Lose weight: fat despite app

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Fitter, leaner, healthier - with the help of fitness apps, millions want to conquer their weaker self. But how well do the digital trainers really work?

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied this on 471 young, heavy-weight volunteers. They were between 18 and 35 years old at the start of their studies and weighed around 95 kilos on average. Her body mass index was between 25 and 39, which ranged from slightly overweight to very obese.

Split weight loss program

At the beginning of the investigation, all of them were prescribed a weight loss program with a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity. It was supplemented by weekly group meetings.

After six months the procedure changed: The group meetings only took place once a month. Instead, the participants received regular supportive phone calls and reminder messages sent to their cell phones. They could also download further information material from a website.

From this point on, half of the participants recorded their diet and physical activity themselves using an online diary, while the other half was equipped with a fitness app that monitored their physical activity using a wristband and took over the monitoring.

It's better to lose weight without an app

"Our hypothesis was that the portable apps would work better - but the opposite was the case," says study leader John Jakicic. After 24 months, the participants had lost significantly less weight with the app than the test subjects who had completed their weight loss program without a permanent digital companion.

This effect crystallized more and more in the course of time. The participants with the classic weight-loss program had lost 8.9 percent of their body weight after twelve months. Participants with the app around seven percent.

After 24 months, both groups had put on weight again, but the gap had widened further: it was now 6.4 versus 3.6 percent weight loss compared to the starting weight. In kilograms, this meant an average loss of 5.9 versus 3.5 kilograms.

False security

So far, the researchers can only speculate why the apps performed comparatively poorly: "The app may have lulled the participants into a false sense of security if they had their daily activity level so clearly in mind," says Jakicic. For example, they might have assumed that they were allowed to eat more because of their physical activity.

Another possible explanation is that the apps did not motivate all participants sufficiently: "Especially those who find it difficult to be physically active, were perhaps discouraged if they repeatedly failed to manage their daily workload", Jakicic points out.

However, the study does not allow this to be concluded that the apps do not generally help you lose weight. Because some participants clearly benefited from the portable weight loss aids.

Not much leaner, but fitter

In addition, the results for the other health goals that were targeted in the study were quite positive: Both physical fitness and diet had improved significantly after 24 months. The participants in both groups were significantly more physically active and the ratio of body fat to muscle mass had also developed similarly favorably in both groups at the end of the study.

Young and fat

The results show that simply providing overweight people with an app would hardly contain the growing obesity epidemic.

And that now also affects young adults. According to the Robert Koch Institute, around nine percent of 18 to 29 year olds in Germany are overweight or even obese. Of the 30 to 39 year olds, it is around 20 percent.

Source: John M. Jakicic et al. Effect of Wearable Technology Combined With a Lifestyle Intervention on Long-term Weight Loss: The IDEA Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA, 2016 DOI: 10.1001 / jama.2016.12858

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