On Sunday at IFA, a panel of health-tech professionals shared their ideas about how wearables and other health-oriented devices can help people lose weight and live longer

As global obesity rates continue to rise, it’s an international conundrum that is begging for solutions. Can smart technology help brings those numbers down? 

This was the question posed in a panel held Sunday at IFA Berlin’s Innovation Stage, where moderator Natalia Karbasova, founder of the global business network FitTech Club, began by spelling out the scope of problem.

“Global obesity rates have tripled in the last 50 years. And obesity is associated with chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. So it’s not just about losing weight to look good. It’s really a serious health issue,” she explained.

Joining Ms Karbasova for the discussion, entitled “Tech for weight-loss: Fighting the obesity epidemic with consumer technology”, were four business leaders with a wealth of experience in health-oriented technology between them: Jörn Watzke, Senior Director of Garmin Health; Withings COO Sophie Berner; Mario Aichsleder, Founder and CEO of Hello Inside; and Walter Gjergja, Co-Founder of the fitness application Zing Coach.

Mr Watzke admited that there’s no easy, single answer to the obesity problem, but believes that the kinds of wearables his and other health-tech companies produce can play a positive role because of the array of information they provide. People can use an old-fashioned scale to measure weight, but tech devices, he pointed out, can draw attention to things like stress levels or sleeping habits, which can be contributing factors to weight gain.

“The key word here is awareness”, he said. “Awareness then leads people to better listen to their bodies.”

Building on Mr Watzke’s idea, Mr Aichsleder, whose company specialises is glucose monitoring, added a key concept of his own: knowledge. Health tech can help people understand their bodies better, he argued, and comprehend the impact that lifestyle has on health in general and weight in particular. 

That knowledge is all the more important, the Hello Inside CEO added, given how distracted people can be these days by everything from streaming services, to entertainment apps and advertisements for unhealthy food.

“Our attention is everywhere”, Mr Aichsleder said. “I believe if we have tools, mechanisms, technology that focus our attention on how our body is reacting and how our body is actually working, this might be very well the key.”

Mr Gjergja opted to take the discussion in different direction, saying that in his opinion, people actually do know what is and isn’t healthy, that salad, for example, is healthier than cake. What they need, rather, are better habits, the Zing Coach Co-Founder added, and this is another area where tech can help.

Mr Gjergja explained that the goal of his company’s app is to help what he calls “chronic beginners” — people who’ve tried to get in better shape, but habitually give up — by offering “low-friction” workout ideas.

“We try to provide what we call micro trainings”, he said. “In the beginning, people don’t need to commit to go to the gym an hour a day, but just to start moving a few minutes every hour.”

---

Not just an issue for adults

Sophie Berner, whose company specialises in products such as smart scales, smart watches and sleep trackers, brought up an important point during Sunday’s panel discussion: Global obesity isn’t a problem that only affects adults.

Worldwide, more than 390 million children and adolescents (aged 5-19 years) were estimated to be overweight in 2022, according to the World Health Organisation. Of these, 160 million were obese. In other words, 8% of children across the globe are living with obesity, up from just 2% in 1990.

All of this points to the importance of prevention, and again, wearables and other health-tech devices can play an important role by providing information users might not otherwise have access to, or at least not often, the Withings COO explained.

“Obesity is starting way earlier, so it’s really, really important that we focus on prevention by using different metrics, because it works,” she said.

The idea, Ms Berner and the other panelists agree, isn’t that health tech should replace doctors. Quite the opposite: The information gathered can help medical professionals better help patients. 

“It’s a way to essentially prevent chronic diseases and save lives,” she said.