May 05, 2025

Fitness tracker scores: Simple guidance or flawed data?

Siddhartha Jana

What are Readiness scores?

Wearable technology now provides daily scores such as "readiness" or "body battery," which indicate your level of readiness to manage mental or physical responsibilities.

Source: Canva

Simplifying difficult data

These ratings combine activity, sleep, and heart rate into a single figure and provide straightforward guidance like "rest" or "push harder."

Source: Canva

Rich but imperfect inputs

A wide but not ideal dataset of physiological signals, including temperature, sleep quality, and heart rate variability, is used to calculate scores.

Source: Canva

Sensor accuracy matters

Minor mistakes in motion tracking or heart rate might skew the final score and give an inaccurate picture of your body's true state.

Source: Canva

Lack of algorithm transparency

It is difficult to trust how ratings are determined because most businesses don't disclose how raw data is weighted or altered.

Source: Canva

Double counting signals

Some ratings overstate your level of stress or weariness by penalizing you twice for related signals, such as poor sleep and low HRV.

Source: Canva

Unfairly penalizing recovery

Some trackers still lower your score because you were active the day before, even after your body has fully recovered.

Source: Canva

Baseline inconsistencies

It might be challenging to compare results since different devices have varying definitions of "baseline" data. Some use seven days, while others use twenty-eight.

Source: Canva

Use as a reference, not a judgement

Fitness trackers are helpful for identifying patterns, but they shouldn't be used as a rigid set of rules or as a medical diagnosis.

Source: Canva

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