{"id":6009,"date":"2018-05-29T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.willclower.com\/blog\/?p=6009"},"modified":"2019-06-04T00:18:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T04:18:24","slug":"the-new-freshman-15-is-the-fitbit-15-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=6009","title":{"rendered":"The New Freshman 15 Is The “Fitbit 15”. A Cautionary Tale."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished<\/strong><\/p>\n

They say that “No good deed goes unpunished.” In this case, it’s definitely the case. You get the schmancy wearable device complete with flashy lights, beeps, reminders, apps, it tells you your calories, steps, heart rate and billions of other things you didn’t even know that you needed to know!<\/p>\n

So you invested in the tech. With all this data right on your wrist, you’d think that it will help you control weight. Unfortunately, the opposite turns out to be true. For individuals in weight management studies, those who have wearable devices often gain weight compared to those who do NOT have those devices.<\/p>\n

What the, what? How can that be? First of all, you’d naturally think the device would assist in weight control. Second, why would it work against your efforts?<\/p>\n

The Data Behind All That Data<\/strong><\/p>\n

It turns out that the information you receive on those devices may actually be responsible for the weight control failures. How?<\/p>\n

Studies measured the accuracy of wearable device data<\/a>\u00a0 and found that “wearable devices had a rather high measurement\u00a0accuracy<\/span>\u00a0with respect to heart rate, number of steps, distance, and sleep duration … whereas poor measurement\u00a0accuracy<\/span>\u00a0was observed for energy consumption (calories)….”<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a\u00a0systematic review<\/a> of many studies, that agreed that there was a “higher validity of<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0steps, few studies on distance and physical activity, and lower validity for energy expenditure and sleep<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vanity Sizing, But For Calories<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you finish your daily walk and look down at your watch to find that you burned 2000 calories already this morning, you feel great! You LOVE this device! And you can totally justify a bacon triple cheeseburger! By systematically over-estimating the calories consumed, people over-compensate by over-eating over and over.<\/p>\n

Hence the problem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ditch The Device? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Does this mean you should get rid your wearable? No, just be aware when you wear a wearable. The estimates you get from the device are just that … estimates.<\/p>\n

What to do now? Do not use your estimated calorie burn to justify that Venti Caramel Macchiato. That said, if you want to use this information in some way, just be conservative and cut the number in half. Better yet, don’t modify your dietary intake based on perceived calorie offsets at all. Continue eating clean, and doing that in control. At that point, your schmancy device data becomes a wonderful little FYI, but not much more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished They say that “No good deed goes unpunished.” In this case, it’s definitely the case. You get the schmancy wearable device complete with flashy lights, … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[528,494,536],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activity","category-articles","category-health-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fitnessTracker.jpg?fit=275%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-1yV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2534,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=2534","url_meta":{"origin":6009,"position":0},"title":"Omega-3s: The Batman of the Body?","author":"Will Clower","date":"July 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what they said in this article (link to full content posted below):\u201c[Other] studies, along with our observations, suggest that omega-3 PUFA supplementation may play an important role in preventing weight gain and improving weight loss when omega-3 PUFA are supplemented concomitantly with a structured weight-loss programme.\u201dBut when you look\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?cat=494"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1920,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1920","url_meta":{"origin":6009,"position":1},"title":"Does Eating Chocolate Lead To Greater Weight? 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Wearable tracking devices have been around for a long time and the idea of tracking your steps has been around the block a few times\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/technology.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/technology.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/technology.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/mlcmmqmgggev.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/technology.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1874,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=1874","url_meta":{"origin":6009,"position":3},"title":"Chocolate Countdown, Number 1 Reason To Eat Chocolate That You Never Saw Coming","author":"Will Clower","date":"June 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Weight loss. 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