Fitness Watch: Is It a Worthy Buy?

Fitness watches and trackers have become the new luxury accessories. The wearable fitness trackers that monitor how much deep sleep a user gets, whether calories burnt are from fat or carbohydrates, and suggested recovery time from a particular type of exercise, can be as cheap as a bottle of wine or as expensive as small car.

With more Kenyans trying to hit the magic number of 10,000 steps every day, a fitness monitoring wrist device with a dazzling set of features is now a must-have.

So can you spend over Sh50,000 on a Whoop’s “sleep coach” that calculates when you need to get to bed at night or a Muse headband that helps you meditate, by tracking your brainwaves and informing you when you have muted your mind?

Mathew Mathe, who runs on trails, forests and roads uses a Garmin vivoactive, a fitness watch which helps him track his average pace, calories burnt and the heart rate. It also helps track the distance as he walks, jogs or runs and daily fitness activities.

“Although they are different apps that I can download on my phone, I decided to invest in a fitness watch which helps me as I run,” says Mathew.

He bought the watch at Sh35,000. Is the investment worth it? I ask.

“I can’t do much running without it,” he answered.

The wearable and portable fitness tracker, he said, helps him push himself to the limit. The Garmin fitness device has built-in sports apps, including GPS-enabled running, biking and golfing plus swimming and activity tracking among others.

It has made him aware of his body, he adds, as he can view his statistics even when away from his phone and can set up vibration alerts for heart rate.

“It helps when I need to increase my speed and it is also easy for me to track the distance that I have run. It’s also a multi-sport. I can use in the gym while doing strength training, yoga, aerobics and boot camp,” he says.

Shehreen Ladha, an artist and fitness enthusiast who lifts weights, does Zumba, yoga and aerobics uses Fitbit to track her heart rate and many other metrics. She bought hers for Sh20,000.

“I do a lot of weightlifting. The rest is for cardio conditioning and flexibility. I got my Fitbit band abroad and it was cheaper but here in Kenya it would be about Sh29,000. Fitbit has an app as well which I use. There are so many other gadgets that help complement exercises, why not use them?,” she says.

The more features you want, the more you expect to spend. “I prefer Fitbit because it has a better IMO than the Apple ones. You can also find cheaper brands which can be good enough for first-time users,” she says.

But are these trackers actually as good as a human personal trainer?

Shehreen says she loves Apple Watch Nike because it has full workouts plus instructions.

“It is good for those who don’t want to hire a trainer,” she says.

The Apple Watch Nike costs Sh41,000.

The market for these healthtech wearables has grown in recent years.

Apple sold 4.7 million Apple Watches, used to track health, according to figures from market researcher Canalys. These trackers have become so popular, even in Kenya that in meetings, you would see someone glancing at the wrist every so often. In most Nairobi gyms, almost all fitness enthusiast exercises with them on their wrists. As the market for these activity-tracking wristbands and related Internet-based services grow, some can even measure a user’s sweat.

Allan Olingo who lost 14 kgs in 11 months says technology has helped maintain his weight by tracking what he eats and how many calories he burns.

Losing weight is very easy, he says, but the problem is can you maintain that lifestyle?

“My Apple Watch monitors my heart rate and movement. When I am idle, it alerts me to stand and walk around. The pedometer counts my steps. I have also installed MyFitnessPal where I log in the food I take and it does the calories count. I do the calorie deficit calculation and burn more than I consume,” he says.

He bought his Apple Watch at Sh36,000 and his bicycle’s speedometer was at Sh23,000.

“It’s not really a luxury, we invest in good health,” he says.