Thanks to a range of fitness apps, counting and tracking calories is easier than ever. Unfortunately, this also means that app users are more aware than ever of whether they meet, exceed, or fail to hit their calorie ‘allowance’.
As we increasingly rely on technology to help track our steps, heart rate and other aspects of our health, it’s not that unusual that many people rely on apps to also monitor their food.
The use of fitness apps is extremely common, so much so that many phones come with some form of fitness tracker pre-installed on the device. They can undoubtedly be beneficial for a lot of people, for example by encouraging users to get their steps up or allowing people to record their sleeping patterns, but some features of fitness apps can also prove detrimental.
For people with eating disorders, having easy access to calorie counters may inhibit efforts to recover, for example by alerting users if they exceed their recommended daily calorie intake or setting calorie recommendations that are unhealthy and difficult to maintain.
These features may trigger feelings of guilt if the person believes they have overindulged, or encourage people to limit their intake unnecessarily
For people with eating disorders, having easy access to calorie counters may inhibit efforts to recover, for example by alerting users if they exceed their recommended daily calorie intake or setting calorie recommendations that are unhealthy and difficult to maintain.
These features may trigger feelings of guilt if the person believes they have overindulged, or encourage people to limit their intake unnecessarily
Phoebe was admitted to a psychiatric hospital aged 17 and again at 20 for five and six months respectively. Though she improved with each admission, her recovery wasn’t sustained and it wasn’t until after ‘numerous more relapses and three admissions to a day patient programme’ that she was finally ready to navigate recovery out of treatment.
On the run-up to her second hospital admission, Phoebe said a fitness app ‘really fed into [her] obsession with calories’
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