Can I fitness tracker help you lose weight?
I know that fitness trackers are very popular, particularly with joggers and althletically minded indivduals. I think fitness trackers are great for desk bound indivduals as it helps your monitor your physical acitivity. However, I personally don’t have a fitness tracker, I have considered buying one, but I am saving up so I didn’t see it as an essential purchase. However I had always assumed that a fitness tracker would help you lose weight. But do they?
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh were interested in testing a conventional weight-loss programme against the use of a fitness monitor to determine the latter’s effectiveness as part of an anti obesity iniative. During the randomized control trial they tested weight-loss programmes and fitness trackers on a group of 471 obese volunteers. During the two year experiement those wearing a fitenss tracker lost 7.7lb (3.5 kg) whereas those who just followed a weight loss programme and didn’t use a tracker lost 13lb (6kg). I was quite surprised by this result as were the researches who couldn’t explain it. It seems that fitness trackesr give feedback and encouragement to lose weight but those wo are better at just sticking to a programme lose the most weight. So what is really required is persistance.
References
JM Jakicic, K K Davis, R J Rogers et al, 2016, Effect of Wearable Technology Combined with Lifestyle intervention on Long-term Weight Loss – The IDEA Randomized Clinical Trail, JAMA, Vol 316, No 11, pg 1161-71
See >> http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2553448
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Forth eight participants from a medical school, suffering from neck arthritis pain, were randomly split into two groups, one that received massage treatments and a wait list control group. The first group received a course of four 30 minutes weekly moderate pressure massages and supplemented this with 15 minute daily self-massage. The control group started the same course of treatments after four weeks without massages.
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The study Field T, Diego M, Gonzalez G and Funk C G (2014) Neck arthritis pain is reduced and range of motion is increased by massage therapy, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 20(4): 219 - 223 supports my subjective experience that massage therapy helps reduced neck pain and increase clients range of movement when it has been compromised.A reason to be optimistic in challenging times
It is very easy right now with the constant news reports about the spread of Coronavirus to flip from being informed and aware to worried about our own health & saftey and that of our friends & family. So right now acknowledge how you feel about the spread of the Coronavirus, whether its anxiety, worried, fear etc. Often what happens when we get anxious, worried or fearful is that we project that state into our future. So at this current moment, most us are healthy; our loved ones are well, and life is fine. So, be grateful for the things that are going well in your life right now and focus on the present. And breath! Two long running studies in the US which collected information from male war veterans and female nurses aged around 60 to 70 years old when they completed optimisim questionaires. People who had the highest optimism scores had a lifespan about 9% longer than those with the lowest scores. The most optimistic were in fact no more likely to live to the age of 85. This reseach cannot prove cause and effect. Both optimisim and lifespace may be influenced by many hereditary, health, lifestyle and personal factors. People with a good overall standard of health and wellbeing are probably more optimistic about their future. While researchers attempted to adjust their analysis for these sorts of factors, it's hard to remove their influence fully. Nevertheless the research does highlight that optimists live longer and the importance that mental health and wellbeing can have on physical health. So right now focus on what is going well in your life. Research https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/reason-be-cheerful-optimists-live-longer-study-reports/
