Close X
Saturday, November 2, 2024
ADVT 
Tech

App that can make obese people agile

Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Jun, 2014 12:26 PM
    If you are used to a sedentary lifestyle, this app can help you become a little active.
     
    This smartphone-based app can produce short-term reductions in sedentary behaviour that may be effective in improving health.
     
    More sedentary time, regardless of physical activity levels, is associated with greater risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease and mortality.
     
    "Almost everyone knows that physical activity is important. But it's not widely recognised that someone who runs five miles in the evening but spends the rest of the day sitting at a desk can be putting their health at risk," said co-researcher Dale Bond from The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island, in the US.
     
    "That smartphone you use so often throughout the day could now actually help to improve your health," he added.
     
    Bond and Graham Thomas from the same institute worked with their colleagues to develop a smartphone-based intervention to reduce the amount of time obese individuals sit or recline while awake.
     
    The smartphone app, "B-Mobile," was tested in a study of primarily middle-aged women who were obese, although the intervention can be applied to those who are not obese.
     
    The app automatically monitored the time participants spent being sedentary, and after an extended period with no activity, prompted participants via a tone paired with motivational messages to get up and walk around for a few minutes.
     
    Participants received feedback providing encouragement for taking a break.
     
    Researchers tested three different approaches to see which was best at reducing the total amount of sedentary time.
     
    Even though all three were successful, researchers found it is better to take shorter breaks more often for better health.
     
    "Prompting frequent, short activity breaks may be the most effective way to decrease excessive sedentary time and increase physical activity in individuals who are overweight or obese," Bond said.
     
    The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.

    MORE Tech ARTICLES

    Now, a disposable 'coffee machine' at your service

    Now, a disposable 'coffee machine' at your service
    If a cup of filter coffee is what you need the most to get your day started, you no longer have to worry about travelling to the nearest coffee shop. A Danish designer has come up with a disposable coffee machine that works just like a tea bag for coffee.

    Now, a disposable 'coffee machine' at your service

    Men reinforce gender stereotypes even in online avatars

    Men reinforce gender stereotypes even in online avatars
    Even when men take female avatars in some video games, they do not try to mask their gender and instead reinforce gender stereotypes through their gestures, a study showed.

    Men reinforce gender stereotypes even in online avatars

    Distant tiny spinning star discovered

    Distant tiny spinning star discovered
    Using the ‘empty’ space between stars and galaxies that is made up of sparsely spread charged particles as a giant lens, researchers have made a measurement of a distant rotating neutron star that is believed to be the most precise till now.

    Distant tiny spinning star discovered

    Automated cockpits may drive pilots crazy!

    Automated cockpits may drive pilots crazy!
    Automation in the cockpits are designed to free pilots from paying attention to the mundane flight tasks and allow them to concentrate on the overall flight, but they can also drive the pilots crazy, indicated a study.

    Automated cockpits may drive pilots crazy!

    Soon, Boeing spacecraft to send astronauts in space

    Soon, Boeing spacecraft to send astronauts in space
    Leveraging its expertise in the space-bound flight operations, Boeing has unveiled a concept of a manned spaceflight that is expected to send astronauts into space by 2017.

    Soon, Boeing spacecraft to send astronauts in space

    Britain's oldest town unearthed

    Britain's oldest town unearthed
    Until now, Thatcham in Buckinghamshire was known as the oldest settlement in Britain but now, archaeologists have unearthed the country's oldest town that dates back more than 10 millennia to 8,820 BC.

    Britain's oldest town unearthed