New Approach To Weight Management From Polar

OldAssDude

I love the approach Polar takes with their fitness watches. They don't base your daily goal by steps alone like the other fitness trackers do. They count all activity towards your daily goal. For example, if I did a 3 mile walk and got 6,000 steps (toward my 10,000 step goal setting), and did a 10 mile bike ride (no steps counted), the other trackers would only count my walk towards my daily goal. Polar would count the walk and the bike ride towards my goal. I think that is a great approach because not all activities count steps, but they should still count for something.

Anyway, Polar just came out with a new scale called the Polar Balance.

polar.com/us-en/products/lifestyle/balance

When you weigh yourself with it, you can push the button on your wrist worn device and it will update the weight right to your device. The next time you sync to your phone, it will update that and the web service as well, and it basically takes over your activity goal setting, and tells you what you need to do to reach your weight goal that you set in the web service.

Each time you weigh yourself it will adjust to tell you what you need to do to stay on track. You tell it how much you want to lose and how long you want to take to lose that much, and it will control your activity level goal and give you choices of what to do to reach your goal.

I think it's a great approach and much better than the counting and weighing food approach, because it tells you to do activities and offers basic advice about what you should be not eating.

This is pretty much the same general approach that I took to lose my 57 lbs. over the past year. I increased my activity level by power walking every day, and took a basic ballpark approach over my eating.

I just received mine yesterday and have been logging my weight, and I'm pretty sure if I do what it tells me, I will reach my goal in the time that it recommended.

Sued0nim

But a step goal is for steps and you can log / track cycling separately

I personally find it to be the difference between activity level and actual workouts

But I use my polar ft4 for workouts and my fitbit for step tracking my general activity level

Potatoes - potahtoes

tulips_and_tea

Counting other activities instead of just steps sounds like a good idea.

Curious though, what does it tell you NOT to eat?

Sued0nim

The scale looks cool if you like that kind of gadget ..I like manually tracking weight personally as it keeps me focused ...sounds like the withings with extra tech


Also can't out exercise a bad diet remains a truism..so I think for some that concept won't work

peter56765

bcalvanese wrote: »

I love the approach Polar takes with their fitness watches. They don't base your daily goal by steps alone like the other fitness trackers do. They count all activity towards your daily goal. For example, if I did a 3 mile walk and got 6,000 steps (toward my 10,000 step goal setting), and did a 10 mile bike ride (no steps counted), the other trackers would only count my walk towards my daily goal. Polar would count the walk and the bike ride towards my goal. I think that is a great approach because not all activities count steps, but they should still count for something.

Anyway, Polar just came out with a new scale called the Polar Balance.

polar.com/us-en/products/lifestyle/balance

When you weigh yourself with it, you can push the button on your wrist worn device and it will update the weight right to your device. The next time you sync to your phone, it will update that and the web service as well, and it basically takes over your activity goal setting, and tells you what you need to do to reach your weight goal that you set in the web service.

Each time you weigh yourself it will adjust to tell you what you need to do to stay on track. You tell it how much you want to lose and how long you want to take to lose that much, and it will control your activity level goal and give you choices of what to do to reach your goal.

I think it's a great approach and much better than the counting and weighing food approach, because it tells you to do activities and offers basic advice about what you should be not eating.

This is pretty much the same general approach that I took to lose my 57 lbs. over the past year. I increased my activity level by power walking every day, and took a basic ballpark approach over my eating.

I just received mine yesterday and have been logging my weight, and I'm pretty sure if I do what it tells me, I will reach my goal in the time that it recommended.

I'm not going to flag this but boy does this read like ad copy. You sure seem to know a lot of particulars about a product that you just received yesterday.

And the testimonial doesn't even make any sense. So you say you've already lost 57 lbs on your own? Then why did you bother buying this watch now?

Sued0nim

To be fair he did say that's the method he chose to lose his weight

I thought though you were planning on doing some progressive resistance training now to build muscle though @bcalvanese or do I misremember

OldAssDude

rabbitjb wrote: »

But a step goal is for steps and you can log / track cycling separately

I personally find it to be the difference between activity level and actual workouts

But I use my polar ft4 for workouts and my fitbit for step tracking my general activity level

Potatoes - potahtoes

Good point if you want to track steps separately.

My polar V800 does track steps too, but what I am saying is if I did 2 workouts with my Garmin fenix3 (for example). one workout being a 10 mile bike ride (no steps), and the other one being a 3 mile power walk (steps), the fenix3 would only count the power walk towards my daily goal. If I did the same thing with my Polar V800, it would count both workouts towards my daily goal.

With the Garmin it was kind of like doing an intense 10 mile bike ride, and not getting any credit for it because the daily goal is strictly step based.

Same with other workouts that don't count steps.

I can do it all with the Polar because it does count steps too.

OldAssDude

BZAH10 wrote: »

Counting other activities instead of just steps sounds like a good idea.

Curious though, what does it tell you NOT to eat?

It just gives you examples of foods, and how many calories they contain. Like pizza, cake, soda, etc...

If you go to that link I think it gives a better explanation.

tulips_and_tea

bcalvanese wrote: »

BZAH10 wrote: »

Counting other activities instead of just steps sounds like a good idea.

Curious though, what does it tell you NOT to eat?

It just gives you examples of foods, and how many calories they contain. Like pizza, cake, soda, etc...

If you go to that link I think it gives a better explanation.

Thank you. I don't use any kind of step tracker or HRM so I was just wondering because I don't think I'd take too kindly to some piece of tech equipment telling me not to eat something! But, I'm stubborn like that.

OldAssDude

peter56765 wrote: »

bcalvanese wrote: »

I love the approach Polar takes with their fitness watches. They don't base your daily goal by steps alone like the other fitness trackers do. They count all activity towards your daily goal. For example, if I did a 3 mile walk and got 6,000 steps (toward my 10,000 step goal setting), and did a 10 mile bike ride (no steps counted), the other trackers would only count my walk towards my daily goal. Polar would count the walk and the bike ride towards my goal. I think that is a great approach because not all activities count steps, but they should still count for something.

Anyway, Polar just came out with a new scale called the Polar Balance.

polar.com/us-en/products/lifestyle/balance

When you weigh yourself with it, you can push the button on your wrist worn device and it will update the weight right to your device. The next time you sync to your phone, it will update that and the web service as well, and it basically takes over your activity goal setting, and tells you what you need to do to reach your weight goal that you set in the web service.

Each time you weigh yourself it will adjust to tell you what you need to do to stay on track. You tell it how much you want to lose and how long you want to take to lose that much, and it will control your activity level goal and give you choices of what to do to reach your goal.

I think it's a great approach and much better than the counting and weighing food approach, because it tells you to do activities and offers basic advice about what you should be not eating.

This is pretty much the same general approach that I took to lose my 57 lbs. over the past year. I increased my activity level by power walking every day, and took a basic ballpark approach over my eating.

I just received mine yesterday and have been logging my weight, and I'm pretty sure if I do what it tells me, I will reach my goal in the time that it recommended.

I'm not going to flag this but boy does this read like ad copy. You sure seem to know a lot of particulars about a product that you just received yesterday.

And the testimonial doesn't even make any sense. So you say you've already lost 57 lbs on your own? Then why did you bother buying this watch now?

I only know the basics so far, and it just seems to give guidance on what to do to stay on track. It's up to the person to actually do it (or not).

I lost 57 lbs. on my own but it was the activity tracker that got me started and motivated me. They keep track of everything for me so I can focus more on the workouts. I logged my food during this time, but only ball parked it, and over the past couple months I have been trying to eat right without logging. I think this will be a good device in that regard.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, and I'm not saying I know that much about it yet. All I'm saying that it seems to be a good approach compared to other stuff that is out there.

DaddieCat

I'll stick with using my heart rate monitor for steady state cardio, a workout log for lifting, fitbit for steps, and weighing food. It's been effective for me and I can tweak it infinitely to my needs and goals with minimal fuss. Also, if I don't log food I'll just eat a jar of peanut butter a day and kill my macros... because I'm bad like that.

OldAssDude

rabbitjb wrote: »

The scale looks cool if you like that kind of gadget ..I like manually tracking weight personally as it keeps me focused ...sounds like the withings with extra tech


Also can't out exercise a bad diet remains a truism..so I think for some that concept won't work

It's really just a scale with Bluetooth. You can just weigh yourself, and if you don't push the button to sync it, it will just weigh you like any other scale. It only has weight too, and not all those other measurements like other scales do. It's the software that uses your weight and physical settings to determine your goal and make suggestions on how to reach it.

I know you cant out exercise a bad diet, but you can certainly use a combination of exercise, and basic diet control to achieve and maintain a healthy fitness level and body weight. And still have more than enough wiggle room to enjoy a treat here and there.

It's funny that technology is part of the reason that 2 thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. And with the fitness tracker technology we now have something that can motivate and help people fight that battle.

OldAssDude

rabbitjb wrote: »

To be fair he did say that's the method he chose to lose his weight

I thought though you were planning on doing some progressive resistance training now to build muscle though @bcalvanese or do I misremember

I have been doing muscular exercise as well. I got a Total Gym knock off and have been doing that as well. And my Polar V800 will also count that towards my daily goal where my Garmin fenix3 won't.

level3tjg

I use the Microsoft Band 2 and it tracks all that stuff as well but I pay most attention to my calorie burn. That's what my main goal is. To reach my calorie burn goal everyday by any means necessary.

yarwell

My fitbit clocks bike riding fairly well, it's an accelerometer not a step counter and in my case the calorie estimate for cycling seems in line with other methods.

senecarr

Fitbit has calorie goals and active minute goals.

Moov only tracks active minutes, not steps, though Moov is a bit different from other trackers.
I forget what UP had when I used their app with my phone's pedometer. I remember I did like their app a lot but I really wanted better heart rate tracking.
I imagine the MS Band, Garmin Vivo's, and what not all have a similar theme.

I seem to recall UP liked to look at what foods I ate and make recommendations based on that.
I'd really like to see a Google Now type of feature for that with a database that is more comprehensive, similar to Self.com and the USDA's food databases that include things like number of Omega 3's, 6's, and all the vitamins. It would be interesting to have one of those tell you something like "Your Thiamine has been low lately. Look to incorporate more whole grains into your diet today." I imagine there would be worry about getting labeled a medical device by the FDA though.

zenjen13

My Garmin Vivosmart tracks steps, logs activities (run, cardio, other), flights of stairs and activity minutes (goal being 150/week of intermediate to intense based on HR). Each has its own goal and rewards you when you reach it. I think this new fitness technology is a great motivator for a lot of people. It even told me that I wasn't keeping a consistent bedtime. I didn't think I needed a tracker but now that I've got one I wouldn't be without it!

robertw486

Some of those features sound like a good approach IMO. Updating the device from the scale seems smart and time saving. I've personally avoided trackers due to the limits on what many of them track. I can manually input data where the tracker is lacking, but if I'm going to do that it's not much better than using apps or other methods.

I'd really like to see some devices that allow better customization based on personal goals, as well as some type of adjustment factors for things such as aero resistance and weights on a bike. And the tie in to HR using a chest strap or with on device monitoring seems to be a good measure of fitness, yet quite a few devices use it in grossly differing ways.


I was actually surprised playing with Google Fit how well it picks up movement, and also did ok on bike rides. It actually showed bike ride calorie burns lower than Strava, but seemed fairly high on the steps related calorie burns.