Activity Trackers May Undermine Weight Loss Efforts

cee134

I found this interesting.

Activity Trackers May Undermine Weight Loss Efforts -N.Y. Times

Quick synopsis:

Wearable activity monitors can count your steps and track your movements, but they don’t, apparently, help you lose weight. In fact, you might lose more weight without them.

The fascinating finding comes from a study published today in JAMA that found dieting adults who wore activity monitors for 18 months lost significantly fewer pounds over that time than those who did not.

Most were thinner now than at the start of the study (although many had regained some of the weight that they had lost during the first six months).

Those who had not worn activity monitors were, on average, about 13 pounds lighter now than two years ago.

Those who had worn the monitors, however, weighed only about 8 pounds less than at the start.

MissusMoon

I got one recently and I'd already lost over 80 pounds. The tracker is a tool. The numbers it gives me are pretty spot on to TDEE. It doesn't tell me to eat at a calorie deficit or anything.

It's not about the tracker, it's about what the person wearing the tracker does.

JustMissTracy

I love mine, regardless of any study. I've lost a lot of weight and increased my activity level dramatically since receiving mine. Numbers are a wonderful thing, if you have the desire to use them!

RoxieDawn

Interesting.. I agree that this is just a tool. It is a device that CAN help or assist one with weight loss, fitness and weight management.. So you get out what you put in it per se..

IMHO, there are also a lot of assumptions mentioned in the article itself based on that study.

rsclause

I wear mine daily and have gained and lost weight. I am on a roll now and have gotten my 10K steps in before the sun came up each day and lost four pounds since Monday. And now the rest of the story, I ate like a pig this weekend and gained five pounds in two days and blame my tracker for it.

Joanna2012B

I am in the market for a fitness tracker. I just don't understand how using a fitness tracker will slow your weight loss down. I want one to help me become a more efficient athlete.

campfirequeen1

That is an interesting study. Wonder where and how they chose the target group? I use a Garmin Vivofit2 and I absolutely credit the information I get from it paired with this site for my tremendous success so far. I had one other successful weight loss period where I used a Fitbit, but I gained it back, when I ruined my Fitbit not once, but three times by getting it wet. I finally gave up because they were so expensive and life happened (death of my mom, loss of my job and own personal illness). But that was not the fault of the tracker, it was my responsibility and I flat failed.

The info I get helps me to make good decisions about what I am eating each day, but I can't make those decisions unless I am faithful to track every bite I eat and drink, log every step I take and then take time to evaluate it. It's a commitment! I'm worth it and the more success I have the more excited I am and the more I see that I am worth it.

The reason I switched to the Garmin Vivofit 2 is that it is waterproof and less than half the cost of the Fitbit! I researched a lot before I bought it and some brands claim their's is the only truly waterproof one (and they are way more expensive) but this one is. I swim a good deal and do some water walking and aerobics. I went to the beach on vacation and wore it in the ocean every day and I never take it off even when I shower or bathe.

I guess the moral of my story is that nothing is fool proof. If you are committed to your program and looking at and using the feedback you get from your efforts, no matter what tools you use to help you, you will be successful. Anything worth having is worth working for and you have to take responsibility for your own success...or failure! It's your choice and no one else's.

upoffthemat

The purpose of a fitness tracker isn't to lose weight it is to increase movement. Just increasing movement isn't a guarantee of losing weight and I think pretty much everyone on this site would agree with that.

I highly doubt that fitness tracker hurts weight loss, but someone buying a fitness tracker and thinking that just moving more and not addressing intake at the same time isn't going to always be happy with the results

annaskiski

I think this plays into the thinking of many people that they just need to exercise more to lose weight.

This is a huge misconception on many people's part. They just don't want to cut calories.....

Cave_Goose

The problem with trackers (including logging exercise with MFP) is the temptation to eat back the calories burned from exercise. Since trackers are notoriously overestimating calories burned, the solution is not to eat back the calories (or only eat back half).

cee134

I wonder, in fact I bet, they where eating back too much of the their exercise calories. When I had a fitbit I knew I wasn't burning what it said I was.

sllm1

If you just wear it without tracking your intake, you could think to yourself, "I walked 10,000 steps today, so I can eat more," thus undoing all of your steps very easily by taking in more than you realize.

I use one and track food on MFP and it works great for me. The numbers are spot on after over a year of tracking calories, steps, exercise, and weight lost. The numbers work.

Wysewoman53

I use mine for motivation. It doesn't tell me what or how to eat. It just gets me up and moving. Keeping my calories low and having a deficit at the end of the day is how I lose weight.

chapiano

I heard this on the news today. It's obvious really, you can track your activities but unless you eat correctly it's pointless. I think people have bought these, upped there exercise and just ate poorly and kicked off that they are gaining weight.

JustMissTracy

cee134 wrote: »

I wonder, in fact I bet, they where eating back too much of the their exercise calories. When I had a fitbit I knew I wasn't burning what it said I was.

You should have sent it back to Fitbit; my daughter had one that was not giving her enough steps, she called and they sent her one that was more accurate. Mine is pretty close, and I've lost the weight expected during the time expected, so possibly "they" may have eaten back too many cals, their tracker wasn't working right, or they were underestimating their calorie intake?

To each their own; trackers are just another tool, another instrument (like the food scale, the weight scale, the treadmill, your running shoes, ropes) to help us get to where we want to be, whether it's sleep, steps, heart rate, weight loss, water etc...Whether you use it to it's full advantage or not is up to you, but the benefits are there for many of us.

GottaBurnEmAll

I think this is like tools and how well equipped people are to use them. If you take two different people and give them a hammer, a trained carpenter is going to hammer in a nail without missing the mark and/or bending the nail. Someone who doesn't really know what they're doing is going to grip the hammer improperly, swing and miss, and possibly bend the nail.

There are fine points to using an activity tracker properly and to losing weight. Having one doesn't necessarily mean you'll just lose weight. You need to know those finer points.

cee134

JustMissTracy wrote: »

cee134 wrote: »

I wonder, in fact I bet, they where eating back too much of the their exercise calories. When I had a fitbit I knew I wasn't burning what it said I was.

You should have sent it back to Fitbit; my daughter had one that was not giving her enough steps, she called and they sent her one that was more accurate. Mine is pretty close, and I've lost the weight expected during the time expected, so possibly "they" may have eaten back too many cals, their tracker wasn't working right, or they were underestimating their calorie intake?

To each their own; trackers are just another tool, another instrument (like the food scale, the weight scale, the treadmill, your running shoes, ropes) to help us get to where we want to be, whether it's sleep, steps, heart rate, weight loss, water etc...Whether you use it to it's full advantage or not is up to you, but the benefits are there for many of us.

What I realized was that each step was considered equal. If I was going up stairs, walking very quickly, or waking very slowly, it counted it the same. I know that's not true and if I got, say 4000 steps, it wasn't worth thinking about the calories, and defiantly not worth eating back those calories.

Unknown

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