Will an Apple watch or Fitbit make you lose weight? Don't count on it
The Apple Watch also lacks any sort of built-in rest day or readiness features. While the Apple Watch is one of the most popular fitness trackers on the market, Apple has always tiptoed around the device’s usefulness as a weight loss tool. A new report explores recent research that says wearing a fitness tracker like the Apple Watch doesn’t necessarily give people the motivation to change their behaviour.
Fitness is also only one factor in a person’s overall health. Apple Watch focuses primarily on
fitness tracking, which means it’s not the only reason a person’s health might improve or decline over time. Apple’s Health app aims to aggregate a bigger-picture view of your health, bringing in data on the numerous other factors that contribute to your health other than fitness. With the new Apple Watch Ultra, I’ve been inundated with questions about which band to choose. While it may seem like there are many models of the Watch Ultra in reality there’s only one hardware model, with three types of bands. Each band has a different target market, though they overlap quite a bit. And honestly, any of the three bands can be worn for any activity equally well. However, what you quickly realize is that you can simply count off how many hooks you are from the top of the band. In my case, I’ll generally wear it on the 2nd to last hook for workouts, and 3rd to last hook for daily usage What may surprise you is that your health or life insurance provider, and perhaps the company you work for, may help you pay the cost of such wearables if not buy the devices on your behalf outright. Their motivation: Keeping you fit could help lower the cost of health care. The key to getting chronic diseases under control quickly is reducing the time between a change in someone’s health and the response. And nothing does that better than a connected device, like an Apple Watch This level of increase has the potential to lower the risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer, as well as improve the quality of life and reduce the risk of premature death.
Just the act of measuring your body could change the psychological experience of being active. A 2016 study by Jordan Etkin of Duke University found that measurement can undermine the intrinsic motivation of activities like going for a walk, make it feel more like work and decrease continued engagement in the activity. They can’t give you motivation, Etkin says.
