How Your Smartphone Can Help You Slim Down

While a lot has been said about smartphones and the increasing concerns of using them excessively but this new study offers a new take on the link between smartphone use and weight loss. According to a pilot study, using smartphone reminders to prompt people to move and exercise may help reduce sedentary behaviour, increase activity and therefore, reduce the incidence of weight gain. The study, supported by the American Cancer Society, appeared in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.Digital detox or the desire to unplug from technology is one of the most common new year resolutions that people attempt to make but before you decide to keep you your phone away, grab a read. If this study is anything to go, your smartphones can actually help you reach your weight loss goals successfully especially for those who lead a sedentary lifestyle. Researchers Darla E. Kendzor, PhD of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Kerem Shuval, PhD of the American Cancer Society, explored whether smartphone interventions have the potential to influence sedentary behaviour.This was easy to understand through a simple experiment. The participants in the study wore accelerometers to measure movement and carried smartphones for seven consecutive days. Those who reported more than two hours of sitting during the day received a message emphasizing that long uninterrupted sitting is bad for health. It encouraged them to stand up and move around more and to sit less.Over the seven-day study period, participants had significantly fewer minutes of daily sedentary time and more daily minutes of active time than controls. Accelerometers recorded three per cent less sedentary time than control participants, equalling about 25 minutes of time spent engaged in activity rather than in sedentary behaviour on any given day.Adults in the US spend an average of about 8 waking hours per day being sedentary. Leveraging e-technology through smartphones can help encourage people to exercise, follow a daily fitness routine and sometimes even just get up and walk around."Smartphone prompts appear to be a promising strategy for reducing sedentary behaviour and increasing activity," the authors concluded.Not just that, smartphones can double up as your food journals keeping a record of what you eat and how much. A study published in Journal of Nutrition & Behavior showed that digital tracking was a more effective and accurate way of keeping food records and those you maintained them managed to stick to their plan and lose more weight. Another study published a while ago in the Journal Health Promotion Practice found similar results. It was seen that dieters who received weekly, motivational texts reminding them of their calorie budget were more likely to stay on track.With inputs from PTI