How Fit is Fitbit?

For some people, the dependency on their wearable fitness technology is everything. Some people live by the little screen on their FitbitTM, but is the technology really as accurate as people think? Some people base their diet off of how many calories they burn according to the FitbitTM. FitbitTM is an activity tracker that measures a person’s level of activity, heart rate, number of steps and calories. Dr. Elliot Jesch, associate professor in the Department of Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences and his Creative Inquiry, Human Energy Metabolism, are investigating the accuracy of the devices and whether or not they provide an accurate picture of activity levels. The project started with Jesch looking at the ability of fitness apps to measure energy burned while people exercise.

The team is designing and implemented a protocol to research the accuracy of fitness  applications. The original plan was to include many different fitness applications, but the team decided to focus specifically on FitbitTM in order to measure how people are using energy (human energy metabolism). The students familiarized themselves with a metabolic chart to measure the intake of oxygen during exercise to infer the amount of energy used. Then, they compared these inferences to the amount of energy the FitbitTM reported. They have found some discrepancies in the data. “I want people to know that their devices are not perfect, and they may not want to base all of their health decisions off of the device,” Jesch explained.

The students on this team gained exposure to real-world, hand-on research they would not receive if they were sitting in a lecture. All students in the Department of Food and Nutrition are required to participate in a Creative Inquiry, and all have the opportunity to work with a Creative Inquiry they find interesting and to focus on what they want to learn. No matter the direction the Creative Inquiry takes in the future, Jesch believes that if the students are researching things current and relevant to them, then he is doing great work with the students. “I’ve done things that I never would have done without the CI program, and something that is really great is that we get to work with professors on a more personal level. Most of our references for graduate school programs and jobs come from the CI program because of the relationships we build,” Josh Jefferies, senior food and nutrition major, commented. The Creative Inquiry program provides students opportunities to explore what interests them so that they can benefit others, and Jesch’s Creative Inquiry team is proof of that.