There's Even More Evidence That Fitness Trackers Don't Work (fortune.com)

Turns out it's really hard to persuade people to exercise -- even when they have access to how many steps they've taken, and even when they get paid for it. A staggering 90 percent of people stop wearing fitness trackers when given the choice. Fortune reports: In the new yearlong study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, researchers randomized 800 people in Singapore who had a full-time job into four groups. Some wore a Fitbit Zip and were paid a small amount of money to get moving -- which they were instructed either to keep or to donate to charity -- while others didn't wear Fitbits. Researchers measured their physical activity, weight, blood pressure, the body's ability to use oxygen (called cardiorespiratory fitness) and their self-reported quality of life. For the last six months of the study, all incentives were dropped, and people could choose whether or not to continue wearing their fitness trackers. (About 40% of people had stopped wearing it in the first six months anyway.) The cash seemed to work at first. Those who were rewarded with cash did an extra 13 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week and added 570 steps to their daily counts. Raising money for charity had no effect. But once the monetary rewards stopped, so did the improvements. By the end of the study, just 10% of people were still wearing the trackers.

Comments

Re:Define "work"

[hey!]

Exactly. Here's the problem; MOST people naturally gain weight in a modern environment of desk work and easy access to massive amounts of calories. In this basically unhealthy environment a healthy person will gain unhealthy weight unless he (a) artificially restrains his calorie intake[note] and (b) artificially inflates his exercise output.

Most people won't do those things, and therefore naturally tend to gain weight in a way that our ancestors of even fifty years ago didn't.

And activity trackers won't magically change that. Slap one on some random person who is in a weight-gaining mode, and he'll almost certain remain in that mode. HOWEVER: if you want to be in the small minority of people who are successful, then a fitness tracker is useful.

note: most diets that work by macronutrient selection (e.g. Atkins) when they work dos obecause people are sated on fewer calories.