Energy balance
Wearable activity trackers lead to improvements in body composition, specifically bodyweight and waist circumference, with large effect sizes for bodyweight reduction.
Using a wearable activity tracker can help you lose weight, with an average reduction of 0.5 to 1.5 kg. This benefit is seen in both healthy adults and those with chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease. The weight loss is a result of the increased physical activity driven by the tracker.
Taken together, the meta-analyses suggested activity trackers improved... body composition (SMD 0·7–2·0)... equating to... reductions of approximately 1 kg in bodyweight.
Why this rating
Based on umbrella review, but physiological outcomes were often small or non-significant, with bodyweight being the strongest physiological outcome.
Source
Effectiveness of wearable activity trackers to increase physical activity and improve health: a systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses
Ty Ferguson et al. · The Lancet Digital Health · 2022
DOI 10.1016/s2589-7500(22)00111-x
More from this paper
- Wearable activity trackers effectively increase daily physical activity, resulting in an average increase of 1800 steps per day and 40 minutes of walking per day across diverse populations.Good
- Wearable activity trackers have small or non-significant effects on physiological markers (blood pressure, cholesterol, glycosylated haemoglobin) and psychosocial outcomes (quality of life, pain).Moderate
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