Does your nutrition app work against you?

Fitness and nutritional sequence apps offer an easy way to keep an eye on your health data. However, new research results indicate that you can accidentally work against your health goals if you use these platforms.

The scientific review published in the journal Body imageAnalyzed data from 38 studies on fitness and diet apps as well as symptoms that people had during use. In the end, the researchers found that people who regularly used health and fitness apps, with greater probability with disordered food, had to deal with concerns about body image and compulsive movement.

It is difficult to say whether the habits or apps in question occur first, but the specialists in mental health are not shocked by the results. This does not necessarily mean that you get into harmful health habits if you use one of these apps, but this is an important association to be at least known, such as Hillary Ammon, Psyd, a clinical psychologist at the center for fear and emotional wellness of women.

In the following, the providers of mental healthcare are breaking under

How do the persecution of apps work against your health goals?

There are a few things that could happen here. “We do not necessarily know that diet and fitness apps cause symptoms of disorders, concerns about body image and compulsive movement,” says Isabella Anderberg, senior study author and researcher at Flinders University. This means that it is quite possible that people who already have concerns about food and body image are attracted to the apps to manage this, says Anderberg.

However, some apps can also create an environment that can be stressful, says Rebecca Boswell, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychiatric Services at Penn Medicine. “Diet and fitness apps set rules about how people eat and not eat and not train,” she emphasizes. “You should praise to eat less and punish more to eat more.” Boswell also notes that these apps are also created to promote activities to compensate for the food.

Certain apps also offer guidelines that can be adapted without marking goals that are medically or nutritional, says Boswell. “Apps are often with very low -calorie recommendations, e.g. 1,200 calories, the recommended recording for a toddler, no flags when people” lower their budgets, “she says. “They rarely focus on the quality, balance and diet of food.”

These apps tend to concentrate on figures and set goals that cannot be “not helpful” for some people, says Ammon. Some even contain images that slide the thinness as an ideal body type that excludes the rest of the population.

Who does that affect?

Here, too, many people use fitness and wellness apps without problems, and the connection between problematic health behavior and this technology is still being examined. However, certain people may be more susceptible to the development of unhealthy behaviors when using fitness apps than others.

People with a prehistory of disordered eating or body image problems should probably stay away from these apps, says Ammon. “This is because these apps can concentrate their eating habits, calorie intake and weight more,” she explains. “People with disordered habits tend to pursue calorie intake or calorie deficits as a means of controlling the weight [and] These apps can improve these tracking habits with real -time metrics and memories. “

People who have had to struggle with overtraining in the past can also have the risk of using these apps in an unhealthy way, says Eric Storch, PhD, Professor and Deputy Chairman of Psychology at the Baylor College of Medicine.

But even if you do not have a disordered behavior in terms of food or movement, it is still a good idea to keep an eye on how you react to fitness and health apps-especially if you are rather target-oriented or have a personality of type A-type. Boswell agrees. “People who are susceptible to perfectionism may be more difficult to use these apps, in particular due to their greater sensitivity to reward and punish,” she says. “It is very difficult for some people to get feedback that they do not receive A+ in health behavior, even if the healthier behavior may have a balance and moderate goals.”

What are the signs that your app doesn’t help?

There are some evidence that your app is not a positive force in your life.

1. 1.

   To be rigid in your app is a big red flag. “If you start to train or follow every day, how you have followed or burned each individual calorie assembly, it can hike on these habits with a not helpful focus,” says Ammon.
   

2. 2.

   Feel amazed not to achieve certain goals Can also be a warning sign that something is not over, she says. “If you notice that you will be anxious or desperate because you have not reached your movement goal for a day, it is worth finding out why you have to achieve this goal every day,” says Ammon.
   

3. 3.

   Fault is also an emotion that is careful, says Anderberg. That means, although it is okay to feel a little disappointed that you have never achieved a goal on any day, you should not feel guilty.
   

4. 4.

   This is more indirect, but still important: Boswell recommends Keep an eye on your internal monologue When using these apps. “If you can’t stop thinking about food or activity, it is time to take a break and listen to your body instead of an app,” she says.
   

5. 5.

   Negative impact of the lifestyle It is also a big warning sign that this does not fit for you according to Ammon. She quotes examples of how it stays up late to burn 500 calories before the end of the day because they feel pressure on the pressure or cancel plans with friends because they feel like they are problematic that day.

How to use an app in a productive, healthy way

Ammon points out that practically every decision you make in life, risks and rewards, including the use of health and fitness apps. “Rewards can be an improved lifestyle and improved physical health,” she says. “For many, these apps can act as a responsibility system with virtual rewards.” If you concentrate on the positive – like you, you are the best to support your health and well -being – is a productive way to look at these apps, she says.

Storch also recommends being flexible how you use these apps and consider them more as a guide than what you have to do on a certain day. “Take these apps as tools to achieve goals, but those who should motivate their use flexibly to rigid and without fear,” he says.

If you use an app and find that you have no good relationship, it is okay to stop. “It is important to approach them with some caution,” says Boswell. “However, not everyone will have a negative experience with diet and fitness apps, and some may find a helpful tool.”