Aggregate Data From Connected Scales Shows Minimal Weight Gains During Lockdowns (expressnews.com) 54
"Data from connected scale users suggests Americans, on average, are not gaining weight during lockdowns," writes long-time Slashdot reader pfhlick.
The Washington Post reports: Withings, the maker of popular Internet-connected scales and other body-measurement devices, studied what happened to the weight of some 450,000 of its American users between March 22 — when New York ordered people home — and April 18. Despite concerns about gaining a "quarantine 15," the average user gained 0.21 pounds during that month... Over the same March-April period in 2019, Withings said its American users gained slightly less weight — 0.19 pounds on average — though fewer people had the scales last year...
Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University — who wasn't involved with the Withings analysis — said he found the results a bit disappointing. "With the shutdown of the restaurants, I thought the numbers would have gotten better," he said. Home-cooked meals tend to be healthier than dining out.
Withings' numbers varied slightly for other countires. But citing a professor of medicine at Stanford, the article notes that average weight gains may be misleading, since some people "may be hitting their groove during stay-at-home orders by embracing cooking and taking up jogging. But others could be using food to cope with stress and gaining large amounts of weight." In fact, 37% of the scale owners gained more than a pound. (Which, if my math is correct, suggests that the other 63% had to lose at least .13 pounds.)
The article also notes that for buyers of Withings' scales, "contributing aggregate data is a condition included in its terms of service; its customers don't get the option to opt out if they want to use Withings products."
The Washington Post reports: Withings, the maker of popular Internet-connected scales and other body-measurement devices, studied what happened to the weight of some 450,000 of its American users between March 22 — when New York ordered people home — and April 18. Despite concerns about gaining a "quarantine 15," the average user gained 0.21 pounds during that month... Over the same March-April period in 2019, Withings said its American users gained slightly less weight — 0.19 pounds on average — though fewer people had the scales last year...
Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University — who wasn't involved with the Withings analysis — said he found the results a bit disappointing. "With the shutdown of the restaurants, I thought the numbers would have gotten better," he said. Home-cooked meals tend to be healthier than dining out.
Withings' numbers varied slightly for other countires. But citing a professor of medicine at Stanford, the article notes that average weight gains may be misleading, since some people "may be hitting their groove during stay-at-home orders by embracing cooking and taking up jogging. But others could be using food to cope with stress and gaining large amounts of weight." In fact, 37% of the scale owners gained more than a pound. (Which, if my math is correct, suggests that the other 63% had to lose at least .13 pounds.)
The article also notes that for buyers of Withings' scales, "contributing aggregate data is a condition included in its terms of service; its customers don't get the option to opt out if they want to use Withings products."
Representative Sample? (Score:5, Insightful)
probably not, given this is people who want to have and can have a fancy smart scale.
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It's more that people vastly overestimate how many calories exercise burns, and underestimate how many you burn just to keep their cells from exploding.
Also most Americans can eat as much as we want whenever we want. Not to ignore the problem of food insecurity that many still face.
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Well, if you're using a cardio machine, that isn't "estimating", that's measuring.
Its when you go out in the yard and do gardening, chop down some wood with the Sawzall and stack it up for burning, etc. and then assign yourself 1100 calories of "burn" when it was really 300.
And I know that some of the weight not being gained is simply being redistributed. Before this nonsense began, I weighed at 205. Last week, I got on the scale and held the balance bar down to keep it from striking the top of its trav
Re: Representative Sample? (Score:3)
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I cut down (small) trees with a Sawsall. Its because I don't own a chain saw and I don't want to own a chain saw. It serves. I don't cut anything with an axe because I'm 72 and have virtually no stamina. So I do what I can, and the Sawzall serves. Just chopped down maybe 15 small trees with it about an hour ago. Will haul 'em out of the woods as soon as I chop the previous trees into shorter lengths to toss on the burn pile. Wrap a tow strap around them and haul them out of the woods with the SU
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Stationary bikes at the gym are damned expensive (I was looking at a refurb for half price last month of the one I had been riding at the gym and half price was $3500) and yeah, their ergometers are pretty damned accurate. Have a spreadsheet where I input the calories of food I eat, my metabolism, and my exercise calories from the ergometers on these machines and it tracks pretty accurately, so those exercycle numbers are pretty much "on." Yeah, you ask the gym people there, the personal trainers and so
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Also most Americans can eat as much as we want whenever we want.
Have you gone grocery shopping in the last month? The shelves are bare again.
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I'm sorry that your area is having a hard time. But what I meant was is that people's self control over their food intake, or lack thereof, isn't likely to change dramatically, so I wouldn't expect their weight to change dramatically.
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I'm sorry that your area is having a hard time. But what I meant was is that people's self control over their food intake, or lack thereof, isn't likely to change dramatically....
I've lost 12 pounds while working from home during the lockdown. The main reason is that I run two miles on my treadmill during my lunch hour rather than having lunch. It's proven to be the only time that works well for me (morning and evening runs don't positively affect me the same way, for some reason[s] I don't understand).
My desire for food has, surprisingly, diminished since I started this running habit.
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Also most Americans can eat as much as we want whenever we want.
Most people in the west eat as much as they want. The difference is who can control their craving and who thinks the most noble death is to drown in a XL deep pan Chicago pizza.
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You might want to read up on passive euthanasia before you get too uppity about people who die of cheese inhalation.
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probably not, given this is people who want to advertise their weight and can afford to advertise their weight
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AND from that sample, the set of people who both want to connect their scale to the internet, and have the skillset to do so!
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This. But also rich enough for such a scale.
I was required to do daily weighings because of heart failure (not to be confused with hearth disease) so I needed a new scale (ye olde analog spinny disk scale was fine, but why deal with calibrations and having to read the graduations when you can get a shiny new digital scale?). I ended up buying a cheap digital one with huge digits, back
Alternative explanation: Skewed Data (Score:5, Insightful)
Q: Who has a 'connected scale', has used it for a year, and is weighing themselves regularly?
A: Someone who is concerned with at least their weight, if not their overall health.
That's not going to change under quarantine. These people may not be hitting the gym daily, but there are plenty of exercises that can be done at home, and eating healthier food isn't that much more difficult since everywhere that sells health food can continue doing so.
The people gaining weight right now aren't weighing themselves on connected scales, they're either furloughed people whose jobs had some level of fitness-giving (boxes and ladders and walking a mile or two over the course of an eight hour retail shift for example), and/or people who don't care enough and are likely eating Oreos and watching Netflix.
They may as well be tracking gym memberships YoY during December and assuming that people don't gain weight during the holidays.
Trade offs (Score:3)
I suspect that it balances out for the most part, at least in terms of weight gain. I'm more concerned that just being more sedentary for a month has made it more likely for me to remain that way going forward. It's a lot easier to go back to eating out or going to the bar than it is to get in the habit of going to the gym regularly.
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There's also a few articles circulating out there that say beer sales are much much higher due to the lockdown. I wonder if there's a correlation there.
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I think that's exactly it. People aren't getting food from restaurants, no lunching at Chilis or grabbing a quick burger. The worst cooks are making simple meals - sandwiches etc, the better cooks are making the best of things and making relatively healthy meals at home.
So while we're not exercising, we're eating far more healthily. I wouldn't be surprised to see net weight losses at the end of this in many parts of the country, especially in suburban ("rural") areas where mandatory car usage forces ever
Don't need a scale, smart or otherwise (Score:5, Funny)
My pants tell me if I'm gaining weight. So smart!
Even smarter, I haven't been putting them on.
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I think it is safe to say from this evidence that yes, you are gaining weight.
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DontBeAMoran : I've stopped wearing pants too!
Anachronous Coward: since the beginning of the lockdown, like me?
DontBeAMoran: Eh, yeah sure, of course.
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Even smarter, I haven't been putting them on.
I recommend wearing smart pants weekly so they log your weight online and monitor any change. The last thing you need is to get to the end of the lockdown, go to put on pants for the first time in months and find you don't have any which fit. It'll be awkward to explain at the shopping mall, though probably perfectly acceptable attire at the local Walmart.
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Was that you I saw on GMA last week???
I am unchanged (Score:2)
I just went and checked my weight for the first time in a couple months. Nearly the same.
I think cooking at home and keeping off of fast food, while reducing alcohol and snacks is offsetting the way less exercise I am getting.
I was more surprised at the Arstechnica article (Score:1)
TL;DR;, the drop in economic activity leads to some suicides but it also means less car crashes. I would've figured more wars, but then last I heard Saudi Arabia and Yemen have a cease fire over this.
Fuck Withings (Score:2)
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It is all the "tech" companies.
Nobody is making "smart" devices that respect user data. Smart = Cloud = Data Collection.
I have a regular digital scale, and the batteries last 10+ years.
If you want connected data, buy a commercial scale with USB or ethernet, instead of a consumer "smart" one.
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From what I've seen, Garmin is pretty good about it. They give very granular privacy options with their health trackers, and they do not force you into the binary choice of either opting into everything or going to hell because they don't want your money.
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Turning off tracking after you've given them all your data is useless. This is what you give them when you install their app:
This app has access to:
Identity
find accounts on the device
add or remove accounts
Calendar
read calendar events plus confidential information
Contacts
find accounts on the device
read your contacts
Location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
SMS
send SMS messages
Phone
directly call phone numbers
read call log
read phone status and identity
Photos/Media/Files
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Storage
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Camera
take pictures and videos
Wi-Fi connection information
view Wi-Fi connections
Device ID & call information
read phone status and identity
Other
download files without notification
receive data from Internet
view network connections
create accounts and set passwords
pair with Bluetooth devices
access Bluetooth settings
send sticky broadcast
change network connectivity
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
full network access
change your audio settings
run at startup
draw over other apps
control vibration
prevent device from sleeping
modify system settings
Google Play license check
read Google service configuration
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So how do these things work with 4 or 5 people (not counting the cats and dogs) living in one house, forgetting to change the user number for each weighing?
Had a friend who bought a fancy recording blood pressure cuff for his hypertension. His girlfriend started measuring her own BP, plus occasionally letting a friend try it out. All with the same user ID. He uploads the data to his cardiologist and is told that he's either 10 minutes away from a heart attack or everyone in the neighborhood is using his cu
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No wonder (Score:2)
USA lifestyle is already so sedentary on average that being enclaustrated at home makes no difference XD
I've lost weight (Score:2)
Not being able to go to my local pub and a couple of sugary alcoholic drinks several times a week has me down about five pounds.
Re: I've lost weight (Score:2)
Having to cook at home and not really liking my own cooking has me down as well.
healthier? (Score:2)
"Home-cooked meals tend to be healthier than dining out"
Normally perhaps, but don't forget that there's a stay-at-home order in most places. That means that the majority of people won't be going shopping for fresh vegetables and such nearly as often, and those "homecooked meals" will consists of a lot more canned food and TV dinners than they would under normal circumstances, negating the home-cooked benefit.
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First there are no rate restrictions on going to the grocery store, so if someone wants to continue making multiple trips a week they can. Secondly, the vast majority of fresh produce keep fine in the fridge for a week. The main exceptions are berries. The whole "you need to do multiple small grocery trips through the week to eat healthy" attitude is mostly just cultural (how things were done in urban environments before modern food storage), and largely unfounded.
Its helped me (Score:2)
Granted, I started losing weight at the beginning of February, but I'm down 40lbs since then, with limited exercise the past month or so (since my gym closed). I'm doing straight caloric restriction (goal of 1500 cal a day) and not really having restaurants open has really helped reduce temptations. Plus, with my company having us all work from home I don't get the occasional "free food left over from meetings) mid afternoon snack temptations either.
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Simular here. I've lost 5 pounds working from home mostly due to not eating at the company cafeteria for lunch. Meanwhile, my wife who is a nurse, has been extremely frustrated with the endless barrage of free donuts and other junk food which have skyrocketed since COVID-19 as "thank you". She hates eating that stuff but has a really hard time passing it up when it is constantly in front of her. Shit, she quit smoking more easily that it has been for her to moderate sugar.
I know I've gained 5-6 lbs! (Score:2)
Basically I used to walk a lot. Now with lock down I barely move and I'm always near my kitchen
What kind of weight? (Score:2)
First, BMI doesn't factor what kind of mass people have. If someone were to lose 1 lb of muscle, and gain 1 lb of fat, that would be a signifcantly poor outcome, but wouldn't register on the scale. Conversely, gaining muscle and losing fat is usually beneficial, but also doesn't necessarily register on the scale.
Second, 0.19 lbs per month, over the course of a year, is 2.28 lbs. That's a lot of weight! The article says that "In a typical year, Americans gain one to two pounds." Well guess what, typical Ame
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If someone were to lose 1 lb of muscle, and gain 1 lb of fat, that would be a signifcantly poor outcome, but wouldn't register on the scale.
Sure it would. It would affect the body fat percentage reading. Now, depending on the precision of the scale's body fat measuring algorithm it's possible that 1 lb would be too small to be statistically significant, but there is some value at which the a change in the body fat percentage reported by the scale is statistically significant.
Home cooked nonsense (Score:2)
>"With the shutdown of the restaurants, I thought the numbers would have gotten better," he said. Home-cooked meals tend to be healthier than dining out.
If people who eat out ignore kcal and their TDEE, thats not going to change with cooking at home.
Phah, losing weight is easy (Score:2)
All the ramen is gone (Score:2)
None of the stores have ramen noodles any more, so maybe all these people have finally resorted to eating fresh produce, which seems to be in stores in abundance!
Gain or loss? (Score:1)
It's not easy to say which way it will go. Lot depends on the exact terms of the lockdown, and what your preferred activities - if any - have been.
Here, sport outside was never prohibited, so for runners like me little changed. Restaurants were closed though, and deliveries took few weeks to open. With all the cooking done at home, where we tend to start from raw ingredients, it more than compensated for a bit less running, and walking around the office (our campus is large).
in first month of the lockdown i