**HRM VS BODYBUGG**

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JessDanielle
JessDanielle Posts: 18
in Fitness and Exercise
So I'm wanting to purchase either an HRM or something similar to what they use on the biggest loser show the "bodybugg" Except, I'm not really sure if there is a difference. I've been doing some research and all I;m getting is that the bodybugg has an online subscription to go with it..........and HRMs only track calories out, not in. Was curious to see if anyone on here has a bodybugg or something like it, or if an HRM works just as well. (they sure are cheaper)

Thanks for any info in advance!!
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Replies

  • bentobee
    bentobee Posts: 321 Member
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    I have the BodyMedia Fit, which is just like the BodyBugg (same device) but supported by a different company. I don't think the BB tracks your sleep, and the BodyMedia does. I think that's the only difference between the two.

    I love the BodyMedia. It tracks my calorie burn 24/7. I was severely underestimating how many calories I needed before I got this. I love that I can track where I am during the day to know if I should squeeze in an extra workout or not. It's been a really motivating tool for me, and has helped me stay sane during this process, aiding me in knowing very precisely how I'm doing.
  • mazomama
    mazomama Posts: 138 Member
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    i LOVE my body bugg! I think its one of the best tools ever! yea its $$$ but soooOOooo worth it! You get 6 months of online subscription with it at perches, when i bout mien they actually had a promotion going on and added an extra four months to that so i'm good through DEC 11 :)

    After a work out i just pop it in and "see" my calorie burn during that tie. the nice thing about it is that it counts every min of the day! vs. a HRM is only for working out. SO when i'm chasing my four kids around at the park that counts, when i'm loading food up and down from my van to fridge that counts, carrying my baby on my back, counts.....get it?

    I also us a HRM though during my work outs to make sure i'm in my ZONE, it isn't one that counts calories just my HR :)

    i would spend the $$ ALL over again since its so much more then just counting calories. check it out on you tube :)
  • KaylaTighe
    KaylaTighe Posts: 20
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!
  • mazomama
    mazomama Posts: 138 Member
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    I have the BodyMedia Fit, which is just like the BodyBugg (same device) but supported by a different company. I don't think the BB tracks your sleep, and the BodyMedia does. I think that's the only difference between the two.

    I love the BodyMedia. It tracks my calorie burn 24/7. I was severely underestimating how many calories I needed before I got this. I love that I can track where I am during the day to know if I should squeeze in an extra workout or not. It's been a really motivating tool for me, and has helped me stay sane during this process, aiding me in knowing very precisely how I'm doing.

    correction - The body bugg is on 24/7 so if i wake up at night and run around ( say a kid vomits or something..lol..) it tracks it :)
  • mazomama
    mazomama Posts: 138 Member
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!

    But this is another reason why I LIKE IT, i see that i still need to burn a certain amount of calories and if it gets my away from the tv "knowing" i'll burn more calories just loading the dish washer and doing laundry then so be it.....kwim?
    Just my thoughts though
  • dawnna76
    dawnna76 Posts: 987 Member
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!
    I agree with all of this
  • JessDanielle
    JessDanielle Posts: 18
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    awesome, thanks for all the advice, One other thing ive heard is that a bodybugg wont track cals while you are on say an elliptical (without the arm movements.) because you aren't moving enough.. anyone know if thats true? thats one of my fav machines to workout on...
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!

    But this is another reason why I LIKE IT, i see that i still need to burn a certain amount of calories and if it gets my away from the tv "knowing" i'll burn more calories just loading the dish washer and doing laundry then so be it.....kwim?
    Just my thoughts though

    Yeah, I was thinking that this is why it's GOOD and BETTER than the HRM because you can determine what your daily output is, this making your daily calorie input easier to figure out instead of trusting some magical 1200 + exercise calories calculation. The BodyBugg or BodyMedia gets rid of the arbitrary calculation so you know what you burn the whole time. So if you want to eat at a 500 calorie deficit, you know pretty much exactly what number to subtract 500 from to get the amount of calories you need to eat.

    IMHO.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    I have both a Polar FT4 and a BodyMedia Fit. I wear my HRM everytime I work out and I wear my BdyMedia Fit every moment of the day I'm not in the shower.

    I log all of my food and exercise into MFP just like I always have, but my eating habits have changed a lot in the almost-month I've had my BMF.

    I hadn't been losing weight for a few months. Maybe a couple down, then back up and so on and I was going insane trying to figure out how to break through that. I zig zagged calories, I ate back more exercise calories, I ate back less, I ate more every day, I didn't eat extra, used every BMR calculator I could find, worked out the numbers by hand (I literally filled pages and pages of a notebook trying to get an accurate number for what my real daily burn was and what I should be eating), and so on and so on, but nothing broke me through the extremely annoying plateau I was in.

    I got my BMF from Costco for $150 with free shipping, an extra armband and a one year subscription. And it was the best investment I've ever made for my weightloss journey. I almost instantly discover that I was ending up with a huge deficit each day, even when eating back a large chunk or all of my exercise calories. I'm around 10 pounds away from my goal and so I'd been trying to (blindly) maintain a 500 calorie per day deficit with MFP and I saw pretty quickly that I was usually at 1000 or higher of a deficit each day. So, first thing I did, start eating more. (YAY!) Bam, weight came off.

    Then I started realizing the totally awesome charts and graphs that the BMF activity manager had. I can see exactly when I was asleep and when I was just laying there, when I had the highest points of activity, when every step was taken, how many calories I burn per minute during various times of the day, etc. But the best was the food info. Since I already track in MFP I just enter my daily info from here as one big meal in BMF to make things easier. But they have these really great reports that you can run and export to PDFs or Excel and my favorite, most basic, but best one, the pie chart that shows carbs vs. protein vs. fat.

    Sure, I looked at those numbers on my MFP app every single day. I looked at where I was over or under and saw the numbers. Did I realize how they related to each other by just seeing the numbers? Nope. Seeing that pie chart for those first days I had my BMF shocked me as to the percentages and how they really related to each other visually. So I made some dietary changes based off of that and got my pie chart looking fairly purdy each day. Ta Da! More weight came off and my little belly pooch that has resisted every bit of weight loss I've had so far has started going down.

    And that's with eating 200-300 calories over what MFP gives me daily. And yes, that's 200 OVER my exercise calories as well. There have been a couple of days that I 400 calories over what MFP told me I should be eating and still ended up with a deficit far over 500 for that day because I was more active overall and just burned a lot more through the day. And I'm losing weight by doing that, including my belly pooch and the hubby commented the other day that even my *kitten* is finally getting smaller as well.

    I had planned on buying a BMF to help me once I got to maintenance, but I so, SO glad I got it before then, because it's really helped me to see what I should be eating way better than MFP had been able to do for me. And really, it's helping me get to maintenance faster than I would have without it.

    I love my HRM because I can monitor my rate rate in real time while I work out and can get the immediate caloric burn for that workout without having to sync it up to anything. But if you forced me to give up either my HRM or my BMF, I'd be bidding a fond farewell to my HRM. Eating more, losing weight, shedding inches, and I get to play with charts and graphs? Yeah, it's like the bestest toy ever! lol
  • JunkFoodJane
    JunkFoodJane Posts: 150 Member
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    If I could justify the expenditure on me, I would go with a body bugg. I think I would be even more motivated to see my calories all day rather than just what I get with my HRM during exercise. It gives a more immediate reward for taking the stairs or parking further away.
  • bentobee
    bentobee Posts: 321 Member
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    awesome, thanks for all the advice, One other thing ive heard is that a bodybugg wont track cals while you are on say an elliptical (without the arm movements.) because you aren't moving enough.. anyone know if thats true? thats one of my fav machines to workout on...

    For the elliptical (and cycling) you just move it to your calf. :)
  • bentobee
    bentobee Posts: 321 Member
    Options
    I have the BodyMedia Fit, which is just like the BodyBugg (same device) but supported by a different company. I don't think the BB tracks your sleep, and the BodyMedia does. I think that's the only difference between the two.

    I love the BodyMedia. It tracks my calorie burn 24/7. I was severely underestimating how many calories I needed before I got this. I love that I can track where I am during the day to know if I should squeeze in an extra workout or not. It's been a really motivating tool for me, and has helped me stay sane during this process, aiding me in knowing very precisely how I'm doing.

    correction - The body bugg is on 24/7 so if i wake up at night and run around ( say a kid vomits or something..lol..) it tracks it :)

    Right, but the BMF actually tracks your sleep. Part of the reports will be for your sleep - just like you have the report that will tell you you did 1:33 minutes of moderate activity? This will tell you exactly how much sleep you got. And also the quality of sleep .. so if you toss and turn all night it will report that as like "60% sleep efficiency" wheras if you sleep like a log you might get "92% sleep efficiency". It's interesting as someone with life-long sleeping issues, to see that. :) Also, some mornings I'll get up and feel like a zombie, and thought I *think* I slept well, my BMF tells the real story.
  • bentobee
    bentobee Posts: 321 Member
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!

    This is what I tried to tell myself when I was trying to talk myself out of buying the BMF. :wink:

    MFP said I needed 1600 calories a day to have a 1000 calorie a day deficit (lose two pounds per week).
    They were obviously assuming that my base calores needed to maintain were 2600. Right?
    Many other online calorie calculators would give that same figure.

    However, with BMF I learned that my average daily calorie burn (without a workout) is over 2800. Toss in a good workout and I'm in the 3300 range. I was not eating enough before I got the BMF. I eat more now and am losing weight more steadily as a result.
  • cnjbarry
    cnjbarry Posts: 91 Member
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!

    I have to say I totally agree. I never count cleaning the house, laundry and so on because I did all that before I started losing weight. The only thing I count are my workouts and thats it
  • greeneyed84
    greeneyed84 Posts: 427 Member
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    What's a good body bugg to buy? I was actually just abotu to order a HRM but now a body bugg sounds better :-)
  • bentobee
    bentobee Posts: 321 Member
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    What's a good body bugg to buy? I was actually just abotu to order a HRM but now a body bugg sounds better :-)

    There is BodyBugg and there is BodyMedia Fit. The only difference is in the companies that support the item, the actual device is the exact same thing.

    Costco has a good deal on the BMF. I got mine from Amazon though since I wanted the bluetooth version (to view stats whenever I want on my iPhone).

    If you google "bodybugg vs. bodymedia fit" there will be a lot of results that pop up - I spent a couple weeks reading about them before deciding to buy.
  • KaylaTighe
    KaylaTighe Posts: 20
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    This is probably going to get me into trouble but the bodybugg (though I think is amazing and would love to try it) counts calories for activities you already do...plus your workouts. I NEVER count calorie burns for things I already do, like laundry or cleaning or anything along those lines. If you are honest about your calories, use the HRM during your workouts and plug it in it's going to work for you. I don't see the point in paying so much for something to tell me what I'm burning when I do my normal activities. I know the bodybugg comes with the program to add in calories but we have MFP for that too (and it's free.) I don't know, that's just my opinion but It could go either way for anyone! I love my HRM-as long as it has the chest strap it's accurate and totally worth it!!!

    I have to say I totally agree. I never count cleaning the house, laundry and so on because I did all that before I started losing weight. The only thing I count are my workouts and thats it

    EXACTLY...I don't WANT to count those normal acticities. I don't want to know what I lose during those times even. I'll workout or burn more not knowing "oh, well, I burned such and such at the park pushing my daughter." It would probably make me workout less. I TOTALLY understand where others love it though! It does sound cool! Just not for me. I never go over my calories and I don't EVER use the extra calories my HRM calculates so I don't care what the extra normal daily things I do are. They're just going to translate to the scale regardless! :)
  • Sueboo31
    Sueboo31 Posts: 128
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    Bump
  • Debx12345
    Debx12345 Posts: 210
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    When you take out the subscription, do you need to renew it when it runs out, or will you have downloaded all the info you need ? Sorry go sound thick, but like the idea of getting one but have no idea how it all works. Also can you get them in the uk?
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    What's a good body bugg to buy? I was actually just abotu to order a HRM but now a body bugg sounds better :-)

    There is BodyBugg and there is BodyMedia Fit. The only difference is in the companies that support the item, the actual device is the exact same thing.

    Costco has a good deal on the BMF. I got mine from Amazon though since I wanted the bluetooth version (to view stats whenever I want on my iPhone).

    If you google "bodybugg vs. bodymedia fit" there will be a lot of results that pop up - I spent a couple weeks reading about them before deciding to buy.

    The two devices are made by the same company but they are actually slightly different. The BMF tracks your sleep and the BB doesn't. Also, in most of the reading I did on them the BMF website/online tools were reviewed more positively than the BB ones.

    And the BMF is cheaper cuz it's not branded by 24 Hour Fitness and The Biggest Loser. ;)

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