It's almost the beginning of a new year and you've set a resolution to lose weight. You're excited and motivated, and you're looking forward to January 1st when you get to start eating clean and working out. You download a fitness tracker app where you can document your workouts and meals, and you scroll through Instagram searching for inspiration in the photos of fitness models and influencers. You think, "This time it's real. I will stick to my resolution!" You buy new gym clothes and healthy groceries, tell your friends and family your new plans for change, and you generally feel ready for the challenge.
Fast-forward a month and the novelty has worn off. You've lost your motivation and you've completely stopped tracking your food intake and workouts. Yet, you continue to scroll social media in search of just one shred of motivation, but you come up short. Does this sound familiar? It will if you're like the millions of people who set fitness goals every year just to fizzle out by the time February comes around.
Approximately 73% of people who set a fitness goal for the new year give up.
- Bodybuilding.com
For a lot of us, the month of January means new goals and ambitious resolutions. At first, we feel incredibly motivated to make a change and the idea of the end result makes us genuinely happy. If this goal involves weight-loss or health changes, many people turn to fitness tracking apps in order to keep track of their progress. Even so, almost half of the people who start using fitness apps eventually stop. Why might that be? Are the apps themselves failing to keep our interest? Are we really doomed to a life of unattainable goals?
Don't get discouraged yet, science says there are ways in which fitness tracking apps can be more effective at keeping our attention. One 2018 study in the Journal of Health Communication looked into the fitness app BodySpace, which was developed by BodyBuilding.com and has over 15 million users. The features of the app include the ability to follow and interact with other members, posting photos of progress, tracking weight gain or loss, and much more.
A theory called the Motivational Technology Model (MTM) which basically holds that technological features can be used to trigger and individual's psychological needs. These needs are outlined as, relatedness (social connection), autonomy (the extent to which we believe we have control), and competence (how well we understand what we're doing). Using this model, the researchers examined over 650 BodySpace profiles in order to see what behaviours cause members to remain consistent in tracking their fitness progression.The Results
1. Relatedness: When users followed more people, they had more workouts tracked and lifted more weight on average than those who followed less people. Interestingly, this relationship between relatedness and increased app activity depended on gender; the increase in lifted weight was only found for men but not women.
2. Autonomy: When users followed more workout plans and when they disclosed more personal information on their profile, the number of workouts tracked and average lifted weight increased.
3. Competence: When users posted more photos they lifted more weight on average than those who posted less photos. This relationship between photos and lifted weight was stronger for males than females.
In conclusion, it may be tough to maintain a health and fitness routine, even with the help of a fitness tracking app. But, there are some things you can look for in an app that could make things easier for you. An app where you can follow other users (especially if you're female), provides workout plans, as well as the opportunity to post photos (especially if you're male) could help you on your fitness journey.
References
Molina, M. & Sundar, S. (2018). Can mobile apps motivate fitness tracking? a study of technological affordances and workout behaviours. Health Communications, 1532-7027.
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