Fitness trackers and watches can be an excellent purchase, but they're not for everyone.

In theory, there are endless benefits to wearing fitness trackers. Previously, fitness trackers were primarily used to track simple things like steps and calories burned. These days, they can do much more, such as tracking temperature, heart attacks, and more.

However, like all types of technology, fitness trackers aren't meant for anyone. While they don't usually carry direct risk, they can cause issues in other ways. Here's why.

Most commercially made fitness trackers are designed to fit the average person. By doing so, companies can maximize their profits by having less nuance with their design.

While this is great for most people who can enjoy the benefits of fitness tracking at an affordable price, it also means that fitness trackers are not made for people with special conditions.

In some cases, fitness trackers can even exacerbate bad habits, encourage toxic mindsets about movement, and put too much emphasis on hitting targets over listening to your body.

If you're on the fence about investing in one for yourself, here are some possible specific reasons why getting a fitness tracker may not be suitable for you.

For people with addictive personalities, the temptation from a workout's dopamine high may be blinding. Combined with a fitness tracker congratulating you after going above and beyond your targets, it can be a dangerous combination.

By chasing after targets, you may end up doing too much too soon and lead yourself to injury. In addition, overexercising can lead to unsustainable fitness practices, wherein you need long breaks to recover from a bad workout. With fitness tracker induced overexercising, you can delay your long-term fitness goals.

Many fitness tracking apps encourage joining communities to stay on track with your fitness goals. While communities are essential for accountability purposes, they can quickly turn toxic, especially when not moderated by trained fitness professionals.

Participating in communities can lead to more insecurity, especially when a life event throws you off fitness goals such as illness, injury, pregnancy, and so on. When you're prone to comparing yourself to your peers who did not experience similar things, it can be demotivating to see your numbers on your tracker fall short of your goals.

While nutrition is essential to improving your overall fitness, the reality is that some people can be obsessed with it to the point of disordered eating.

According to Healthline, an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating is called Orthorexia or Orthorexia Nervosa. Orthorexia convinces people to give up social relationships and meaningful experiences to maintain a healthy diet.

Unfortunately, orthorexia is becoming increasingly common among people trying to lose weight, especially with the mentality that you have to earn your food based on the calories you've consumed. In some communities, obsession with healthy eating is even encouraged.

Although fitness trackers don't directly cause orthorexia, the obsession with calorie counting is a fundamental aspect and is tied to calories burned.

Many fitness trackers are not made to measure things that affect people with physical disabilities, such as missing limbs. For example, step counts are not as helpful if you are wheelchair-bound.

In addition, it doesn't consider certain illnesses and injuries when measuring progress. For example, if you have a nutrient deficiency or autoimmune disorder, you may not be built for the targets recommended for the average person.

Lastly, some health issues require sensitivity to your energy levels, which means you may not be as consistent with your fitness goals as someone with a naturally healthy body. With this, it can be frustrating to miss out on workouts or to struggle to hit targets that used to be easy for you.

While many fitness goals have a progression that can easily be measured by calories burned or minutes in the fat-burning zone, it is possible that your particular goals cannot.

For example, if your fitness goal includes increased mobility, a fitness tracker will not be able to add any meaningful data. With this, you're much better off religiously tracking your photos using a diary app instead.

Alternatively, some sports don't recommend wearing fitness trackers because they can affect your safety. For example, if you are wearing a fitness watch when boxing is not recommended because it can affect your glove's wrist support.

In addition, most fitness trackers cannot accurately count steps when sparring because the movement varies from normal walking.

Through the years, there has been a rise in data privacy breaches, especially regarding health data. Health data is considered a precious point for data brokers because it determines a lot of your potential spending habits as you age.

As time passes, more fitness tracking companies are also becoming targets of hackers. In addition, some have expressed concern from Fitbit users about the safety of their health data after the fitness tracking brand was acquired by Google.

Depending on the country of incorporation, many companies are also compelled to hand over health-related data to governments due to regulation.

For fitness tracker data to be helpful, it requires a degree of consistency. For this reason, if you're not very diligent about wearing your device for most of the day or your job does not allow having it on, it may not be able to showcase helpful information.

In addition, commercial fitness trackers may not be fit for the sports you regularly engage in, such as water sports, diving, or motor racing. Alternatively, you may want to invest in devices designed specifically for your sport.

Although many are convinced that things need to be measured to be improved, this doesn't have to be true for you. While fitness trackers have many advantages, they're not necessarily attuned to your needs and where you are in your fitness journey.

Knowing this, it's best to take the time to evaluate yourself, your fitness goals, your lifestyle, and your needs before investing in a fitness tracking device. After all, there's no one way to become healthier, and healthy people have existed long before fitness trackers.

Quina is a staff writer for MUO, resident adrenaline junkie, and lover of all things tech. She is primarily based in Southeast Asia and graduated with a degree in Information Design.

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