How accurate are fitness trackers?

Wearable trackers get more sophisticated every year, but accuracy can still be a problem. An American Council on Exercise-commissioned study showed that devices were pretty accurate when it came to counting steps, but less accurate for other, more complex types of exercise like agility drills.

Fitness trackers are still a great tool for providing metrics on your activity. When you start using a fitness tracker, it provides a baseline of your activity.  Use that baseline to help you set incremental fitness goals.  For example, if you are starting out at an average of 5,000 steps per day, set a goal next month to achieve 6,000 steps per day.  This is great way to keep up your motivation and give you that specific goal to work towards!