How Effective Are Activity Trackers for Weight Loss?

By Tracey Dowdy
Are you wearing a fitness tracker? A new study published in the American Medical Association Journal concluded that activity trackers may not be living up to all they promise. Researchers found that individuals wearing activity trackers in fact lost less weight than those that didn’t.
The results were surprising as researchers “anticipated that those with the activity trackers would lose more weight across the 24 months,” said study co-author John Jakicic, a weight-management researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. “When we found just the opposite this was very surprising.”
The study followed 471 overweight or obese individuals aged 18-35 years over a two-year period. Each participant followed a program of exercise, ate a healthy diet and participated in weekly support meetings. Six months into the study, one group started utilizing a website to track calorie intake and exercise, while individuals in the second group were given fitness trackers commercially available and designed to be worn on the upper arm.
Fast forward two years. The individuals using fitness trackers lost an average of 8lbs while those tracking diet and fitness goals online dropped 13lbs. Note: The study did not include a control group of individuals that were offered no online or wearable tech weight loss interventions.
While the study may be disheartening for anyone using an activity tracker, it’s important to consider several things not documented by the study results. One, participants still lost weight. Losing less weight than another individual is less important than the impact a healthier lifestyle will have long-term. Speaking of long-term, it is yet to be seen which group maintains their fitness goals and lifestyle changes over time. Will those logging on to a website be more inclined to continue or will it be the individuals who are seeing “results” in real time as their tracker logs steps, heart rate, and calories burned?
Furthermore, “the importance of examining effective weight loss strategies for young adults is supported by a recent report showing that this age demographic has a prevalence of obesity (32.3%) higher than the prevalence in youth 12 to 19 years of age (20.5%) but lower than that found in middle-aged adults (40.2%). This may suggest that young adulthood is an important transition period for weight gain and the development of obesity.” In other words, developing a healthy lifestyle when you’re younger bodes well for avoiding obesity in middle age regardless of the methods used. Again, focus on the bigger picture. Both groups improved their overall health.
Regardless of your approach, it takes more than diet or exercise on their own to maintain a healthy body. Exercise can be undermined by a poor diet and inadequate nutrition hinders peak physical ability. Food should be seen as fuel, not a reward.
Obviously, whether you choose wearable tech is a personal choice. If it motivates you and helps you stay on track, by all means get one. There are a lot of great options available. As Jakicic said, “Regardless, if you wear a device like this and it helps you to become more active and manage your weight better, by all means keep doing that.”
Tracey Dowdy is a freelance writer based just outside Washington DC. After years working for non-profits and charities, she now freelances, edits and researches on subjects ranging from family and education to history and trends in technology. Follow Tracey on Twitter.
You’re so cool! I do not think I’ve truly read through anything like that before.
So good to find somebody with some original thoughts on this topic.
Really.. thank you for starting this up. This website is one thing that
is required on the web, someone with some originality!
Great website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any forums that cover the same topics discussed here?
I’d really love to be a part of online community
where I can get advice from other knowledgeable people that share
the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.
Cheers!
Hi there! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 4!
Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward
to all your posts! Carry on the superb work!
We absolutely love your blog and find the majority of your post’s
to be exactly I’m looking for. can you offer guest writers
to write content in your case? I wouldn’t mind writing a post or
elaborating on most of the subjects you write
related to here. Again, awesome web log!
Awesome blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download
it from somewhere? A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog
jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme.
Thanks
continuously i used to read smaller posts that also clear their motive, and that is also happening with this post which I am reading at this time.
What’s up, after reading this remarkable post i am also cheerful
to share my familiarity here with colleagues.
Hi there, There’s no doubt that your website might be having web browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your web site in Safari, it looks fine however
when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping issues.
I merely wanted to provide you with a quick heads up!
Aside from that, excellent site!
The perfect solution to develop and earn cash blogging is by understanding your viewers deeply.
The cash naturally follows over time as you suggest a product or service casually,
but firmly. Spring 2022) and the way you would like Fuller to
handle any excess funds over and above the quarterly tuition and fees
(ie. How you would like Fuller to handle any excess funds over and above the
tuition and fees (ie. Longer content (typically over 1,500 phrases) tends to do higher than shorter articles.
A.1.4.2 “Digital Content” means any form of digital pictures, texts, sounds, audio-visual content and software program
(or combos thereof), which is not delivered on a tangible medium.
The monthly computerized bank draft could be accomplished by speaking to
one of our Customer Representative or by filling out the Automatic Bank
Draft form, then ship the kind to the Forrest City Water Utility.
This portal permits you to avoid wasting on financial institution fees and alternate rates, entry multilingual buyer assist, and monitor your fee from start to finish.
Note additionally they provide bespoke pricing options for even larger businesses.
We provide a number of how to do that so you may choose
the option that’s best for you. Wix offers you the best of each worlds, with great instruments for creating content material and a robust set of e-commerce instruments.
Reach. The possibilities of your survey being seen and taken by a community of
individuals already constructed-in just for you is fairly great so why wouldn’t you,
right? Ask your self before posting-Is the survey you’re
sending the right fit for Linkedin? Remember though to pay special mind
to your tone when on Linkedin. Just as necessary-understanding learn how to share your surveys
on Facebook and on other social media networks like Linkedin and Twitter.
Since that is a professional community, you’re going to wish to make certain that your survey’s content material is suitable to share together with your contacts.
Content tends to be fairly a bit more formal in appear and
feel than on Facebook or Twitter.
They’re Yapsody fees and Stripe charges. To ask occasion attendees extra informations, such as
t-shirt size or meal choice, there are a couple choices.
There are quite a lot of prices you might have to
consider. There are two kinds of fees that apply when creating online occasions.
If you are already doing enterprise and it isn’t strictly cash, you possibly can attempt it both
ways. If you wish to save some calculation for protecting Yapsody
Fees, you can hit the checkmark to move that charge
onto clients, and then your base charge should just take into consideration taxes
and Stripe charges. Hit proceed. An approval page could seem.
Instead, create the separate pages mentioned above for each of your
key phrases or phrases and make sure you use the keywords within the title, meta
tags, and the “reputable” content material of the web page as much as doable.
API & Documentation page holds all of the credentials.
Read on to find out extra about these.
I really like it when folks come together and share thoughts.
Great site, continue the good work!
Hi, every time i used to check web site posts here in the early hours in the daylight, as i like to gain knowledge of more and more.
hey there and thank you for your information – I’ve certainly picked up anything new
from right here. I did however expertise several technical issues using this site, since
I experienced to reload the site lots of times previous to I could get it to load correctly.
I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow
loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and
can damage your high-quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords.
Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for a lot more
of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update
this again very soon.
I am really loving the theme/design of your site.
Do you ever run into any web browser compatibility problems?
A handful of my blog audience have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera.
Do you have any tips to help fix this problem?
Hello, yup this article is genuinely nice and I have
learned lot of things from it concerning blogging. thanks.
Yes! Finally someone writes about website.
Hi, Neat post. There is an issue together with your website in internet explorer, would check
this? IE nonetheless is the market chief and a large section of other people will leave out your excellent writing because of this problem.
This paragraph will help the internet visitors for creating new website or even a weblog from start to end.
Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite
reason appeared to be on the web the simplest thing to be aware of.
I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people think about worries that
they just don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the
whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal.
Will likely be back to get more. Thanks
I’ve been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or blog posts on this kind of
house . Exploring in Yahoo I finally stumbled upon this site.
Reading this information So i am satisfied to exhibit that I
have an incredibly good uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what
I needed. I most undoubtedly will make sure to do not fail to remember this web site and provides it a glance regularly.
I was curious if you ever considered changing the page layout of your site?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content
so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of
text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
Hey there would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re
using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog
loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price?
Many thanks, I appreciate it!
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point.
You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting
videos to your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?