Hello All!
What happened to August? I did not realize how long it has been since I posted. I knew a week was missed (nothing to say), but TWO weeks! Eeek!
Well, per request from my friend Kathy, I owe you an update/review of my BodyMedia Fit. Well, I like it. It tells me many things. For instance…
How well I am sleeping….sorta freaky
It tracks your physical activity and steps taken…this is freaky, too. Ultimately, all I am concerned about is the total, but it is nice to know that every step I take to go to the bathroom is additional calories burned.
When you buy the arm band you can have it automatically upload upon charging to the BodyMedia web site (for an additional fee). Answering a few questions helps you develop goals. Notice in the following that my target to burn is 3410 calories and consume 2410 calories. That is a lot of calories to burn a day, I set it that high so that it would encourage me to workout vs. cut back on calories. Right now, I am only meeting my actual goal once or twice a week. However, I am consistently burning more than I take in on a daily basis.
Currently, I do not document my meals in the BodyMedia tool. I use SparkPeople and normally put the total for the day on the BodyMedia site. On this particular day, I did not do that.
I really like the BodyMedia fit. It definitely keeps me on track. When I track my food I find that tracking calories in vs. calories out is definitely teaching me what I need to do to continue to lose weight. I also find that the BodyMedia tool is accurate. If I total my calorie deficit at the end of the week it does match to the pounds lost.
The main problem I see with the BodyMedia Fit is that it is not waterproof. Unfortunately, my BodyMedia Fit cannot be worn in the pool. For true heart rate measuring I would not rely on the BodyMedia fit anyway. I use heart rate monitoring to improve my heart health. The BodyMedia fit is not intended for this, so the waterproofing does not bother me.
Dr. Pita’s replacement (she does not have a nickname, YET) questions the ability of it to track correctly when it is extremely hot because it does measure sweat in some of the calculations. She believes it might be telling me a higher calorie burned count. I believe her nickname might become Dr. BurstMyBubble.
Finally, it is very pricey. Depending on if you buy the optional watch that can by synced with the arm band during the course of the day, it can total around 175.00 dollars for both. If you choose to use the web site, it has a monthly fee.
For me, it is an encouraging tool and keeps me motivated. I can use the watch and see how I am doing during the day which encourages me to take not only a few more steps, but do activities that burn more calories.
Before you make the leap to buy the BodyMedia Fit, try using the SparkPeople food tracker and activity tracker (including steps taken during the day) to see if it meets your needs. The SparkPeople tools may not be as accurate, but it can get you close to determining your calories burned vs. calories eaten. I found it enlightening that some of the activities I do on a daily basis do not burn as many calories as I originally expected.
For more information check out the following:
Hope this helps!
Kristi
Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com
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