Question from new bodybugg user

samanthawarren

I have only had my bodybugg for a couple of days. Today is the first time I exercised with it on and I am unsure about the numbers.
It says I burned 272 calories on a 30min walk which is probably a bit high for me. But then a little later I did 30min of Hot hula and it says I only burned about 100 calories which is very low compared to my HRM which says 470. I know that during hot hula I sweat a lot more and it is a much more intense workout than the 30 minute walk I took bringing my kids to school and walking home.

Does anyone know anything about this? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

samanthawarren

bump

zumbagada

I don't know anything about Hot Hula, but I can tell you I sweat way more in strength training class than in a Zumba class, but my bodybugg says I burn about three times as much in a Zumba class than in a strength class. My bodybugg says I burn more walking than MFP does, but way less at a bunch of other exercises like Zumba or on the elliptical.

Greg3705

No a bodybugg user but I hear it works like the fitbit which I do use. It works best when you take a step. Do your walk is probably accurate but it isn't reading the hula correctly. Your HRM is going to be your best tool

beckajw

I have only had my bodybugg for a couple of days. Today is the first time I exercised with it on and I am unsure about the numbers.
It says I burned 272 calories on a 30min walk which is probably a bit high for me. But then a little later I did 30min of Hot hula and it says I only burned about 100 calories which is very low compared to my HRM which says 470. I know that during hot hula I sweat a lot more and it is a much more intense workout than the 30 minute walk I took bringing my kids to school and walking home.

Does anyone know anything about this? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I'm not sure what you do in hot hula, but I've found that body media fit (same as body bugg I think) works best when your arms are moving. So, it's fairly acurate when walking/running, but not so accurate when biking. If you tend to keep your arms in one place during hula, it's probably not accurate.

crazyellybean

Like beck said, the bodybugg (or bodymedia) is most accurate when you move your arms.

Not sure what HRM you have, but I know the Body Media sync with Garmin...

handydani

My guess is that you are swinging your arms as you walk, which is going to give your armband a higher calorie burn than hula - hooping, where you move your hips (instead of your arms). The armband looks at arm movement to help determine how vigorous your exercise is.

I have the Gowear Fit, which is from the same company, and what I would do is either a) take off the armband during hula hooping and manually add it in as "off body activities," or, you can keep the lower reading, since most activities are off by + / - 10% and will probably average itself eventually.

I hope this helps :-)

VeganZombie13

I have one and they are pretty righ, havent had any problems with minet ... it counts your calories though out the whole,day.
I've lost 30 pounds with it..
Trust it.. It's right...

maltipink

I have the Bodymedia fit (same as the body bug, except not marketed by 24 hour fitness) and did not take it off for 3 months. I learned that the bodymedia was not very good at detecting the burned calories for things that did not use a lot of forward movement. It did a poor job of detecting activities like the eliptical or spinning, as they were stationary activities that used mainly my legs. I would place it on my calf for those two things. Placing it on my calf during these activities seemed to solve the problem.

samanthawarren

My guess is that you are swinging your arms as you walk, which is going to give your armband a higher calorie burn than hula - hooping, where you move your hips (instead of your arms). The armband looks at arm movement to help determine how vigorous your exercise is.

I have the Gowear Fit, which is from the same company, and what I would do is either a) take off the armband during hula hooping and manually add it in as "off body activities," or, you can keep the lower reading, since most activities are off by + / - 10% and will probably average itself eventually.

I hope this helps :-)

Thanks for the responses. When you do hot hula you are supposed to keep your torso as still as possible while using your legs (knees bent) to move your hips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AqzDkVM2y4&feature=related Your arms are held static out to the side, above your head, across your chest, with some small movements so that probably explains what is going on.

I am not going to worry about it too much since I use MFP for my calories and BB just to get an idea of my total daily calorie expenditure.

samanthawarren

I have the Bodymedia fit (same as the body bug, except not marketed by 24 hour fitness) and did not take it off for 3 months. I learned that the bodymedia was not very good at detecting the burned calories for things that did not use a lot of forward movement. It did a poor job of detecting activities like the eliptical or spinning, as they were stationary activities that used mainly my legs. I would place it on my calf for those two things. Placing it on my calf during these activities seemed to solve the problem.

Do you know if the reading you get by putting it on your calf matches what you would expect? I may try that.

beckajw

I have the Bodymedia fit (same as the body bug, except not marketed by 24 hour fitness) and did not take it off for 3 months. I learned that the bodymedia was not very good at detecting the burned calories for things that did not use a lot of forward movement. It did a poor job of detecting activities like the eliptical or spinning, as they were stationary activities that used mainly my legs. I would place it on my calf for those two things. Placing it on my calf during these activities seemed to solve the problem.

Do you know if the reading you get by putting it on your calf matches what you would expect? I may try that.

I've heard that people do that when bike riding. I've been told the number is close. The book I got with mine said that the readings may not be accurate. But, they are definitely NOT accurate if you are not moving your arms. So, it's worth a try.