ZOZOFIT recognizes that the market for technology to support wellness is growing rapidly. The nonprofit Global Wellness Institute reports that the wellness technology sector is expected to reach nearly $7 trillion by 2025. Find out how recent technological advances can promote mental and physical wellbeing, including support for your fitness routine.

From artificial intelligence trainers and augmented reality workouts to wearable biometric sensors and 3D body measurement systems, discover the benefits of the latest technology for wellness.

Defining Wellness Technology

The term “wellness” has many dimensions that range from personal emotional, mental and physical states to broader social, spiritual and environmental outlooks. The Global Wellness Institute defines it as the “active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.” Combining this idea with the concept of modern technology suggests the use of innovative electronic solutions to promote a state of overall well-being.

Forward-thinking health-conscious individuals have used technology to measure and track biometric data since the “quantified self” movement started in the 1970s. Fifty years ago, this type of technology was only available to a small percentage of the population and was not as accurate, portable or user-friendly as the wellness technology that has become widely available to consumers over the last decade. The notion that technology could be used to track quantitative data related to personal health drove decades of innovation that have now led to the fitness wearables and 3D body scanning systems today.

In recent years, some technology commentators have suggested that the quantified self movement is over. In one sense, this movement has become mainstream. Many people use high-tech tools to monitor their activity levels, food intake and vital signs. The main challenges to wide and continuous adoption of self-tracking systems include the availability of meaningful analytics, high data privacy standards and features that encourage user engagement. Next-generation technology with wellness applications, like ZOZOFIT, focuses on these issues to make more useful tools to support making healthy, goal-oriented lifestyle choices.

The Benefits of Using Wellness Technology

The main rationale for using technology is to make challenging tasks easier. Technology that supports wellness should help you prioritize your goals in this area on an ongoing basis and achieve your desired results. Wearable technology is designed for ease of use, especially during physical activities. Smart watches, jewelry and other devices can measure steps, estimate calorie burn and provide notifications to promote physical activity.

Technology intended for periodic use can also have many benefits. The internet of things trend extends to fitness and wellness technology, such as internet-connected scales that transmit data to apps that log and track weight trends over time. However, weight only tells part of the story of your fitness journey and is becoming a less popular metric as research shows it only correlates so far with health. Accurate body measurements can be more useful for tracking the cumulative effects of your diet and workouts on each part of your body.

Access to accurate data is one of the main benefits of using technology to pursue personal fitness and wellness goals. A growing number of applications synthesize raw data into meaningful and actionable insights. For instance, the ZOZOFIT app charts trends in measurements of each part of your body, which can inform your workout schedule. Technology has the benefit of making your pursuit of wellness more data-driven and targeted toward realizing your goals.

How To Choose Wellness Technology

Selecting the right technology to support your wellness journey can be a challenge. Systems that simply chart your activities can be useful if you already have adopted habits that correspond to your fitness or wellness goals. If you want to form new habits, though, you cannot rely on past or current data to predict future outcomes. Instead, look for systems that incentivize intended use through features such as connectivity and gamification.

Connectivity is essential for new technology to become part of your everyday routine. If your wearable system does not connect with your smartphone or other devices that you use on a daily basis, it can be harder to use the data gathered by this system. One of the main benefits of ZOZOFIT is that the app is available in the App Store and Google Play and works on both Apple and Android devices.

Gamification turns working toward fitness goals into a game, with incentives to participate, level up, compete and win. If you need a little extra encouragement to maintain good habits, wellness technology that lets you log and track participation over time or share results can make a difference in your level of commitment and results. Even just having the ability to compare accurate data over time can be useful for showing your progress and encouraging you to keep working towards your fitness and wellness goals.

Why You Should Upgrade Your Fitness Routine

The rare highly disciplined individual can maintain fitness routines over weeks, months or years without any help from technology. Even these people, though, can benefit from gathering data about their workouts and results that go beyond changes in weight. New research indicates that commonly used metrics, such as Body Mass Index, can be inaccurate and misleading. Upgrading your fitness routine with technology that empowers you to gather your own data can personalize your pursuit of wellness.

Wellness technology can help you achieve the most relevant goals for your body and lifestyle. Data gathered by fitness wearables or 3D body scans is also easy to share with medical care providers, coaches or personal trainers. Details about your activity level, body composition, vital signs and measurements can also inform your approach to fitness and wellness.

Another reason to consider upgrading your fitness routine is that a lot of old equipment is not as accurate or useful as new technology. For example, when you use a traditional scale, you have to manually record your weight in order to chart changes over time. Smart scales log your current and past weight and make it easy to access this information. The ZOZOFIT app as well as the ZOZOSUIT have the advantage of being easier, faster and more accurate than a tape measure and also logs all measurements by date to make it simpler to analyze.

The Advantages of 3D Body Scanning 

Body scanning technology is the easiest way to take measurements of your physical form and track changes over time. Whether you want to build muscle mass or lose weight, a 3D measurement system shows the effects of lifestyle choices, such as exercise and diet, on your body. The ZOZOFIT app is faster and more accurate than any other method of taking body measurements. All you need is your phone to download the ZOZOFIT app.

A ZOZOSUIT is a bodysuit designed with more than 15,000 fiducial markers that work with the 3D scanning function of the ZOZOFIT app. Simply put on your ZOZOSUIT, load the app and stand in front of your phone camera. Follow the in-app prompts to turn in different directions during the scan process. This wellness technology is about as accurate as a laser scanner and lets you track changes approximately one-quarter inch at a time. When the scanning process is complete, you can check measurements for your shoulders, chest, upper arms, waist, hips, thighs and calves.

The ZOZOFIT app has helpful analytics, such as ColorMetric, side-by-side scan comparisons, and a trend graph for tracking progress toward your personal fitness goals. This system also supports simple and secure sharing of measurements with coaches, trainers or a broader community of supporters. ZOZOFIT improves on existing measurement methods and previous high-tech wellness tools.

How Wellness Technology Tools Work Together

Different wellness tools can provide unique types of data. Combining all of the data from every tool you use can provide a more complete picture of your health and wellness. Some tools can be integrated to present insights based on several sources of data, while other tools provide data that you can use to consider other information in context.

Fitness wearables, smart scales and measurement systems each provide different types of data. Wearables may function exclusively as activity trackers and calorie burn calculators or also monitor vital signs such as heart rate or pulse, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels. Some device readings may overlap. For instance, some wearables and smart scales use bioelectrical impedance to estimate body composition. Considering variations between readings in light of results from conventional testing methods can indicate which devices are most reliable for gathering particular types of data.

In addition to personal wellness technology, home or environmental wellness systems are also becoming more popular. These tools can track natural light patterns and provide features to regulate sleep and waking cycles. Other devices monitor air quality or temperature for health and comfort. While resources for integrating these types of tools are still limited, you can use data from multiple systems to guide your wellness journey.

Why You Should Prioritize Long-Term Solutions for Wellness

The benefits of technology that promotes wellness apply only as long as you use these devices and systems. If you stop wearing an activity tracker, for example, you will not have the data it should have gathered. It's a good idea to select wellness technology that you are likely to keep using and upgrade as needed to continue monitoring metrics relevant to your health and wellness.

Beyond the daily and weekly benefits of checking your step counts, calories burned or vital statistics, there are benefits to tracking data over longer periods of time. If you want to lose weight or gain muscle, you should track weight and measurement data over the course of weeks, months and years. For this reason, you should consider the quality of the design of a device or system and the long-term benefits of the data provided by each piece of technology.

The Future of Wellness Technology

Predictions of a rising market share for technology with wellness applications suggest that improved versions of existing tools and new solutions will debut in this sector over the next several years. As more people get accustomed to using technology to support wellness, these tools are likely to see faster adoption among a broader user base. ZOZOFIT and other offerings in the next generation of wellness tools also resolve the shortcomings of previous technology.

Some of the main areas for growth include 3D visualization, augmented reality systems and artificial intelligence. The high level of accuracy and detail of ZOZOFIT's measurement capabilities surpasses other measurement methods. Augmented, mixed and virtual reality systems are already changing how people work out, and this wellness technology is likely to advance rapidly. Artificial intelligence is starting to power virtual personal trainers and life coaches.

No matter how you choose to pursue your personal wellness goals, measuring your body is the best way to see meaningful results. Smart scales and devices that provide body composition measurements in real time are both useful tools for tracking metrics such as your weight and muscle mass percentage. Measurements from a precise 3D scan provide more specific information about the effects of your diet and exercise routine on your body to help you make more informed choices about fitness and overall wellness.

How To Get More Out of Wellness Technology

Regular use is key for getting the maximum benefit from technology that promotes wellness. When you consider investing in new wellness technology to support your health, you should factor in how often you plan to use a device or system along with any features that reinforce good habits. The ZOZOFIT app tracks measurements and charts your progress over time. By using the ZOZOFIT app on a regular basis, you can measure the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and track changes to your body over time.