Smartwatches add “life-saving” technology like fall detection, SOS calls, AFib alerts and Pixel Watches’ latest Loss of Pulse feature to make you feel safer. But there’s a less glaring and more general concern that most watches treat as an afterthought: tracking hydration and sweat loss.
I’ve been wanting better hydration tools on watches, but last weekend’s report of 35-year-old runner Bobby Graves dying of a heart attack after finishing a Disneyland half-marathon — a day after self-diagnosing himself in 100ºF heat — has it on my mind. Brought to the fore.
This man was my age, had run several half and full marathons in the past and was not at the age where people worry about heart health. Perhaps the medical report will shed some light on mitigating conditions, but the expert quoted on SFGate has reason to specifically warn people to “make sure you stay hydrated” in hot weather.
Smart watches are capable of estimating sweat loss from exercise. Even Samsung claims it’s clinically accurate. But most other brands (except Garmin) ignore it, and those who do monitor it don’t do enough.
I’d say it’s about time hydration became more of a priority for fitness brands. Extreme heat will worsen over time, and watches should be prepared for that.
Tracking hydration is about as basic as it gets
Both Wear OS and WatchOS have several water tracking apps, such as WaterMinder and Waterllama. Samsung’s One UI watch has a first-party hydration tile, and Garmin watches let you download a Hydration Tracking view from the Connect IQ store.
They differ in appearance and unique features, but they all work pretty much the same way: you open the app or tile and tap a button to say you drank a cup of water. The screen will show you how many fluid ounces you have left to drink that day. You can schedule regular pop-up reminders to check if you’ve been drinking.
It is useful enough for everyday life! But that daily water reminder doesn’t take into account context like how hot it is or if you’ve exercised; You will have to change the target yourself. The combination of hourly drinking and moving reminders can be so annoying that many people ignore or turn them off.
A few fitness watch brands like Coros and Polar allow you to set reminders to refuel or rehydrate during exercise activities, but within pre-set time intervals; Again, no context for the water or electrolytes your body actually needs.
Ideally, a watch would be aware of when the user is sweating (or sweating) more or less than normal, and would dynamically suggest that the person drink more water to avoid problems like dehydration and heat exhaustion.
Accurate sweat tracking is possible with smartwatches
Samsung boasted earlier this month that a clinical study at the University of Michigan proved how accurate its Galaxy Watches are compared to medical-grade sensors for heart rate (90%), VO2 Max (82%) and sweat loss (95%). It’s what I expected from a wrist-based optical HR sensor, but the sweat accuracy surprised me.
Samsung doesn’t track your sweat loss directly. It estimates “based on your body size, age, gender and the intensity of your exercise, including heart rate, ambient temperature and other conditions.” I always chalked up my Galaxy Watch Ultra’s post-run sweat loss numbers to guess, but apparently that was an educated guess.
the same direct The consumer sweat removal tool I know is the Nix Biosensor. It attaches to your bicep and sends down “inputs” with electrodes on either side, calculating its “velocity” to determine your sweat rate. Then, since different body parts have different sweat rates, it describes how much sweat the rest of your body is losing.
Nix’s sensors could be useful for serious athletes, and I plan to test them for a future column. But they are niche and only worn in exercise concepts; We need mainstream smartwatches for everyday wear to be the authority on sweat.
The Pixel Watch 3 cEDA sensor can detect “small changes in the sweat level on your skin” for stress data, but I don’t think it’s designed to track overall sweat loss. Apple has patented a sweat sensor that “measures the amount of fluid lost over a period of time” and even displays a real-time sweat loss rate, but a patent doesn’t guarantee a company can implement a concept in real life.
For now, I’d be happy if more brands emulated Samsung and Google by using their standard heart rate and body data to estimate sweat loss after exercise. Ultimately, however, they should go further in line with what Apple has patented.
Picture this: Say you’re running a half-marathon with the Galaxy Watch 7 in hot conditions. During the run, a data screen will show you how much sweat you’ve lost in real time, perhaps calculating new totals every few minutes or every mile. At certain thresholds, perhaps every 500ml of sweat drop or a customizable number, it can beep on your wrist, suggesting you refuel quickly.
If your body sweat rate Reduces speed During your run, it’s a serious sign of dehydration. Your Galaxy Watch will alert you to immediately stop and rehydrate or seek medical attention, just as it will tell you if an arrhythmia or low heart rate is detected.
Once you cross the finish line, the watch will give you an estimate of your total sweat loss, which it does now. But it will automatically add your lost sweat totals to your hydration tile. Samsung recommends that you “replace 150% of what you lose in 1 to 2 hours,” so I’d assume that would easily increase your total sweat loss from your workout by 1.5 milliliters plus fluid ounces.
It can then sometimes send post-workout notifications at the one and two hour marks, reminding you to record your water intake on the hydration tile to confirm you’re fueling properly.
That’s my vision of how this works. And ideally, the sweat sensor wouldn’t just turn on during exercise, but measure sweat continuously (like the Fitbit cEDA sensor) and start tracking more frequently if you reach a certain sweat or heart rate threshold, or if your local weather and humidity are special. does high
It will be useful not only for farm workers, delivery drivers in hot vans, construction crews and athletes, but also for other outdoor workers.
Garmin buried Connect IQ’s Hydration Tracker tool like it’s a shame, but it’s closer to my ideal vision for useful sweat loss data. Once you’ve downloaded it, you can open the app settings and turn on “Auto Augment Goal” to add your exercise sweat loss to your standard daily goal.
I tested it on my Garmin Forerunner 965, and it added six cups of water to my daily total after sweating so much during a 10K on a hot day. But Garmin underestimates my sweat compared to Samsung And It doesn’t follow the “replace 150%” instructions. I always need more water than the Garmin suggests, so it’s more theoretical than practical.
For runners who push and finish races when their body tells them to stop, fitness watches need to be ready to step in at any moment, not just alert you at the finish line that you’re sweating. a river
Rather than relying on algorithms, it’s best if they start measuring your body sweat for more tailored data, because reasonable brands like Garmin and Samsung give different results with heart rate estimates. With sweat data, warnings to drink water or electrolytes will be more relevant.
#Fitness #watches #stop #treating #dehydration #sweat #loss #afterthought