Has this been discussed here? Sorry if it has and I missed it. I have a lot of personal junk going on right now with my marriage and stuff so I miss a lot. :p

Anyway, I got a BodyMedia Fit and love it! For those who don't know, it's a device you wear on your arm that tells you how many calories you burn every minute of every day, even when you sleep. It also tells you how many steps you have taken and you can journal your food on their online program.

My average daily expenditure is 1,950 calories. It might go up...I've been lazy since I got it. Holiday weekend and all. =)

It was pricey but I can justify the cost since it's for my health, weight management, and a reward for losing weight. I can justify almost annnnything. :)

Does anyone here have it (or the BodyBug)?

So, I've seen this at Costco..it's like a BodyBugg? I've been curious about them, now that I've become a reluctant exercising fiend. Where did you buy it? Are there particular features that you think are important? Why is it helpful? I've always thought that ultimately the scale tells you the same thing, only slower and less precisely...does this give you helpful implementational info? Is it the journalling or the caloric usage that is helpful? Inquiring mind (mine) wants to know!

Hope all is ok with you and your personal stuff, Mandy!!

Lizanne

I got the bodymedia fit so that I can use it with my phone. I don't have my new phone yet so I haven't tried this feature. I use it on my pc for now.

You need to buy a monthly subscription to pull the information from the device to the pc. I think it's around $4 (?) to $7 depending on the length of the subscription. I got the year sub.

My *real* motivation for posting this was because I know some people here are struggling with regain or not being able to move those last pounds. This will tell you how active you are, will provide goals for you to meet, tracks your personal bests (best sleep, most steps, etc), your weight, your food, etc.

The problem with the scale for me is that I bodybuild and do cut/bulk cycles. The scale is a very inaccurate indicator of what my weight actually is due to water fluctuations, and to bulk and cut without gaining much fat or losing much muscle, one should be within +/-200-300 calories from their maintenance. It is extremely difficult to pin point one's exact maintenance, especially when they are putting on muscle, then leaning out, then putting on muscle, then leaning out, and on and on.

This also makes me very aware of what goes in my mouth because it's on my arm. There is not forgetting about it or sticking my head in the sand. I know if I graze a lot and say "oh well, it's just 2,500 calories, it'll be ok, i'm probably still in a deficit" my BMF will tell me, yo, you only burned 1900 calories today lady. lol

I actually dont' use the food tracker feature because I find online food tracking tedious. I use a notebook then hard enter my calories for each day in BMF.

You can also print out weekly reports that show your averages, and has charts and graphs and stuff. It's really cool!

I think I covered all the questions. I've only had it for around 5 or 6 days so I'm still figuring out the features online. In a few minutes I'll take a couple screen shots and post them in this thread so you can see how the interface online looks.

I use the Fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/ it's small and I can wear on my belt or in my shirt pocket. Ladies you can wear on your bra. It comes with a wrist band that you can put on before you go to bed.

It tracks Sleep, Steps, Miles and calories burned. It links and uploads the data to their website where you can also enter and track your food. Therefore you get a comparison of how much you consumed Vs. Burned. It was $99 but I heard there are coupons out there to bring it down to $79 (I haven't seen those).

Don't quote me on this, but I think the fitbit is the bodymedia fit. They changed the name/design. I'd have to double check but I think this is what I heard. I know the bodybug, fitbit, and bodymedia are all similar, but the bodybug (sp?) does not monitor sleep. For those wondering. ;P

No, it's not. The Fitbit is made by a different company and it only has the accelerometer so that makes it a pedometer that guesses at your calorie expenditure.

The BodyMedia FIT (also marketed as Go Wear Fit, SenseWear and BodyBugg) has the same accelerometer but also has 3 other sensors that help it's calorie calculations to be more accurate.

Thank you! I couldn't recall the name but it was being discussed in a thread on another board. I didn't pay too much attention, obviously. =)

I have the fitbit too! I love it! Similar to the bodybug - I thing both are great!

Hmmm, I'll have to look into this. I LOVE gadgets! I purchased a Digifit dongle that hooks into my ipod touch to make it a heart rate monitor so I can do heart rate zone workouts. I'm still figuring it out, but love seeing the charts I get showing my heart rate zones throughout my workouts and how many calories I burned broken out into fat calories vs. carb calories.

Mandy, I want to know more about your cut / bulk cycles. My goal right now is to increase my lean muscle mass, but I don't really want to lose any more weight. Not sure that I really could even if I wanted to, I've been at the same weight now for a couple of months.

Gaaah!

Is it wrong that "digifit dongle" makes me snort like a fifth grade boy?

Maybe.  :}