Fitness trackers are meant to help people with their fitness. By providing them a way to keep track of their fitness, the hope is that by showing progression, like the number of calories burnt, how long it takes before hitting a certain heart rate, the number of steps walked in a day, running X miles in under Y minutes, and etc., it would motivate people to keep exercising.
To a certain extent that is true as there have been many positive feedback regarding fitness trackers, but a recent experiment conducted by John Jakicic of the University of Pittsburgh seems to suggest otherwise. The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that fitness trackers might not be as effective as we might think.
The experiment consisted of two groups of Weight Watchers of around 470 participants aged 18-35. Both groups were given advice on healthy eating and increased exercise, but the second group were given fitness trackers. Interestingly enough, the first group without the trackers lost an average of 13lbs over the course of the study, while those with the trackers only lost 7.7lbs.
The study concludes that one possibility is that by tracking their exercise and eating, the group with the trackers thought that they could eat more i.e. by burning 200 calories in a jog, they assume they could eat back those 200 calories and it would “even out”. Another possibility is that by being able to actually see how far they are from their goals, like if they only accomplished 3,000 steps out of 10,000 steps, they might feel demotivated to even try and hit that target.
That being said this study is hardly conclusive. For one it does not detail the activity schedule of the group, so we’re not sure if there could have been other reasons. In any case it is an interesting read, and we guess fitness trackers at the end of the day are just that, trackers, and that if you want to get fit and lose weight, dieting and exercise will get you there, not a $250 gadget strapped to your wrist.
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