What use are laptops if the data is wrong?

An Apple Watch or Garmin can draw the wrong conclusions about your health, but big trends can be more valuable than numbers.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Smartwatches from tech companies like Apple and Garmin make it easy to see a number that might reflect your age more accurately than your age: VO2max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body has can use during intense exercise.

The higher your VO2max, according to exercise experts, the better your cardiovascular fitness and potentially the longer your life. In the past, only serious athletes sought out a traditional VO2max test, which involved wearing bulky sensors while exercising in a lab, but now anyone can get an estimate by wearing a smartwatch and looking at themselves. moving.

Is it good to have access to this kind of information? And how accurate could a laptop be? Over the past five months, when I fell down a VO2max rabbit hole, I learned some uncomfortable truths about my health and the limitations of smartwatches.

First, let me tell you about my fitness journey. In November, when I was celebrating my birthday, my Apple Watch gave me the most unwanted gift: an elevated heart rate notification. This led me to look at my VO2max, which the Apple Watch said was 32, well below average for a man in his late thirties.

Looking for a quick fix, I purchased a gym membership for high-intensity intervals, a type of training that specializes in improving cardio fitness. Five months and many kettlebell swings and jump squats later, I felt progress. I burned fat, gained muscle and felt more energetic. The Apple Watch gave me a VO2max estimate of 40, just below average, and a Garmin watch I was also wearing rated me at 45.

Dr. Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist in San Francisco who has studied wearable technology for many years, said my experience highlighted the pros and cons of using smartwatch data to explore health.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">"On the one hand, you can give him credit for kicking you in the butt and telling you to go practice," he said. "But on the other hand, now you're kind of burnt out with this real test and you're like, 'What am I doing with this number?'"

Fortunately, after studying all the data, learning how wearable algorithms work, and talking to health experts, I came to a positive conclusion: Even though the smartwatch numbers were wrong, they were broadly correct, and I'd probably be better off wearing one than not.

My experience can serve as a model for anyone trying to have a healthy relationship with technology that tracks many types of health data, from sleep patterns to body fat.

A closer look at the data

Last month, my room sports company in Oakland, Calif., called Sweat, announced that it has partnered with PNOĒ, a metabolic health lab, to deliver clinical-grade products. VO2max test, so I enthusiastically signed up.

The purpose of a clinical VO2max test is to measure your peak oxygen uptake at the point where you reach the exhaustion. This metric - a person's ability to breathe oxygen and produce carbon dioxide during exercise - is a strong indicator of cardiovascular fitness.

At Sweat, Hecker Room owner Cassie strapped an oxygen mask over my face and a heart monitor to my chest. She had me pedal an exercise bike for about 12 minutes, increasing the intensity each minute as her equipment collected data. After reaching my maximum heart rate of 182 beats per minute and starting to fight exhaustion, the test was performed.

The test was very different from the w. ..