Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers: Do They Cause Eating Disorders?
As a virtual eating disorder recovery center, we rely everyday on technology to run our business and support our clients: video calls for sessions, a dedicated whatsapp channel for unlimited text support, numberless scales, and of course email. However, like I explored in my article on the link between social media and eating disorders, technology can be both helpful or harmful depending on who is using it, why and for what.
In our work supporting individuals and their families through eating disorder recovery, we have found time and time again how harmful smartwatches and fitness trackers (such as Fitbits and Apple Watches) can be to those struggling with an eating disorder and so I want to talk more about the connection between smartwatches and fitness trackers, and eating disorders.
What are fitness trackers?
Regardless of what type of smartwatch or fitness tracker you have, they all will track things like steps taken, calories burned, and heart rate. Some even track things like your sleep and basal body temperature. The tracker, most commonly a wearable such as a watch, syncs with your smartphone and reports its data to you.
With the Apple Watch you have to “close your rings” to accomplish your fitness goals each day. The watch gives you notes of encouragement when you do so, and can certainly reward a rigid and obsessive attitude towards health and fitness.
The Fitbit allows you to track your step goals (however arbitrary they may be). I cannot tell you how many clients we see of all ages pacing their rooms for hours at a time, day and night, to meet these goals, and deeply fearful of what will happen if they do not meet their step goals or cannot track them.
These trackers allow individuals to micromanage their movement patterns and behaviors, and this is deeply harmful to anyone struggling with an eating disorder, mental health, perfectionism, anxiety, low self worth, and obsessive/ compulsive tendencies.
Concerns with fitness trackers and smart watches from the lens of eating disorders:
The concern with fitness trackers and smart watches, is their potential to trigger, or worsen, eating disorders. And we can say firsthand how valid this concern is.
The most obvious concern with these trackers, is the emphasis they place on numbers. And arbitrary ones at that.
Did you know that 10k steps was picked as part of a marketing campaign for the Tokyo olympics in the 60’s? The number 10,000 depicted in Japanese characters looks like a person walking, and this is how it was chosen and has somehow morphed into the standard for walking, regardless of its arbitrary roots, or that there is no singular number for anything that can apply to everyone.
The act of choosing, tracking and adhering to numbers for things like steps and calories, is extremely harmful to someone struggling with an eating disorder, and can also play a part in someone developing an eating disorder or compulsive and obsessive behaviors with exercise and/ or food. Beyond the compulsion this type of tracking can create, it also can begin to tie a numeric value with self worth.
Many parents of youth we work with, feel like if their child is eating more food but counting steps, that is OK all considering. However we find ourselves often reminding families and individuals that compulsive exercise, obsession with numbers, tying numbers to self worth, and using steps as a compensatory behavior (i.e. a form of purging or making up for food consumed or an attempt to get rid of it), is very harmful and concerning.
There is a lot of feeling of guilt, shame and inadequacy that can develop when someone doesn’t close their rings or complete their number of steps planned. This can lead to anxiety, depression, self harm, and caloric restriction, and the idea of parting with these devices can feel impossibly difficult to the wearer regardless of the negative impacts they may be having to their mental and physical health.
Are there any benefits to wearing fitness trackers?
Exercise is a nuanced topic and one that I have explored in more detail on my blog on exercise bulimia. For an individual without an eating disorder, adding in more movement can have benefits to mental and physical health, and sure, perhaps a tracking device could encourage someone to get outside for a supportive walk (though to be honest, I think this is a slippery slope into potential obsessive or compulsive tendencies for most of us).
This is where it gets murky for someone with an eating disorder, as we celebrate and support individuals who have a goal of moving more and exercise is seen as a sweeping positive. We tend to think it is fine for everyone, but the truth is that for someone struggling with an eating disorder it can actually be detrimental to their health, healing and recovery. Movement can be used to compensate for food eaten, can make refeeding and weight restoration extremely difficult, can get in the way of the individual in recovery being able to experience eating without stipulations (and in them learning that they will be safe within this), and can also pose a physical risk to certain individuals with eating disorders who have low heart rate and low bone density.
Signs your fitness tracker or smart watch is becoming problematic:
Frequently checking the wearable or app to see where you are at
Attempting to track with utmost precision
Missing out of social events to meet food or movement goals
Needing to meet step goals to “earn” food
Using steps and movement tracking as a compensatory behavior
Experiencing panic or anxiety if not able to track, if wearable runs out of batteries, or if asked to remove it for any reason
Pacing in your room or home to close your rings or complete your step goals; staying up late to walk back and forth to meet your steps for the day before bedtime
Inevitably, turning our health into a game of numbers is a dangerous approach that can be detrimental to our mental and physical health. Using a fitness tracker or smart watch can quickly become harmful, creating and fueling obsessive tendencies and thoughts that can deteriorate into an eating disorder. And though there is no one singular cause for eating disorders (there are many and it is layered) I think we can safely say that these devices have the potential to do more harm than good, and that there is undeniably a connection between smart watches/ fitness trackers and eating disorders.
If you or a loved one is struggling with an eating disorder or obsessive and compulsive tendencies with exercise, we are happy to connect and offer you a free call to learn more about our services and treatment programs, share free resources and help guide you towards the best next steps for you. Recovery is always possible.
