For a month now, I've been using the latest gadget in my get fit arsenal--a Bodybugg. You may have seen this product used on a very popular weight loss show. It's taken a month for me to get acclimated to the bugg and to form an intelligent opinion on it.
The Bodybugg is a small black monitor you wear 24/7 strapped to your left arm. It not only calculates your calories but also your steps. You upload the information to your computer; input your food and the software will tell you if you are operating in a calorie deficit or surplus. These values are also measured against the goals you have set for yourself. Along with your body parameters (age, height, weight etc.), you also set up the amount of weight you want to lose and the system will give you a target calorie intake and output number. The Bodybugg has an accessory you can purchase--a digital display--which shows you a real-time accumulation of your calories and steps. It can be worn as a watch or clipped to your clothing.
My decision to purchase the bugg was simple. My weight loss had stalled. I was tracking my food intake and tracking my calories, a la my heart rate monitor, but still nothing by way of weight or inches lost. Based on my tracking, I should have been losing at least a pound a week. It was then I started to research calorie counters andthrough that research is when I discovered heart rate monitors are not good indicators of calorie burn. They tend of overestimate and that’s when I started to give the bugg a serious look. The Bodybugg uses heat flux, skin response, skin temperate and an accelerometer to determine calories burned. It has been proven to be 92% accurate. It does not calculate heart rate.
What I have learned from using this system is--we don’t burn as many calories as we think to sustain life. We hear that all the time. Your body burns calories all day—and it does, but for me, that burn as been approx 1.4 calories a minute. I’ve also learned that many household chores have a greater calorie burn than doing an aerobic workout. The bugg tends to either underestimate or correctly assess (I haven’t figured out which one) calories while weight lifting. At first I was disappointed with the numbers I was getting after a hard weight lifting session. I wanted the heart rate monitor to be correct. Now I’ve come to appreciate the lower numbers because it motivates me to move more to meet and exceed my goals.
I’ve worn both my bugg and heart rate monitor during exercise. With cardio exercise, I burn 200 calories or more on the heart rate monitor than the bugg and with weight lifting I burn 50-100 calories more on the heart rate monitor than the Bodybugg, therein is the problem (for me). I really wanted the higher numbers to be accurate but they just weren't. After seeing these discrepancies, it was clear to me why my weight loss had stalled.
All in all, I’ve am happy with the purchase of the Bodybugg. I stumbled out of the gate the first two to three weeks, but once I really started applying it, the weight is moving at a rate of 2lbs a week. Am I able to lose weight without it? Yes and I have but this system shows me to take greater care in the things I eat and it motivates me to keeping moving.
Here is an example of the feedback from the Bodybugg.
The Bodybugg with digital display retails for $349. This includes a free 45-minute coaching session and a 6-month subscription to the web component.
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