{"id":250150,"date":"2016-09-21T07:55:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T07:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=250150"},"modified":"2016-09-21T07:55:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T07:55:37","slug":"fitness-trackers-not-a-slimming-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/09\/fitness-trackers-not-a-slimming-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitness trackers ‘not a slimming aid’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Wearing an activity device that counts how many steps you have taken does not appear to improve the chances of losing weight, research suggests.<\/p>\n
The two-year long study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) included nearly 500 overweight volunteers who were asked to diet and take more exercise.<\/p>\n
Half were given a fitness tracker to help them keep tabs.<\/p>\n
This group had lost less weight than the other one by the end of the trial.<\/p>\n
The study authors say this does not mean people should ditch the technology altogether, but neither should they put too much faith in them, at least as a slimming aid.<\/p>\n
Gimmick?<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the popularity of activity trackers, there have been very few studies to see what actual impact they have on weight and fitness levels.<\/p>\n The University of Pittsburgh research is one of the first randomised trials to gather such evidence.<\/p>\n The investigators found that over the course of the study, the volunteers who wore the fitness trackers had lost, on average, about 8lb (3.6kg).<\/p>\n In comparison, the control group that were not given these devices lost about 13lb (5.9kg).<\/p>\n