Wearing a physical activity tracker and receiving personalized exercise feedback was associated with better exercise performance, weight loss, and other health outcomes in obese individuals.
Combined with wearing a physical activity tracker, researchers found that personalized, supervised exercise improved exercise performance, weight loss, and other health outcomes in obese individuals compared to unsupervised exercise. found to be associated with better results.
These findings are front line of public health.
Studies have shown that on-site supervised exercise is associated with superior health outcomes in many conditions compared to unsupervised exercise. Despite limited evidence on its effectiveness, it is growing in popularity for weight self-management.
Due to the lack of evidence comparing the efficacy of remotely monitored exercise with mobile health (mHealth)-based voluntary exercise such as wearable trackers, the authors investigated weight management in individuals living in Chongqing, China. conducted a study to compare its effectiveness against Being overweight or experiencing obesity.
By the end of follow-up, the nonrandomized controlled clinical study included 31 patients in the intervention group and 28 patients in the control group. Both groups were predominantly female, with a mean age (SD) of 38.3 (8.5) years in the intervention group and 40.8 (8.7) years in the control group.
All participants were between 18 and 65 years of age, had a body mass index (BMI) between 24 and 40, had no regular exercise habits, and had a low to moderate risk of cardiovascular disease. Participants also did not participate in any other exercise program or take any diet or weight loss medications during the study.
Participants in the intervention group received three main components of control. Personalized exercise prescriptions, mobile phone apps paired with heart rate trackers, and access to online chat rooms.
Personalized exercise prescription was based on the individual’s heart rate reserve (HRR), and effective exercise was defined as heart rate reaching 40% to 60% of HRR. Participants were required to engage in effective exercise at least three days per week for 12 weeks, regardless of exercise type. “
The paired app provided participants with visual feedback and records of their exercise performance, and the exercise data was automatically synced to a cloud server and made accessible to researchers.
Researchers also supervised the intervention group’s exercise by checking daily exercise performance and gave participants tailored instructions, reminders, and encouragement through a chat room feature as needed.
In the control group, the researchers did not provide this individualized advice, and the participants were blinded and unaware that they were being treated as controls.
Both the intervention and control groups had the same rate of reduction during the 12-week follow-up period. However, supervised participants experienced better exercise performance compared to unsupervised participants, including exercise days, effective exercise days, and effective exercise rate.
The mean number of exercise days (SD) per week was 3.5 (0.8) in the intervention group and 2.6 (1.0) in the control group.
The number of effective exercise days per week was 2.6 (0.6) and 1.5 (0.6), and the percentage of effective exercise days was 74.6% (11.1%) and 60.0% (11.7%) in the intervention and control groups, respectively.
Furthermore, mean weight loss was -2.7 (2.8) kg in the intervention group and -2.0 (2.9) kg in the control group (P. = .23).
“Compared with controls, participants in the intervention group improved liver function, renal function, fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, and triglycerides,” the authors found. Among them, mHealth-based supervised exercise is more effective than mHealth-based voluntary exercise in improving health factors.”
According to the authors, face-to-face exercise monitoring is costly and resource-intensive, but wearable devices and communication technologies can be used to achieve remote monitoring while being more flexible and resource-saving.
“Physical activity tracker-based remotely monitored exercise can be introduced into health and exercise programs to enhance the efficacy of wearable device-based voluntary exercise for overweight and obesity,” they concluded. rice field.
reference
Hu Y, Zhang Y, Qi X, et al. Supervised mHeath exercise improves health factors more than voluntary mhealth exercise: a clinically controlled study. front sanitationPublished online August 5, 2022. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.895474
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