your health over the long term, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Focusing too much on the actual number of steps you take each day doesn't give you much useful information about your health, other than the fact that you walked that many steps; the more useful fact is that you walked that many steps.
Whichever step counting app you choose, it's likely to be well-equipped to help you achieve your wider fitness goals, but it's important to remember that whether you take 5,000 steps or 10,000, the literal number doesn't matter , what matters is how you feel at the end of the day, or 15,000 steps. If your iPhone pedometer says you've taken 10,000 steps on a given day, you've probably exceeded your walking goal by a long way and you'll feel satisfied - which is definitely a good feeling.
