The Dangerous Way Fitness Apps Can Lead to Disordered Eating and Obsessive Behavior
Nearly everybody from professional athletes to lovers use a fitness tracker or fitness app to monitor sleep, monitor workouts, and clock energy burned. And whereas health-tracking apps and wearables get people moving more, new analysis suggests they may do extra hurt than good.
Individuals who often make the most of fitness apps are extra seemingly to develop unhealthy habits with food and exercise, in accordance to analysis from Flinders University.
“We found that young adults who use diet and fitness apps have greater disordered eating symptoms, such as harmful or restrictive diets, and have negative thoughts about body image when compared to those that don’t use them,” lead researcher Isabella Anderberg mentioned in a statement.
In the hopes of gaining perception into the harms of fitness trackers, researchers reviewed 38 quantitative and qualitative research to study attainable hyperlinks between using standard apps and the chance of creating addictive habits in regard to weight loss and calorie counting.
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The meta-analysis included peer-reviewed and revealed articles from 2012 to present day that coated 4 principal ideas: eating regimen and fitness apps, disordered eating, body picture, and compulsive exercise.
“The focus on dietary restriction and weight loss in these apps may feed into restrictive or excessive behaviors raising concerns for those people who have pre-existing concerns about their weight or body image,” Anderberg says. “While some users reported positive experiences such as increased awareness and motivation, the broader implications for mental health need careful consideration, especially among vulnerable populations like adolescents.”
Although research shows the use of fitness apps can improve users’ physical activity and may assist in weight management better than via traditional food journals, researchers want to empower consumers and inform app developers.
“In a growing world of technology, studies like this are important in shaping future research to provide the best health and self-management information via apps to the wider population,” senior creator Professor Ivanka Prichard provides.
More analysis is required to actually perceive the long-term impacts of using health and fitness apps.