Good news from the internet of flab: Data from connected scales suggests Americans aren’t piling on lots of pounds while in coronavirus isolation.
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. Some 37 percent of people gained more than a pound.
How you view those numbers, however, is a matter of perspective. In a typical year, Americans gain 1 to 2 pounds.
The analysis released Friday is the latest effort by a tech company to quantify how lives have changed during the pandemic using data from “Internet of Things” devices. And like other covid-19 studies of fevers from connected thermostats, social distancing from smartphones and activity from fitness trackers, we should also read the weight results with some caution.
Some of these studies are more marketing efforts than contributions to public health. But scientists and officials have also been turning to personal tech for serious academic studies and even to track covid-19 cases in real time.
Withings, which has contributed data to other academic research, said the company is publishing this data on its own because it kept getting asked about it. “We heard a lot of assumptions about how the lockdown would have an impact on people’s weight and activity,” marketing head Lucie Broto said.
|
|
