Want To Lose Weight? Get Rid Of That Fitness Tracker Because It's Not Helping You

People who use gadgets to help them lose weight tend to lose interest very quickly. They tend to reward themselves even on losing an inch which is certainly not a very good idea.

Tracking your calories and the number of steps you have walked a day will certainly not make you lose weight, says a new study! After a two-year study, University of Pittsburgh researchers learned that people who rely on fitness trackers lose less weight than their peers who don’t shell out for the wearable technology on their wrists.

The two year study of almost 500 people, at the American Medical Association (JAMA) were asked to diet and take more exercise. Half of them were given fitness trackers to help them keep tabs. At the end of this research, group with trackers lost less weight than the others who ere put on diet and self monitor.

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Well, according to the researchers this does not mean that people should stop using the technology altogether, but people should use them wisely and not put too much faith in them, at least when wanting to lose weight.

How it doesn’t work?

According to a lead researcher Dr John Jakicic people who use gadgets to help them lose weight tend to lose interest very quickly and most people tend to reward themselves even on losing an inch which is certainly not a very good idea. Perhaps people who use fitness trackers became fixated on exercise goals and forgot to follow the diet advice, Dr Jakicic suggested.

What statistics say!

Research company CCS statistics and prediction, UK sales of wearable devices, activity trackers and smart watches are expected to reach five million with 10 million devices expected to be in use before the end of 2016.

A psychologist at Lancaster University Dr David Ellis who has been researching on the rise of these health trackers said that the JAMA study was helpful because it focused on people who might not normally go out and buy an activity tracker. According to his research and observation fitness trackers are mostly bought by people who are already healthy and want to monitor their progress, so it is quite difficult to come to a conclusion if they are useful for everybody.

Credit: Arushi Chaturvedi via TOI