47 ABC's Julian Sadur stopped by One More Rep to ask JD's opinion on fitness trackers and weight loss. Check out the full story below!
47 ABC - Fitness trackers like FitBit have been growing in popularity over the past few years, but do they actually help you lose more weight. A new study out the American Medical Association shows they might not.
In both Wicomico County and Worcester County over 70 percent of adults are overweight, according to a study done in 2014. 47 ABC checked in with director of prevention services for the Worcester County Health Department Kat Gunby to see if the trend of more fitness trackers meant more people are losing more weight here on Delmarva.
"(Fitness trackers) have become very popular, which is good because it means that the public seems to be interested in the information they're getting from it, but we haven't seen obviously with the statistics that that's having an impact on activity levels or on healthy eating or other lifestyle factors," Gunby said.
In the study by the American Health Association, researchers took two groups of obese adults one with fitness trackers and one without, gave them a workout routine and diet plan. The study lasted two years and researchers found although both groups lost weight, the group without the fitness trackers lost an average of five more pounds than their counterparts.
J.D. Cherry, a personal trainer and owner of One More Rep gym in Salisbury has his own theories on why the group without the trackers performed better.
"When you don't have (a tracker) on you tend to actually push yourself harder cause you're not as sure exactly what you're doing, your data is not on there, so you actually push yourself a little bit more because you're actually thinking that you're not doing enough," Cherry said.
The big sticker though Cherry said is although a fitness tracker does track your workouts, lifting weights and cardio is only half the battle.
"Diet is very essential on all aspects of it, it's 50 percent of your workout regime and also in your lifestyle, the other 50 percent is what you do in the gym," Cherry said.