health and fitness: Fitness trackers: healthy little helpers or no-good gadgets?

dimanche 27 septembre 2015

Fitness trackers: healthy little helpers or no-good gadgets?

Getting in shape? There’s an app for that. Yet, despite the popularity of devices such as the Fitbit – which aid motivation and setting goals – research suggests they’re inefficient, a discrepancy that could even lead to inadvertent overeating

“There’s a better version of you out there. Just get up and find it.” This motivational jibe is the tagline for the wearable-tech company Jawbone’s fitness tracking system. Its latest wristband promises to monitor your heart and chart your light, deep and REM sleep. It vibrates when you’ve been idle for too long, logs exercise and diet and estimates how many calories you burn. It will gently compare you to your peers and encourage you to set goals.

Twenty-five million fitness trackers such as the Jawbone, Fitbit or Nike+ FuelBand will be sold worldwide this year. Does this mean that 25 million more people will be saved from heart disease? That millions of fitness fanatics will grow fitter still? Or simply that 25 million people will have spent between £40 and £150 on a piece of rubber jewellery and another reason to sit on their backsides, narcissistically peeping at their phones?