We already know how watching other people’s lives on social media can negatively affect our self-esteem and satisfaction with our own lives. Apparently, using apps to track your own calories or fitness activities can have a similar effect. The latest research from scientists at University College London (UCL) and Loughborough University suggests that fitness apps can actually become major demotivators.
The researchers analyzed nearly 60,000 social media posts on the X platform. Data like this is especially valuable because, unlike in traditional surveys, people tend to be more honest and share unfiltered opinions online.
The posts included feedback on five popular fitness apps: MyFitnessPal, Strava, WW, Workouts by Muscle Booster, and Fitness Coach & Diet. Around 13,000 of these posts contained negative keywords the researchers were tracking, and more than half mentioned the calorie-counting app MyFitnessPal.
At first glance, this app seems to offer everything you need to stay on top of your fitness and diet. It allows users to track calorie intake, monitor proteins and carbs, and set personalized goals. Feeling too lazy to log your meals manually? You can simply import recipes or scan barcodes from food packages – the app will do the rest, and offer you guidance on what and when to eat. Sounds like working with a personal dietitian.
However, many people are not necessarily that happy about it. Senior author Dr. Paulina Bondaronek (UCL Institute of Health Informatics) explained, “In these posts, we found a lot of blame and shame, with people feeling they were not doing as well as they should be. These emotional effects may end up harming people’s motivation and their health.”
Self-monitoring can be a great tool, but it is often being misused. Calorie-counting apps are still very simplified, and often lack a personalized approach. No matter how unrealistic your expectations are, the app will try to adjust the numbers.
For example, some users were advised to consume “negative 700 calories a day” to achieve their weight-loss goal. While no one could realistically follow this particular recommendation, it raises serious questions about how easily those apps generate targets, without assessing whether they are reasonable and safe at all.
MyFitnessPal is also pretty easy to fool, since it’s entirely up to you whether to log or skip a meal. This creates an illusion that if something is not recorded in the app, it didn’t really happen. A lot of people admitted they cheated to make themselves feel better, and didn’t log that pint of ice cream they had after dinner (or instead of dinner). But this often led to even more guilt and disappointment. And in some cases, people completely gave up on the app and their healthy habits altogether.
As for the activity-trekking apps, using them often comes with a search for approval and recognition – not only from other users, but from the app itself. For many, exercising became a compulsive response to digital notifications warning that they are falling behind on their goals.
Constant data tracking can also take away all the joy of simply being active and celebrating real-life achievements – especially if there is no proof of that for others to see. The X users shared how frustrated and disappointed they felt when Strava failed to record their best half-marathon time or didn’t count their streak.
It is important to note that this study analyzed only negative posts, so there is currently no scientifically proven data on how people benefit from using fitness apps. Still, their harmful effect is hard to ignore. It’s definitely a wake-up call for app developers to consider the unintended consequences of their products.
A paper on the study, which also involved scientists from the University of Westminster, was recently published in the British Journal of Health Psychology.
Source: University College London