Put down your smart phone and stop obsessing over the latest diet app, because research has found that they just don't work. A study of the 30 most popular apps found that there was no discernible advantage to using mobile apps to lose weight.


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Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School tested some of the most popular apps -- including All-In Fitness, Noom Weight Loss, Daily Burn, SparkPeople, Livestrong, MyFitnessPal, FitBit and Lose It! -- and evaluated how well they applied behavioral strategies from the Diabetes Prevential Program (DPP). The DPP program is a program of 20 behavior steps that doctors believe helps to seriously curb negative or detrimental lifestyle behaviors. Unfortunately, most of the apps touted tracking tools, such as weight loss goal-setting, or diet goal-setting, but many failed to offer motivational tools to help dieters stick to their plans.

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And it didn't matter if users paid for the app or not -- across the board, researchers found that these apps failed to provide useful tips on changing behavior. So our suggestion? Use the apps for tracking and measuring your success, but seek motivational support elsewhere. [Huffington Post]