Time to Ditch The Fitness Trackers

Time to Ditch the Fitness Trackers

By: Vanessa Huynh dietetic intern

Admit it - we all have been victims of using food and fitness tracking apps. Whether it is a Fitbit, Apple Watch or MyFitness Pal, we all got on that train. Every calorie eaten and every calorie burned had to be inputted into this app that later turned into an unhealthy obsession. One obsession that people seem to be preoccupied with is getting in 10,000 steps. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that adults take 10,000 steps a day to help improve or maintain physical fitness. But, why 10,000 steps? Why specifically that number and who came up with this?

Origin of the ‘10,000 Steps” Slogan

In 1965, the first fitness tracker to surface was the Manpo-kei, which translates to ‘10,000 steps meter’, invented by Dr. Yoshiro Hatano. Dr. Hatano was a professor at the Kyushu University of Health and Welfare, researching how to combat obesity in Japan. He determined that to maintain a healthy body, 10,000 steps provided the proper balance of caloric intake and caloric expenditure.

“Permission” to Eat

Users are asked to track what and how much food they ate; then are asked to track the type and length of the physical activity that happened. Most of these devices and apps attempt to encourage people to eat less and exercise more. In addition, utilizing fitness trackers motivates people to exercise, but to overeat by giving them “permission” to indulge. The thing is, most fitness apps ignore the fact that we work up an appetite after exercising. When we exercise, glucose is being utilized, so the body signals us to refuel on glucose (aka carbohydrates). Waiting to feed your body even when your stomach is growling means you are not honoring your hunger and fullness cues, later creating an unhealthy relationship with food. Almost feeling like we have to pay for our sins in the gym. 

What is the Harm?

Tracking becomes a physiological and psychological influence. Most of these fitness products operate from the myth that calories affect all bodies in the same way and emphasize burning calories instead of guiding users to establish a base of proper nutrition. It creates unintentional behaviors that could be harmful to us physically and mentally. When people fail to stay consistent with fitness and food behaviors, it is easy for people to blame themselves instead of the broken weight-loss system. This can result in a cycle of yo-yo dieting, disordered eating, or an eating disorder. 

How it Affects Eating Disorders

Fitness apps can heighten symptoms of eating disorders because focusing on metrics and tracking numbers often persuades an inflexible thinking of food and physical activity. It provides an oversimplified outlook towards health and can encourage perfectionism. Primarily, fitness apps are used for people who want to lose or control weight for body image reasons rather than overall health reasons. Eating disorders affect everyone differently - those who have an eating disorder often struggle with perfectionism, anxiety, and shame. These feelings can be amplified by eating behaviors, tracking food, and exercise. Tracking can lead to an obsession to where those with an eating disorder may feel compelled to be exact with what they track that can interfere with their daily life. Within most of these apps, numbers are assigned, food gets categorized, and can be labeled as good or bad. For many users, this creates a number game and the goal is to make those numbers go down in whatever way they can. Eating disorders feed into structure and numbers, so trackers can be a trap.

Before using fitness devices and apps, ask yourself whether your motive is related to body dissatisfaction or health. Being self-aware of your feelings can help you recognize if using a health tracker is impacting you in a positive or negative way. If you notice that you are obsessed with tracking and it is interfering with your life, you may want to listen to your body instead. Your body has the ability to tell you what foods and movements feel right for you. When you implement mindful eating and movement, these parts of your life become much more flexible and enjoyable. 

Questions to Ask Yourself:

• What is your motivation for tracking? 

  Trackers do not recognize when users set numbers that are possibly low for their height, weight, and activity lifestyle. When numbers are too low, inadequate nutrition occurs.

• Do you avoid eating foods you cannot log in the tracker? 

  You can search for a diversity of food in calorie-counting apps, but they often do not have everything you might eat. If you cannot find that specific food in the app, do you avoid eating it to make sure that you can log everything? 

• Do you try to log everything you eat, no matter how small? 

  Whether you forgot to count an extra piece of lettuce or a thumb-size serving of mayonnaise, do you try to log everything, no matter how small it is? Do you feel anxious when you did not log something you ate? 

• How do you feel when you did not hit your goals? Can you skip logging a meal or workout? How do you feel if you skip logging a meal or workout? 

  When you did not hit your calorie or exercise goal, do you feel anxious, depressed, ashamed, or guilty? How about if you skipped a meal or workout, or even logging it?

If you are interested on working on your relationship with exercise with one of our dietitians please visit our contact page or click the link below.

Time to Ditch the Fitness Trackers - Dealing with over exercise and exercise addiction, Dallas Nutritional Counseling