How Technology Is Spreading Its Footprints In The World Of Dieting

In today’s era, dieting is not just a necessary practice for vanity, but something which defines how concerned we are about our physical well-being and our consumption patterns, in short, how we think about ourselves. While technology is everywhere, in the form of hand-held devices, advanced artificial intelligence systems that can turn the lights on in houses, self-driving cars, and wearable devices, it is not a bad idea to add a dash of tech in our fitness regime.

Diet VS Technology:

The technology that surrounds weight loss can be divided into two categories, fitness equipment, and fitness trackers. Gym memberships rise in number every day as exercise is the first step towards weight loss. While these machines are the most helpful tool for weight loss and physical activity, they cannot help us lose all the weight magically. Fitness enthusiasts debate whether exercise, extensive weight loss plans, and routines should be incorporated with dietary restrictions or not, but it is hard to digest fact that these machines will not make us lose weight magically.

Enter fitness trackers, a tech accessory that can be seen on many weight-watchers’ wrists. These devices are efficient in tracking everything from vital signs to sleep patterns, calorie intake, step count and whatnot. The use of these devices depends on the preference of the user, whether he wants to maintain the track of his daily activity or not. But in reality, these tracking devices can make the weight-loss journey a better and mindful experience. Maintaining a track record of the things we eat and how much exercise we do every day can help determine whether the currently followed routine is working or not.

Losing weight is not rocket science, it just involves a combination of a healthy diet and getting enough exercise. Tracking devices act as a motivator by helping to adjust our meals with our activity levels to achieve our goals. Various studies show that people who regularly recorded their calorie intake and physical activity were successful in achieving their goals than those who didn’t. Being more conscious of our diet can certainly help in planning a fitness routine that is best for us.

At-your-fingertips access to weight-loss strategies.

A wide array of smartphone applications and fitness trackers provide an easily accessible platform to maintain a track record of our activities. The applications can offer motivation, encouragement and other useful strategies to move forward towards weight loss. The various services offered by fitness trackers keep the user constantly interested in checking his progress, which is a plus point as extensive exercise routines can lower the motivation of some people as they get tired easily or face difficulties in controlling their cravings for fatty foods.

Smartphone applications like MyFitnessPal and Fooducate have a large database of over 5 million foods and their calorie count. The applications also provide a bar code scanner, which can tell if a particular food is fit to be consumed during the dieting routine or not. Other services like a recipe book and meal guide enable users to choose from low-fat and healthy meal options. These applications can turn our phones into a personal coach.

How do fitness trackers work?

Apart from being a coll tech accessory, these fitness trackers do their job. Leading tech giants like Apple and Samsung offer high-tech and beautiful smartwatches that provide an overview of our entire day’s activities. Fitbit, a company fully dedicated towards wearables, designs different types of trackers that can be used by people of all ages. The sleek design and easy user interface make it one of the most popular fitness trackers.

Fitness of a common Fitness tracker:

Here are some features that are common in fitness trackers.

• Gyroscope: A gyroscope reads the orientation and rotation of the body as we move.
• Altimeter: Altimeter keeps a track of our altitude, whether we are tracking our hike up in the mountains or simply climbing stairs during work breaks.
• Accelerometer: This counts our steps, speed and distance traveled. Time to run that marathon!
• Optical Sensors: These sensors track our heart rate. An important vital sign.
• GPS: The technology keeps track of our position to calculate coordinates. This lets us track our running or walking path.
• Actigraphy: Actigraphy identifies our sleep patterns by tracking the activity and rest cycles and can provide suggestions on how long we need to sleep. Light out!

Since the variety of fitness trackers is huge, one might get confused before choosing the right one.

Does fitness trackers help with your weight loss goals?

Here are some tips to make a fitness tracker work for our weight loss goals:

• The fitness tracker can track our steps and movement, so the users can set a baseline of their daily movement and then set a goal higher than the baseline, such as walking 3000 steps than 1500 steps.
• The perspective of viewing the progress can help in gaining motivation and encouragement. The historical record of movement can serve as a motivational tool on bad days when a gym session is missed.
• It can provide a sense of achievement and the drive to perform better.
• Use it as a reminder so that you never miss a day of workout and a healthy diet.