Last Updated:August 25, 2025, 15:46 IST
Newer devices are adding heart rate sensors, oxygen monitors, and even skin temperature trackers to refine calorie estimates. Some smartwatches in 2025 even use AI models.
The Monsoon of Movements: How Trackers Confuse Broom Sweeps With Brisk Walks
For many urban Indians, strapping on a fitness tracker has become as normal as tying shoelaces before a morning walk. Whether it’s a Fitbit, Apple Watch, Mi Band, or a smartwatch bundled with your phone, the device is meant to motivate you, count your steps, and sometimes even tell you how many parathas you “burned off.”
But here’s the uncomfortable question: are those numbers telling the whole truth? The market for wearable devices is booming. India is one of the world’s fastest-growing smartwatch markets.
With brands like Noise, Boat, and Fire-Boltt making them affordable for college students, office-goers, and even retirees. Yet, the science behind step counts and calorie estimates is murkier than the slick marketing suggests.
The Science of Counting Steps
Most trackers rely on a tiny device called an accelerometer. It senses movement like a swing of the arm, a jolt of the body, a shake of the wrist and converts it into data. The algorithm then decides whether that movement was a “step” or not. Sounds simple? In practice, not so much.
Studies have shown step counts can vary by brand, model, and even by where you wear the device. For example, a 2022 Stanford University study found that wrist-based trackers overcount steps during daily activities like cooking or folding clothes because they confuse repetitive hand motions with walking.
On the flip side, pushing a pram, carrying groceries, or even walking with hands clasped behind your back can lead to undercounting, since the wrist isn’t moving much.
In India, where many people sweep courtyards, climb stairs barefoot, or ride two-wheelers daily, such errors are amplified. Your tracker may be logging phantom steps while you knead dough, or ignoring an entire grocery trip to the kirana because your wrist stayed still on the scooter.
The Myth of Calorie Burn
If step counts are shaky, calorie burn is even less reliable. Calorie estimates are usually derived from a formula that factors in your age, weight, height, sex, and the detected movement.
But this formula assumes a lot. It assumes you walk at an average pace, with an average stride length, and that your body’s metabolism is textbook normal. Real life doesn’t work that way.
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine tested seven popular fitness trackers and found calorie estimates could be off by as much as 27 percent on the low side and 93 percent on the high side.
That means your watch could tell you that you burned 400 calories during a jog when, in reality, you only spent 250 or worse, the other way round.
For Indians, this gap can be even wider. Our diets, body types, and daily routines vary drastically from the Western averages these algorithms are usually based on.
A brisk evening walk after dal-chawal affects calorie burn differently than a post-pasta stroll in California. Metabolic rates can differ across populations, and trackers are rarely customized for that.
When Trackers Motivate and Mislead
Take the case of Ananya, a 32-year-old software engineer in Bengaluru. She faithfully clocked 10,000 steps every day, as her tracker urged, believing she was keeping obesity at bay. Yet after six months, she found her weight unchanged and her energy levels fluctuating.
Her nutritionist later explained that her device had overestimated calories burned, making her more lenient with evening snacks. In short: the tracker wasn’t lying maliciously, but its errors were enough to derail her goals.
The “10,000 steps” benchmark itself is more marketing than science. It traces back to a 1960s Japanese pedometer called manpo-kei, which literally translates to “10,000-step meter.”
Modern research suggests the health benefits plateau after about 7,000 to 8,000 steps for most adults. So, if you’re chasing a number because your device flashes a celebratory animation, you may be walking more for the app than for your actual health.
The Indian Context: Between Tradition and Tech
Interestingly, India has long had its own built-in fitness culture. Villagers often clock high activity levels through farming, walking to fields, or household chores without realizing it.
City-dwellers, on the other hand, increasingly rely on trackers as “digital guilt machines.” For many, the dopamine hit of closing rings or hitting targets becomes addictive.
But trackers rarely account for activities common here: squatting for floor work, carrying heavy buckets of water, or cycling short distances. These movements expend significant energy but don’t always reflect in “step counts.”
As a result, someone could be burning calories effectively through chores but feel like a failure because their wrist gadget shows only 4,000 steps.
The Future of Smarter Tracking
All is not bleak. Newer devices are adding heart rate sensors, oxygen monitors, and even skin temperature trackers to refine calorie estimates. Some smartwatches in 2025 even use AI models trained on diverse data, including Asian populations.
Companies are moving towards measuring actual energy expenditure through combined metrics rather than relying on step counts alone. In India, health start-ups are trying to integrate local data.
For instance, how climbing two flights of stairs compares with a brisk walk, or how rickshaw-pulling differs from treadmill jogging. The hope is that in the coming years, wearables will become better tuned to Indian bodies and lifestyles.
Should You Trust Your Tracker?
The short answer: trust it, but not blindly. Use it as a motivator, not as gospel. Step counts can give you a general sense of your activity level, and calorie estimates can help you stay mindful of movement versus idleness. But the numbers are approximations, not guarantees.
Doctors often suggest pairing trackers with more reliable measures: regular medical check-ups, body composition scans, and above all, listening to your own body. If you’re exhausted despite “hitting targets,” or if your health isn’t improving despite the numbers, it’s time to rethink.
A Human Tool, Not a Magic Wand
Ultimately, fitness trackers are tools and tools come with limits. They can nudge you to move more, remind you to take a break from your chair, or gamify the boring task of staying active. But they cannot replace mindful eating, adequate sleep, or self-awareness.
The truth is that your tracker isn’t exactly “lying.” It’s guessing. Sometimes those guesses are close to reality, and sometimes they’re off by miles. The real trick is knowing that difference and not letting the numbers become your only measure of health.
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