BodyMedia FIT Armband??? Is it useful?

I've been using one for over a year and a half - maybe 8 months of that was consistent use (which happens to coincide with the months I was consistently losing weight! Go figure... )

In a nutshell:

Is the BodyMedia FIT necessary? No. You can easily lose weight and be healthy without it.
Is it useful? Depends on your personality/needs.

I'm a numbers person. I LOVE seeing the graph each day of my calorie burn all day, every day. I can point out where I took the stairs instead of the elevator, the calories I burned walking to the back of the parking lot, or sometimes how it was a really lazy day and I need to exercise just to meet my *normal* calorie burn. The sleep analysis is handy and gives me a realistic picture of my sleep - 7 to 8 hours of lying down does NOT equal 7 to 8 hours of sleep! The step counter is nice, too.

For me, it's a great motivational and awareness tool. When I wear it, I'm more aware of what I'm burning, how active I am and how well I'm doing. Does it perfectly predict my weight loss? No - it is just an estimate, after all, and there are other things that affect weight loss that it can't measure... but in my experience it does keep me on track and for me it's been part of my success.

Edited to add: Yes, it's a little irritating that you pay so much for the device and then have to subscribe to the web site to use the product, but it's not *that* expensive - equal to two starbucks coffees a month - well worth it for me.

Also, you get used to wearing it, and after a week or so you don't even notice it. Sometimes I forget it's there! It's usually covered by my short sleeves, and people don't bother me about it. Even if they did ask, I'm not embarrased to tell them what it is.

I have no experience with the new bluetooth/smartphone syncing version - the older version that you connect to your computer to upload works great, though. They've really improved the upload reliability over the last year.

Thanks for all of the info! 10-13 dollars a month isn't bad. I think I'm going to save up for this and buy one when I can.

I have a slower metabolism due to my hypothyroidism so getting an idea of how many calories I burn a day would be really useful. I've read I may be burning 200-400 calories less a day then the average person, this would be a cool way to find out.

I'm not really sure if the BodyMedia Fit is designed to adjust for something like hypothyroidism. It calculates things based off of these factors: Motion, Steps, Galvanic Skin Response, Skin Temperature and Heat Flux... so, if hypothyroidism impacts any of those factors it will reflect in your calorie estimates, but if not, it's not going to adjust the estimate at all for you.

That said, I actually have hypothyroidism as well, and the BodyMedia FIT works well enough for me, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for your comments!!!!