Fitbits ‘won’t help you lose weight – they might have the opposite effect’
MANY people wear fitness trackers in order to keep an eye on their daily step count.
But some go out and buy the flashy wearables, like Fitbits, as a way of understanding the amount of calories burnt on a daily basis in the hope that it will help with weight loss.
However, research has found that this just isn’t the case and that in some instances, they might have the opposite effect.
They are nifty pieces of equipment and most of the time, smartwatches are also linked up to an app.
It’s there that you can log your macros and track the progress of your recent work outs.
You might think that all that logging will help trim your waistline, but a paper published in 2016 found that those who wore Fitbits for a year had no change in weight or blood pressure.
However, the medics in Singapore found that those who wore the watches were able to keep up exercise routines, more than those who didn’t.
Writing in The Lancet, experts said that despite the increase in popularity in the trackers, there is ‘little evidence’ that they can improve health.
Other studies have found that wearing a device could make you stagnant.
Medics at the University of Pittsburgh said that dieting adults who used a generic monitor for 18 months lost less weight that those who didn’t.
In the 2016 paper, the experts found that those who wore the watches also did less activity in general.
One expert said that this reduced movement could be down to how you feel when you wear the monitors.
Professor Jordan Etikon of Duke University in the US said that measuring your activity can make it feel more like work – making you feel less motivated to hit your goals.
However, studies conducted by Fitbit found that overall, they do help people when it comes to health in general.
Research conducted in 2020 by the Google-owned brand found that using the watches helped with weight loss and increased step activity – while it also led to an increase in the amount of minutes spent doing moderate-to-vigorous activity.
Professor Matt Buman of Arizona State University told the Washington Post that the watches on their own aren’t that effective.
In the 37 trials conducted in 2020, most people wearing the watches also had access to other content and support to boost their goals.
Proff Buman added: “They don’t provide that additional support needed for long-term, sustained behavior change — things like social support or goal setting, demonstration of behaviors by other people that are like you and action planning.”
The combined research focuses on wellbeing and weight loss when using the devices.
But new research published this week revealed that the gadgets could be dangerous for people with pacemakers.
Scientists in the US found that electrical signals from fitness tracking gadgets such as smartwatches can interfere with the function of the heart devices.
Pacemakers are small electrical devices surgically implanted into a patient’s chest to send electrical signals which keep their heart beating regularly.
Meanwhile, Smartwatches use a technology called bioimpedance to track a wearer’s fitness.
They send a small, imperceptible current of electricity across the body to measure muscle, fat mass, stress levels and vital signs.
Experts from the University of Utah said this current could disrupt the electrical pulses that keep heart implants functioning.