Activity Trackers May Undermine Weight Loss Efforts

cee134
cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
edited December 3 in Motivation and Support
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.

Replies

  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
    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
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited September 2016
    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
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    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. :D
  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
    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.
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    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
    Cave_Goose Posts: 156 Member
    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
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited September 2016
    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
    sllm1 Posts: 2,130 Member
    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
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    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
    chapiano Posts: 331 Member
    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
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
    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
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited September 2016
    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
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
    edited September 2016
    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
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories