GET COMPETITIVE TO GET FIT!
GET COMPETITIVE TO GET FIT!
Check out this article from CNN.com about a September JAMA Internal Medicine study showing that competition fosters the greatest gains in physical activity.
“A new study followed 602 overweight or obese adults using fitness trackers and found those who entered a competition game to boost their daily steps had the highest increase in physical activity when compared to groups with no, or different, rewards.”
“”We compared whether competition, collaboration or support worked the best. People exposed to competition added 920 steps a day to their activity levels compared to the control group, while the collaboration and support groups only added 600 steps,” said Dr. Mitesh Patel, who directs the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, the world’s first behavioral design team embedded within a health system.
The team’s goal is to use behavioral economics to design ways to improve individual health behaviors like physical activity, health loss and the like.
Not only did the group who competed against others do more steps, they continued to do so for three months after the game ended (as part of the research followup), doing more than 600 steps a day over the additional three months.”
Read the full article for details on the other strategies being looked at to help boost wellness strategies, such as:
“Gamification, or using rewards, points and other tricks to boost our engagement with healthy behaviors, is an increasingly popular tool among workplace wellness and insurance programs.”
If you or someone you know is interested in optimizing their wellness or working on weight management goals, please contact Comprehensive Gastrointestinal Health at 224.407.4400. Our team of providers is ideal for helping to achieve meaningful and sustainable change. Call and we will take care of determining your insurance coverage to see our nurse practitioner, registered dietitian, behavioral coach, and physical therapist/fitness consultant (FYI about 90-95% of our patients have excellent coverage).