Tracking your daily progress on a fitness or food app ? in addition to eating superfoods, exercising regularly and maintaining healthy sleep schedule ? could take your weight loss to a whole new level.
The weight-loss study led by Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, was recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study's investigators tracked 69 overweight and obese adults (according to body mass index) on their weight-loss journey for nearly a year. Patients enrolled in a standard physician-directed program were randomly split into two groups. The control group attended health education sessions, but went without the use of personal digital assistants to monitor diets and physical activity on a daily basis.
Participants in the "+mobile group" lost more weight at a constant rate over the study's course. The men and women using tech-based support were also more committed to the prescribed bi-weekly MOVE! sessions with dietitians, psychologists or physicians.
App-assisted patients lost an average of 15 pounds and maintained the loss for at least a year. The participants outside the "+mobile" group lost an average of 8.6 pounds per person.
Physicians in the health care system currently don't have the time, training or resources to effectively track and treat weight-loss patients, according to Spring.
?This approach empowers patients to help themselves on a day-to-day basis,? Spring said. ?We can help people lose meaningful amounts of weight and keep it off.? To do that we need to engage them in tracking their own eating and activity, learn how that governs weight, and take advantage of social support.?
The research shows while classes provide patients social support and the knowledge base to lose weight, apps and gadgets such as MyFitnessPal, PlateMate for iPad, Nike+ Fuelband and FitBit empower patients with mobile data.
Which calorie-counting or activity-tracking apps are you using? Tell us in the comments.
Image courtesy of Flickr, lululemon athletica
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/12/12/calorie-counting-apps-study/
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