significant number of calories<\/a>. <\/p>\nHealth tracking apps sometimes set unrealistic or dangerous goals. fizkes \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The goals set by the platforms also aren\u2019t based on public health guidelines, but on the user\u2019s personal weight targets \u2014 which the researchers said can lead to unrealistic or even unsafe recommendations.<\/p>\n
One user reported being told they needed to consume \u201c\u2212700 (negative 700) calories a day\u201d to reach their target weight. <\/p>\n
Another added: \u201cIf you allow [the app] to prescribe your calories you\u2019ll end up with a deficit that\u2019s unachievable, unsustainable and very unhealthy. You could also starve to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another major theme the researchers uncovered was the emotional toll of logging daily activity.<\/p>\n
Some users said they felt \u201cpestered\u201d by notifications to log calories or keep sugar intake low. Intended to encourage consistency, the reminders often sparked judgment and anxiety, with some avoiding certain foods just to dodge negative feedback \u2014 undermining the very purpose of self-monitoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just got a notification from my fitness pal reminding me to log my dinner for today but I don\u2019t want to bc I\u2019m ashamed I just ate dominos,\u201d one user wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cHate when my fitness pal asks why I haven\u2019t logged my dinner! Haven\u2019t logged my dinner mate cause I\u2019ve ate a spice bag and milled a tub of Ben and Jerry\u2019s leave me alone!\u201d another commented.<\/p>\n
Health tracking apps can lead to feelings of anxiety and shame when goals aren\u2019t met. Studio Romantic \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Users also reported technical glitches that added to their frustrations, like mismatched calorie counts when syncing the same workout across platforms and app crashes that erased hours of effort. <\/p>\n
\u201cArgh, got a PB for a half\u2212mara in training and my phone died at the end, so none of it recorded,\u201d one user wrote. \u201cShouldn\u2019t matter\u2026 (but does).\u201d<\/p>\n
Negative sentiments like these align with previous studies showing that measuring an activity can reduce enjoyment. Combined with unattainable goals, mounting shame and tech problems, the researchers found many users end up giving up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow disappointing is it when you smash gym and MyFitnessPal for a day and there\u2019s no difference\u2026. back to eating lotus biscoff spread out of jar,\u201d one user wrote.<\/p>\n
Other users said their decisions to exercise and eat well were driven more by negative emotions than the desire to reach their goals. <\/p>\n
Diligently tracking your physical activity might take some of the joy out of exercising. blackzheep \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-monitoring and action planning are powerful behaviour change techniques. But we over-use them. We need to learn to be kinder to ourselves,\u201d Bondaronek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are good at blaming and shaming because we think it will help us to do better but actually it has the opposite effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bondaronek noted some limitations to the study. For example, the team only looked at negative posts, so they couldn\u2019t assess the overall effects of the platforms on users\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe apps may have a negative side, but they likely also provide benefits to many people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, the researchers are calling on health apps to revamp their designs. They\u2019d like to see user-centered, psychologically informed platforms that prioritize well-being and intrinsic motivation over rigid quantitative goals like weight loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of these apps also ask users to do tasks individually,\u201d Bondaronek said. \u201cThis misses out the great potential of social connectedness for improving our health and happiness<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is your phone sabotaging your gains? New research suggests that popular calorie-counting and workout-tracking apps may be doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1638,49,52100,48,408,407,84,38472,190,14592,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-240054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-apps","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-calories","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-exercise","13":"tag-fitness","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-medical-devices","16":"tag-mobile","17":"tag-study-says","18":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}