Computer phone calls get people exercising

Useless.

"Telephone calls, whether from a person or a computer, may help motivate couch potatoes to get some exercise, new research suggests.

In a study of sedentary adults age 55 and up, researchers found that those who received periodic advice and encouragement over the phone were able to boost their exercise levels over one year. And it didn't matter whether the advice came from a human or a computer. >

The findings suggest that automated phone systems could offer a cost-efficient way to reach the legions of inactive Americans, according to the researchers."

Exercise is inefficient, almost universally ineffective and even in the context of this study there are no data to suggest that it made any difference in fitness. (See here, here and here.)

Also:

"After one year, men and women in the automated-phone group were averaging 157 minutes of exercise per week; those who spoke with a real person were getting an average of 178 minutes. Going into the study, the goal had been to get people exercising for 150 minutes per week -- or 30 minutes per day, five days per week."

Sez who? There was no veracity check apparently. Only the word of the participants.