Scientists from the University of South Australia found fitness trackers, pedometers, and smart watches motivate us to exercise more and lose weight.
They found wearable activity trackers encourage people to walk up to 40 minutes more each day (approximately 1,800 more steps), resulting in an average 1 kg weight loss over five months.
Their findings underline the value of low-cost interventions to tackle a growing epidemic of health conditions partially caused by a lack of exercise, including heart disease stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancers, and mental illness.
The research is published in The Lancet Digital Health and was conducted by Ty Ferguson et al.
In the study, researchers reviewed almost 400 studies involving 164,000 people across the world using wearable activity trackers (WATs) to monitor their physical activity.
Despite the popularity of WATs, there is widespread skepticism about their effectiveness, accuracy, and whether they fuel obsessive behaviors and eating disorders, but the evidence is overwhelmingly positive.
But the overall results from the studies the team reviewed shows that wearable activity trackers are effective across all age groups and for long periods of time
They encourage people to exercise on a regular basis, to make it part of their routine and to set goals to lose weight.
The 1 kg weight loss may not seem a lot, but from a public health perspective, it is meaningful.
The average person gains about 0.5 kg a year in weight creep so losing 1 kg over five months is significant, especially when you consider that two-thirds of Australians are overweight or obese.
Between 2014 and 2020, the number of wearable activity trackers shipped worldwide increased by almost 1500%, translating to a global spend of $2.8 billion in 2020.
Apart from the extra physical activity and weight loss attributed to WATs, there is some evidence that fitness trackers also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes and other health conditions.
The other reported benefit is that WATs improved depression and anxiety through an increase in physical activity.
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For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about heart attack symptoms every woman needs to know, and results showing this inexpensive heart drug can help treat severe COVID-19.
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