Turns out fitness trackers might actually be bad for you

2 months ago

Bad luck for all you Fitbit enthusiasts trying to shed a few extra pounds, because a new study suggests that fitness trackers don’t actually offer any useful weight-loss benefits.

A two-year study of 471 overweight people found devices like fitness trackers may not offer any advantage over standard behavioural weight loss approaches.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh placed participants on a low-calorie diet, prescribed increases in physical activity, and had group counselling sessions. Six months into the study, half of the volunteers were given a fitness tracker to monitor their progress.

Contrary to what you might think, those who were given the wearable tech actually lost less weight than the control group by the end of the trial. Let’s break it down: those with the fitness trackers lost on average 3.5kg (8lbs), while those left to their own devices (geddit?) lost an average of 5.9kg (13lbs).

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Lead researcher Dr John Jakicic said it was possible those using fitness trackers may have felt they were able to reward themselves with “treats” more than other participants, prompting lower levels of weight loss.

Now that we think about it, that makes perfect sense – how many times have you rewarded yourself with a doughnut or sweet treat when you reached your step target that day?

Fitness trackers: good for monitoring your heartrate, but perhaps not so great if you want to slim down.