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Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/Kārlis Dambrāns

Fitbit's heart rate monitor isn't even close to accurate, says new study

Written by
Clayton Guse
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If you've ever dropped a sizable chunk of your paycheck on a on a Fitbit with the hopes that the fitness-tracking device would help you get your life together, you should probably sit down and have a drink.

A new study from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona found that the company's PurePulse heart rate monitoring technology in its Fitbit Surge and Charge HR products miscalculated subjects' heart rates by up to 20 beats per minute during moderate or high intensity workouts. If true, it would mean that all of that sweet, sweet Fitbit data that's informing your workout strategy is about as useful as a Pet Rock. (But there is a catch, folks.)

Fitbit is urging consumers to hold off from jumping to conclusions, as the study was commissioned by Lieff Cabraser, the law firm that's launching a class action lawsuit against the company for its allegedly shaky data. "What the plaintiffs' attorneys call a 'study' is biased, baseless, and nothing more than an attempt to extract a payout from Fitbit. It lacks scientific rigor and is the product of flawed methodology," the company said in a statement posted by Gizmodo.

If Fitbit's heart rate technology is in fact as accurate as your grandpa "eyeballing" it, then it would rightfully piss off a lot of consumers. In 2015, the company sold 21.4 million connected health and fitness devices and made $1.86 billion in revenue, according to a statement

A less comprehensive study from earlier in 2016 by Ball State University had similar findings—fitness trackers lie all of the time. So whether you own a Fitbit or another wearable technology of the sort, take your data with a big old grain of salt. 

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