The Study
Associations Between the Use of Fitness and Diet Tracking Technology and Disordered Eating Behaviour: A Systematic Review
This study looked at lots of other studies and found that people who use fitness apps often also have unhealthy thoughts about food or exercise — but it doesn't prove the apps cause those thoughts. It could be that people who already worry about their body are more likely to use these apps. So we know they go together, but we don't know which came first.
Analysis score
Maximum 85 for a systematic review.
Where the score came from
People who use fitness and diet apps often report more obsessive eating and exercise habits—but experiments where people are told to use these apps don’t show those habits getting worse.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 553 / 100
Quality score
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of cohort studies. They sit above a single cohort study but below a single randomized trial, because the underlying evidence is still observational.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1This suggests tracker use may attract people already worried about weight or shape, rather than causing those worries to start.
- 2In 27 studies, tracker users showed higher levels of dietary restraint, excessive exercise, and muscle obsession—but when people were randomly assigned to use trackers for weeks, no increase in these behaviors occurred.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Eating Disorders Review
Year
2025
Authors
Sarah Moody, Lindsay Ross, Marie-Christine Opitz, Amelia Hemmings, Basak Ince, Callum Bryson, Carina Kuehne, Daire Douglas, Matthew D Phillips, Vivienne Langhorne, Ulrike H. Schmidt, Helen Sharpe
Related Content
Claims (6)
Using daily point systems to track diet adherence is linked to the development of unhealthy eating patterns.
People who use fitness and diet tracking apps and devices tend to show higher levels of disordered eating behaviors, excessive exercise, and muscle-focused disordered behaviors, but controlled experiments do not show that using these technologies causes changes in these behaviors.
People who use fitness and diet trackers tend to show higher levels of excessive exercise and disordered muscle-focused behaviors in observational data, but short-term use of these trackers does not change these behaviors in controlled experiments.
People who use fitness and diet trackers tend to report stricter eating habits in surveys, especially if they are focused on weight or body shape, but when people are randomly assigned to use trackers in experiments, their eating habits do not consistently change.
Using fitness and diet trackers does not cause an increase in binge eating episodes, based on observations and experiments that found no consistent pattern linking tracker use to binge frequency.
People who use fitness and diet trackers show higher levels of disordered behaviors focused on muscle building, especially if their main motivation is changing their weight or shape.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.