Activity Trackers May Undermine Weight Loss Efforts, Says Study (sciencedaily.com)

schwit1 quotes a report from New York Times: Wearable activity monitors can count your steps and track your movements, but they don't, apparently, help you lose weight. In fact, you might lose more weight without them. The fascinating finding comes from a study published today in JAMA that found dieting adults who wore activity monitors for 18 months lost significantly fewer pounds over that time than those who did not. The results suggest that activity monitors may not change our behavior in the way we expected (warning: may be paywalled), and raise interesting questions about the tangled relationships between exercise, eating, our willpower and our waistlines. Specifically, the study found that participants who used wearable devices reported an average weight loss of 7.7 pounds, compared to the 13 pounds lost by those who didn't use the devices and only used health counseling. "While usage of wearable devices is currently a popular method to track physical activity -- steps taken per day or calories burned during a workout -- our findings show that adding them to behavioral counseling or weight loss that includes physical activity and reduced calorie intake does not improve weight loss or physical activity engagement. Therefore, within this context, these devices should not be relied upon as tools for weight management in place of effective behavioral counseling for physical activity and diet," said John Jakicic, the study's lead researcher and chair of Pitt's Department of Health and Physical Activity.

Comments

The Self Reward Syndrome

[Anonymous Coward]

"According to this app, today I burnt 500 calories more than yesterday! I can now eat a whole pizza guilt free"
Mystery solved.

Re:The Self Reward Syndrome

[EEPROMS]

I used to go to the gym 3-4 times a week and do all the exercises etc and lost next to bugger all weight but I did get bigger muscles. The issue is to lose weight there are two simple rules, don't eat anything with a high GI (carbs) index and don't eat too much. If you avoid bread and cakes, beer (I drink spirits now), snacks etc all things high in carbs you will find the weight just falls off. Also reward yourself at least once a week with a sinful dinner setting and that way you don't get bored. Yes exercise should still be in the picture but is a wast of time if you don't get rid of the carbs,

Re:The Self Reward Syndrome

[plover]

As much as this explanation appears to make sense, like anything in a social study, the results are likely virtually meaningless at the individual level. How any one person reacts to a tracker will not be predictable.

Success at improving someone's health will always be based entirely on the motivation of the person, not on which electronic toys they wear or which brand of granola they gnaw upon. Perhaps they'll find a correlation where buying Garmin branded devices is indicative of people who are more motivated than people who buy Apple branded devices, but that certainly doesn't mean buying a Garmin or an Apple will alter your chances of success.

I participated in a clinical activity tracker study earlier this year. There were so many holes in the testing methodology that I'm not sure the results will be worth the PDF they'll be printed on. Yet they'll be publishing results soon enough, and no doubt will contribute to the collective misinformation already encompassing the 'get healthy' rackets.

Re:The Self Reward Syndrome

[chihowa]

There's a pretty damn easy way to measure fat vs muscle and most people (especially those of the opposite sex) are pretty good at doing so. Even if you're a big lad who still has more visible fat than muscle, any increase in muscle makes a noticeable difference in the way you look and move.

A friend of mine who was pretty big and soft started climbing with me and you could start seeing the difference pretty quicly. Most people can tell the difference between big and soft and big and and strong. You also start feeling better, which helps keep your motivation up. Exercise is only part of a complete weight loss regimen, but it's worth doing on its own, too. It's been the best medicine for my chronic crippling depression.

Re:And of course the JAMA doesn't have an interest

[AK Marc]

The study was about people with "behavioral counseling [increased] physical activity and reduced calorie intake" with and without trackers.

Without, someone might push harder, with, they may quit an activity sooner after hitting some goal.
Or they are ignoring the counseling and trusting the tracker.

The study doesn't have enough groups to be "valid" to discuss the validity of fitness trackers.

Where is the group with a meal plan and a fitness tracker? Not there. How about a group with no plans, goals, or direction? Is the "control" group for weight-loss professional counseling, meal plans, and physical activity plans? How about a control group that's "lose weight, 'cause you should" and see how they track?

A control group C1 that has no plan or tracker, group E1 with tracker only, group C2 with paper plans handed out at the beginning and no counselor, group E2 with a tracker and paper plan, E3, with plan, tracker, and counselor, and C3, plan, counselor, no tracker.

Comparing all the groups across would give a better idea of the impact of a fitness tracker in multiple scenarios.

Re:OR

[ShanghaiBill]

Or those That would buy an Activity Tracker to lose weight are not as committed as those who don't?

Nope. The activity trackers were randomly assigned to study participants. They were not self selecting. RTFA.

Makes sense to me!

[Octorian]

Activity trackers are not a useful tool for increasing your amount of regular physical activity. That's not really what they're designed for.
They are, however, a useful tool for quantitatively bragging about your physical activity on Twitter and Facebook :-)

Re:I think that they are missing the point

[Sique]

But that's not what that study was about. According to the NY Times text, 500 people were selected and put on a weight loss regime for six month, and each of them lost weight. Then they got split in two groups where one group keeps track of the weight loss regime via a website and another one via the tracker. And the tracker people lost significantly less weight during the next year.

A couple significant problems

[93 Escort Wagon]

- The two groups both received counseling only for the first six months. After that, one group continued to receive monthly counseling, while the other just used a "fitness device". The way the summary (and the linked story) are written seemingly implies both groups were receiving counseling the entire time, which is false.

- The device used in this study sounds like something the researchers cobbled together. The researchers also "made a web site" where participants could review the data from the device. This does not really seem comparable to even fairly cheap modern fitness trackers, where feedback and data are easily obtained anytime the user wants. These guys really should have used brand name off the shelf commercial trackers if they really wanted to validate their conclusions.

All in all, this study seems to have some significant problems.

Re:Better gadget

[TheRaven64]

Sometimes. Most people don't actually want to lose weight though, they want to lose fat. If you exercise a bit more, you'll likely lose some fat and put on some muscle. Muscle is denser than fat, so your weight may go up for a little while, and the scale will make you feel like it isn't working.

Re: Works for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely fitbits cost more than 6 pounds in the uk?