Loving my Body Media

About two months ago I shared my yearning for the Body Media.  As far as I was concerned it was the answer to my fitness and nutrition needs - period!

My sister bought one soon afterwards and fueled my fire by taunting me with texts of calories burning updates and excitement for her new gadget.  I think my husband got tired of hearing me talk about it non stop so he gave me one for Father's Day.  A little unusual, but very much appreciated.  Don't worry, he got something wonderful for Father's Day too.

This device is fabulous!! It keeps track of almost everything from calories burned, steps taken, minutes of activity and even sleep efficiency. After setting up my target numbers for each area, the only thing I have to enter on a regular basis is what I eat.

Each area tracked can be looked at in detail. For Calories Burned you can see how many you burn during a workout and also see what the afterburn for that exercise is too.  The tall blue lines on the left represent my morning run. 

Every day I need to enter what I am eating so I can track the calories I am consuming and also see how nutritional my food intake is or isn't. I wish I could just take a photo of my food and it would calculate it for me.  This is the part I like least.

By looking at the whole day I can see when I move the most.  I am basically a slug at work, chained to my desk, but move more when not working.  (Is that a good enough reason to stop working?)

I used to use a pedometer before I got the Body Media and this next screen keeps tracks of how many steps I take and when I take them

My target number for sleep is 8 hours.  I've found that I usually sleep about 7 hours a night, but my sleep efficiency is about 85%.  It shows me when I am really sleeping or when I am just lying there.  I have no memory of some of these light gray bands in the middle of night that show I was not sleeping. I thought I was sleeping.

In this example I slept for 9 hours and 12 minutes but my sleep efficiency was only 77%.  This part is particularly interesting because I've never had this information about myself before.

When first using the Body Media I just collected information on my usual exercise and eating habits before trying to lose weight.  I wanted to see where I needed to improve.  I found that I am not very consistent.  I like to eat a variety of foods including sweets and have days where I eat more than others. Over a period of a week I ended up being even in my calories in and calories out, but that doesn't lead to weight loss.  

I set my goal to burn 500 more calories than I ate each day so I could lose 1 pound a week.  I have not been perfect, but have lost 4.8 pounds. Unfortunately, just wearing the device does not lead to weight loss, you have to work at it.  (which I don't feel like doing right now) But if you are dedicated to losing, it sure gives you all the information you need to make it happen.

I wear my arm band everyday and I don't even notice it.  I take it off when I swim or shower, but other than that, its pretty much on.  I  just got an extra band, because it does get stinky and sweaty, so now I have one for exercise and one for other times.

I bought mine on Amazon and I also got the display too.  The display gives you real time updates on calories and steps, but connecting the device to my computer once a day has been enough for me.You really don't need to spend the extra money.  I plan on selling my display. 

If having all this information about yourself sounds exciting, this might be the gear you need.

I am so glad I got one!