Both groups got six months of weight-loss advice, plans and help, of an old-fashioned kind, and were turned loose to pursue ordinary lives. Question: would the subjects in the device group do better than the controls, or merely come out even? What this tells us is not that fitness trackers are evil, but that depending carelessly on a fitness tracker may interfere with other weight-loss methods. After the groups were split up, the subjects, in both groups, continued to get phone calls and text messages from the researchers. If you thought electronic fitness trackers were likely to save the Western world from widespread obesity, the results of the Pittsburgh study may be disappointing.

Source: National Post September 26, 2016 20:15 UTC