HYDERABAD: A smart wristband can keep track of the number of steps you take, your heart rate, sleep, calories, energy levels, oxygen and blood pressure. It is convenient and makes staying fit fun. It also helps meet fitness goals, but can be pretty addictive, sometimes even leading to an obsession. According to fitness trainers, nutritionists and psychologists, the obsession with health data generated by wearable devices can lead to orthorexia (an unhealthy focus on eating healthily) and an addiction to exercise.
Kushal Singh, a fitness trainer at Gold’s Gym in Hyderguda, Himayatnagar, says that he’s seen gym buddies compete with each other and overdo their workouts. “Some people even get addicted to burning more calories and keep increasing their workout time, which can lead to physical injury, exhaustion and dehydration.”
But, if wearables are used properly, these can be a boon. These have several health benefits. “If one is not in shape and lacks the motivation to exercise on a routine basis, these trackers can help them meet their fitness goals. It is, after all, technology and any tech, if overused, can have adverse effects. The physical side effects are rare. But these devices can take a toll on one’s mental health.
It can cause stress, guilt (if the fitness goals aren’t met), also lead to repetitive behaviour and an obsession to track health data. This may result in an obsessive concern about one’s health,” says Dr Venkat Subbaiah, a clinical psychologist at the Institute of Mental Health, Erragadda. According to Dr Uma Chitra, a faculty member and nutritionist at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, wearables are excellent devices that can help monitor the number of calories burned. “But, it does not let a person know how many calories they have consumed in a day. It is the imbalance in calories that leads to both weight loss and gain.”
An average man with a sedentary lifestyle needs around 2,200 calories and a woman around 1,700, but it also depends on their weight and lifestyle. “To know precisely how many calories they need, they will have to weigh themselves and find out their BMI. The app by the Indian Council of Medical Research-NIN is a one-stop solution for counting calories. Once we enter a particular food item and quantity consumed, it counts the calories,” says Dr Chitra.
If a person plans to shed weight, they need to cut down on their calorie intake and burn more calories. Dr Chitra cites an example: a woman, who on an average consumes around 1,680 calories a day and cuts this down by 500 calories, she will end up losing around 500 grams a week. This is if she has a sedentary lifestyle. “What wearables don’t tell us about is the non-exercise calorie burn.
Even though many have a sedentary lifestyle, menial activities such as walking around from a room to another, cooking food and washing clothes can also lead to burning of calories,” Dr Chitra says. In short, it is important to keep in mind that wearables are just technology and it depends on how one uses it.
Wearables can be addictive, sometimes leading to an obsession