[morgante]

I agree that the quantified self movement needs to do more work on tying data to motivation. In many cases, it's too easy to just look at the data but not act on it.

That being said, I do think that having the data is a prerequisite for improving. The times where I've tracked my food intake, I've inevitably eaten healthier, partially but just knowing how much i'm actually eating.

> If anything, folks I've seen using Fitbit/FuelBand could use a bit more exercise and a better diet. People tracking their sleep activity tend to stay late and have poor sleeping habits (for example).

I strongly suspect that's correlation, not causation. Of course the people who need to lose weight are the ones more likely to buy a Fitbit.

[hunvreus]

I didn't mean to imply causation. What I meant is that most people I've seen adopting these tools just don't correct their behavior in the long run.

They do marginal changes to their diet, go run for a couple more weeks and then end up going back to their former self. Same as the New Year's resolutions athletes who are gonna hit the gym in January and gone by end of February.

[dragonwriter]

That's actually causation, not mere correlation, its just reversed from the direction the GP implied.