Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers: Do They Cause Eating Disorders?
As a virtual eating disorder recovery center, we rely on technology every day to connect with and support our clients: video 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 the type of smartwatch or fitness tracker you use, most track metrics such as steps taken, calories burned, and heart rate. Some also monitor sleep, basal body temperature, and other health data. The device, most commonly worn as a watch, syncs with a smartphone and continuously reports this information back to the user.
With the Apple Watch, users are encouraged to “close their rings” each day to accomplish their activity goals. The watch provides reminders and words of encouragement when these goals are met. While these features may be motivating for some, they can also reinforce rigid or obsessive patterns around exercise, movement, and health in vulnerable individuals.
Fitbit users can set daily step goals, however arbitrary those goals may be. We have worked with countless clients of all ages who spend hours pacing their homes, day and night, trying to meet these targets. Many experience significant anxiety and fear at the thought of falling short of their step goal or being unable to track their movement altogether.
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 About Smart Watches and Fitness Trackers in Eating Disorders:
The concern with fitness trackers and smart watches is their potential to trigger or reinforce eating disorder symptoms. In our work supporting individuals through recovery, we have seen firsthand how valid this concern can be.
Perhaps the most obvious issue is the emphasis these devices place on numbers—and often arbitrary ones at that.
For example, did you know that the popular goal of 10,000 steps per day originated from a marketing campaign in Japan in the 1960s? The Japanese character for 10,000 resembles a person walking, and this became part of the inspiration behind the campaign's step target.
Despite its arbitrary origins, 10,000 steps has become widely accepted as the benchmark for daily movement, even though there is no single number that is appropriate for every person, body, age, health condition, or stage of life.
The act of choosing, tracking, and adhering to numerical goals for things like steps and calories can be particularly harmful for someone struggling with an eating disorder. It may also contribute to the development of disordered eating, compulsive exercise, or increasingly rigid and obsessive behaviors around food and movement.
Beyond the compulsive patterns this type of tracking can reinforce, it can also begin to tie self-worth to numbers. Success becomes defined by whether a target was met, and feelings of guilt, anxiety, or failure can emerge when it is not.
Many parents of the youth we work with feel that if their child is eating more, continuing to count steps is relatively harmless in comparison. However, we often remind families that compulsive exercise, an obsession with numbers, tying self-worth to metrics, and using steps as a compensatory behavior (for example, to "make up for" food consumed or attempt to offset it) are all significant concerns in eating disorder recovery. While eating more is an important part of recovery, healing the relationship with movement, numbers, and compensation is equally important.
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.
