New study finds popular fitness apps may actually demotivate users – New Atlas

Have you ever opened a fitness app feeling hopeful and left feeling worse about yourself?

New study finds popular fitness apps may actually demotivate users – New Atlas

This study, reported by New Atlas, argues that the tools you use to get fitter—those glossy apps with streaks, badges, and leaderboards—might be doing the opposite of what you hired them to do. It’s not that the technology is inherently malicious; it’s that the way these apps are designed, marketed, and monetized can erode motivation, amplify shame, and turn movement into a performance rather than a practice. You should care because these products are shaped to capture your attention and your data, not necessarily to help you sustain a healthier relationship with exercise.

What the study found

The researchers examined popular fitness apps and surveyed users to understand how app features affect motivation over time. They found that many commonly used elements—daily streaks, public leaderboards, relentless goal reminders, and comparative social feeds—trigger short-term spikes in activity but undermine longer-term engagement for large subsets of users. Instead of cultivating intrinsic motivation, these features often encourage external validation, fear of losing status, or punitive feelings when you slip up.

The study combined quantitative usage metrics with qualitative interviews. That means they looked at actual behavior (how often people opened the app, how many workouts were logged) and also listened to the messy, honest things real users said about how the apps made them feel. The result is a nuanced portrait: apps can be helpful, but they’re also rife with trade-offs many companies aren’t acknowledging.

Why this matters to you

You probably download fitness apps hoping to solve a problem—lack of structure, not knowing what workout to do, or wanting encouragement. When the app prioritizes growth in its user base and ad revenue over your psychological wellbeing, you’re the one who suffers. You risk associating exercise with shame, accomplishment with scarcity, and consistency with punishment. That matters not only for your physical health but for your mental health and your relationship to your body.

Your attention is a currency. The way apps compete for it can shape your behavior in small but cumulative ways. Understanding what’s going on gives you tools to protect yourself and to use technology on your terms, instead of being used by it.

How fitness apps are supposed to motivate — and where they go wrong

Apps borrow heavily from behavioral economics and game design. The tactics feel sensible: set attainable goals, provide immediate feedback, reward consistency, and use social support for accountability. Many apps implement these ideas through streaks, badges, push notifications, and community features.

Those mechanisms can work. But motivation isn’t one-size-fits-all. When design focuses narrowly on external rewards or public comparison, it can crowd out intrinsic motives—your own reasons for moving, like pleasure, stress relief, or curiosity. That crowding out is subtle. You may start keeping a streak because you don’t want to lose a green ring, not because you hunger for movement. When the external reward disappears, your internal reason might not be strong enough to sustain you.

The role of gamification

Gamification—adding points, badges, levels—gives a quick dopamine hit. It’s satisfying. But it can also condition you to chase abstractions instead of real benefits. When the game becomes the point, you may exercise to maintain a metric rather than to feel better. That shift can erode long-term commitment.

Moreover, games with leaderboards foster competition that often benefits a minority of highly motivated users while demoralizing the majority. If you’re constantly comparing your progress to people with more time, better resources, or different bodies, you’re set up to lose self-esteem.

Notifications and nagging

Notifications are meant to remind and re-engage you. Many apps weaponize them, deploying frequent, urgent messages that imply you’ve failed if you ignore them. Instead of gentle cues that support autonomy, these push messages can feel like a parent scolding a child—motivating for a moment, but ultimately undermining self-direction.

Design features that demotivate (and how they could be fixed)

Below is a table summarizing common app features that can demotivate you, why they have that effect, and practical fixes that developers could implement to make the experience healthier.

These fixes won’t magically solve everything, but they shift the design ethos from extraction and spectacle toward care and sustainability.

What the study didn’t say (limitations and nuance)

No study is perfect, and this one has limits worth noting. The population sampled tended to include early adopters and more digitally literate users; patterns might differ for older adults, people with disabilities, or those in low-bandwidth environments. Apps are heterogeneous—what’s true for one with aggressive social features might not apply to a minimal tracker. The study’s timeframe also matters: some features demotivate in the long run but increase short-term adoption, which apps prize.

Also, motivation is personal. A feature that demotivates you might invigorate someone else. Leaderboards, for example, can be inspiring to competitive users. What’s important is you have agency to choose how you interact with these tools.

The deeper psychology: intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation

Understanding how motivation works can clarify why some apps feel helpful and others feel harmful. Intrinsic motivation comes from within: doing an activity because it’s enjoyable, meaningful, or aligned with your values. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external rewards or pressures—likes, badges, avoiding guilt.

When external rewards outweigh internal ones, you risk the overjustification effect: you start attributing your behavior to the reward, not your own reasons. You may stop being active for pleasure and start being active to maintain a streak or a leaderboard position. That’s precarious because once the reward disappears, behavior often collapses.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) identifies three psychological needs that support intrinsic motivation: autonomy (you control your actions), competence (you feel effective), and relatedness (you feel connected to others). Many apps inadvertently undermine these needs—notifications threaten autonomy, unrealistic metrics undercut competence, and superficial social feeds fail to nourish true relatedness.

Social comparison, bodies, and shame

Fitness culture in apps often mirrors broader societal judgements about bodies. When workouts are publicized as trophies and progress photos are ranked, you’re asked to perform fitness in a public arena that prizes visibility and perfection. That environment can hurt people who don’t look like the influencers on the front page—people with different bodies, chronic conditions, or complex lives.

You should be aware of how these dynamics affect your sense of worth. If you find yourself measuring your value by other people’s workout tallies or filtered images, the app has shifted from being a tool to being an arbiter. That’s a dangerous transfer of authority over how you feel about yourself.

Data, privacy, and business incentives

Apps need users. They need engagement. Many monetize through subscriptions, ads, and data. That financial imperative shapes product decisions: features that keep you coming back—notifications, social comparison, streaks—get prioritized. That doesn’t make them malicious, but it does make them profit-driven.

What you share in an app is rarely benign. Workout habits, location data, biometrics, sleep patterns—these are valuable. The cookie-and-privacy text accompanying some articles you read (the long privacy notices and multiple language options) exists because companies track and use data across platforms. You should assume that if an app is free, data is part of the currency. That’s not universal—many reputable paid services protect data better—but you should read privacy policies and set limits.

Practical steps you can take right now

You don’t have to quit apps to regain agency. You can make them serve you rather than the other way around. Here are concrete steps you can use immediately.

• Audit your notifications. Turn off anything that shames, nags, or creates anxiety. Keep reminders informational and limited.
• Reframe streaks. Use them as a tool, not a tyranny. Allow yourself missed days and plan for recovery instead of punishment.
• Make goals human. Set goals tied to how you want to feel (e.g., “sleep better,” “reduce stress”) rather than only to numbers.
• Use private accountability. If public leaderboards feel toxic, trade them for a private habit journal or a small buddy system with someone you trust.
• Focus on process over outcome. Praise consistency, curiosity, and enjoyment, not just completion or intensity.
• Limit social feed exposure. If curated images trigger comparison, mute feeds or opt out of sharing until you feel secure.
• Choose apps intentionally. Prefer apps that explain metrics, provide education, and respect privacy. Pay for services when it aligns with transparency and data protection.
• Keep multiple ways to track progress. Use non-digital measures like how your clothes fit, your mood, your energy, and your ability to perform daily tasks.

How to choose a fitness app that supports you

Picking the right app matters. Consider these criteria anchored in psychological well-being.

• Transparency: Does the app explain what data it collects and why? Are privacy settings easy to access?
• Flexibility: Can you adapt goals and notifications to your life? Are there options to pause streaks or replace competitive elements?
• Education: Does the app offer contextual information that helps you interpret metrics?
• Inclusivity: Does the community and imagery represent varied bodies, abilities, ages, and life circumstances?
• Cost model: Are core behavior-change tools behind a paywall, or are they freely available? Does the business model incentivize long-term wellbeing?

Quick comparison table: what to look for

Recommendations for app designers and product teams

If you build or influence these products, you have responsibility. Design choices shape users’ lives. Here are practical principles you can implement.

• Prioritize autonomy: Give users control over notifications, goal setting, and social visibility. Autonomy fosters long-term engagement.
• Design for humanity: Include setbacks, rest, and non-linear progress as part of the narrative. Celebrate small, sustainable wins and honest accounts of struggle.
• Make privacy a competitive advantage: Offer clear privacy defaults and consent-based data use. Users will appreciate and reward transparency.
• Center inclusivity: Design for variation in bodies, ability, socioeconomic status, and time. Avoid “one ideal body” imagery and provide adjustable difficulty.
• Use ethical gamification: Reward sustainable behaviors, not just volume. Avoid metrics that encourage over-exercising or unhealthy choices.
• Measure wellbeing, not just engagement: Track metrics about user satisfaction and psychological outcomes, not only daily active users.

A note to employers, coaches, and policy makers

You may be the one recommending apps to employees, clients, or constituents. Pressure to use digital tools can have consequences. Consider these policy-level actions:

• Provide options: Don’t require participation in public leaderboards or mandatory wellness competitions.
• Support privacy: Purchase tools that commit to strong data protection and avoid selling data to third parties.
• Educate users: Teach people how to interpret metrics and how to set personally meaningful goals.
• Evaluate outcomes: Look for programs that demonstrate improvements in wellbeing, not only increased clicks or logins.

Quick checklist for different users

The following table is a simple, practical checklist that helps you make decisions based on what role you occupy.

When fitness apps can actually help

This article has been critical, but it’s fair to say apps can be useful. You might benefit if they give you structure, help you discover workouts, connect you with like-minded people, or provide education. The difference between help and harm often lies in whether the app supports your autonomy and competence, and whether you control your engagement.

Use apps as tools: for instruction, tracking, or inspiration. Don’t let them be a judge of your worth.

Final thoughts

You live inside systems—commercial, social, and algorithmic—that shape what you want and how you seek it. Fitness apps are not neutral objects; they carry design decisions that reflect revenue models and cultural norms. When an app tells you that missing a workout is a moral failing or that your value rises and falls with a streak, recognize that voice for what it is: a product of an architecture of attention.

You deserve technologies that respect you. You also deserve to be kind to yourself when you fall short of a goal. Motivation is not a flaw that needs fixing through more external pressure; it’s a fragile, human thing that grows with autonomy, competence, and connection. The best design supports that growth rather than co-opting it.

If you care about long-term change, make choices that align with how you want to feel and who you want to be. Put your values before the leaderboard. Turn off the push that shames. Keep the parts that teach and inspire, and refuse the parts that punish. You’re not less because an app says so. You’re more when you act with honesty and care—both toward your body and toward your attention.

Source: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihwFBVV95cUxPUi1EbnJIYmgwQmNBRmh2TGJoNU5pVkJJdFNxNmZpcFowdVdTU3k3WGdiazF5cVJNRnhHVXJWRU8zRVpSaUdXX09OTF90ZDBMUm03amZVdjRiZGZRSVF0cExiLUxoeC00eDV2VF9nNm9Wb0ZqbGJwdWx6d1VXeFJSSjVUTGpQejA?oc=5