As the culture of health-obsession becomes more and more prominent throughout the world, Thailand included, people are taking a greater interest in their fitness, as evidenced by the numerous marathons and bicycle races. Fitness-tracking concerns like FitBit, Garmin and Jawbone are reaping the rewards, as their products' ability to detect heart rates, step-counts, sleep quality and calorie gain/loss can help users get a more in-depth picture of their body's needs, as well as provide the necessary motivation to get one moving.
But despite the increasing popularity of such technology -- more than 13 million fitness trackers were sold last year, with a total cost of US$1.5 billion, more than double the 2014 total -- the question is how much data received from the gadgets actually improves health, and whether or not they really can help people get fit.
To get a professional opinion on the effectiveness of these devices in improving the health of their users, anti-ageing specialist Dr Thidakarn Rujipattanakul said the mobile fitness gadgetry can be a very powerful motivator.
"I regularly recommend activity trackers to a lot of my patients," said the doctor, who has authored and translated many health-and-wellness books.
Fitness or activity trackers include all the various products used to record and monitor users' fitness metrics over time, such as step-count and heart rate. Some products feature additional functions, such as the ability to determine sleep quality, record calorie gain/loss or track by GPS. While formerly appearing with clunky chest or arm straps, technology has now given these products the sleek and subtle form of bracelets and wristwatches. Examples of these products are the Nike FuelBand, Apple Watch, FitBit Surge and Jawbone UP3.
"My patients, who are generally at least 30 years of age, tend not to have the spare time or motivation to regularly go to the gym. Activity trackers can give them a way to see how much movement they have done over the day, and how much more they should try to do in order to stay healthy," Dr Thidakarn said.
According to Dr Thidakarn, the ideal number of steps an average adult human should make is at least 10,000 per day, which requires the equal amount of energy as a 30-minute cardio exercise. By giving casual exercisers a way to gauge their progress in a quantifiable manner, it could act as a motivation for them to reach a certain goal.
"For example, a person could set a goal of 10,000 steps per day, and see that they are just 2,000 short. That could make them want to get up and move around so they hit their mark, which they can now see isn't that far off."
Ritthisak Wongpan-ngam is among those fitness-tracker users who has become more motivated in his pursuit of physical fitness by such a device. In the few weeks since he bought his tracker, the communications manager has committed to working out at least four days a week.
"I'm very easily motivated by numbers," he said. "I like the feeling I get when I meet or surpass a goal I set for myself, or when I see that I've managed to outdo my previous workout."
While activity trackers can work as motivation for casual exercisers as a means of keeping score on their own fitness, in the hands of a professional or serious athlete, these devices can also turn into crucial tools for efficient training.
Pakanee Burutphakdee is the curator and owner of the Facebook page I'm OopAib, on which Pakanee regularly gives fitness tips and writes inspirational blog posts to over 13,000 subscribers. She first came to fame when, in 2014, she became the first and only woman to finish the Ocean-to-Ocean Relay Race, from Ranong to Chumphon, a distance of over 100km. According to her, fitness trackers are considered necessary for people who are really determined to find the optimum workout for specific types of training.
"I often use my tracker when I'm going on trail runs, so I can track elevation gain and distance over speed," Pakanee said. "This way, I can know exactly whether I need to pick up the pace, and by how much. I can also look at my heart rate and determine whether I need to push myself harder to elevate it for sprint training, or lower it for endurance training. The fact that your progress is tracked over time on your smartphone also makes each individual workout more meaningful, as you can clearly see how much you've improved."
As most of these devices tend to require a pairing with a smartphone app in order to record your data, Pakanee said that the social aspects of the app can work as another motivator, by allowing users to share workout information and set challenges for one another, adding another enjoyable element to exercise.
"There are communities of people who use these devices to compete with one another for fun and prizes, as well as for sharing and getting advice on workout plans. The social aspects of these devices make exercising more rewarding, as you feel like you're doing something with a community of like-minded people."
While some are into these health gadgets, others are sceptical. According to a recent article in The New York Times, referring to an editorial in The Journal Of The American Medical Association titled "Wearable Devices as Facilitators, Not Drivers, of Health Behaviour Change", a survey has revealed that more than half the people who have bought a fitness tracker eventually stopped wearing it, and of those, a third quit within six months.
Also, in January of this year, FitBit faced a class-action suit filed by three consumers from California, Colorado and Wisconsin in the United States, claiming FitBit Charge HR, the activity and heart rate wristband, was inaccurate based on their own anecdotal experience and testing by an unnamed cardiologist.
But Dr Thidakarn is of the opinion that these devices could eventually be used to gauge health beyond just fitness. They may soon be able to measure such metrics as blood pressure, body temperature and blood-sugar level.
"Overseas, there is an increasing interest in using these devices to measure the vital signs of patients who require close monitoring, such as diabetes or cardiovascular-disease patients. When these metrics can be reliably collected, it could have a major impact on the way we treat these patients, though I suspect that's still a long way to go."
