THE UP3 EXISTS!! IT FINALLY ARRIVED!!

Ok, so after half a day, I'm liking the Up3 so far. I had to work at my desk job, so I won't be able to really put it through its paces til tomorrow.

So far:

Like: You can set separate wake alarms, reminder alarms and inactivity alarms.
Do not like: The vibrations aren't very strong, so the wake alarm may not work for everyone.

Like: The app integrates well with MFP, and pulls not only calorie totals, but also info on macros, fiber, sugar, sodium, etc. and displays it by the meal, and total for the day. It has icons which fill with various colors (green for good, red for bad, etc.) and percentage of daily value for each entry. It also gives a food score on a scale of 1-10 for each meal, and for the day's total.
Do not like: The macros are set for the USDA recommendations, and you can't edit them. So if you, like me, pursue higher protein than the USDA says, then there's no way to alter the goal in the Up app.

Like: Also, in the app, you can record your mood, and how it changes throughout the day. You can see over time how things like the amount of sleep you get and what you eat affect your mood.

Like: The app also has practical advice like making the most of workouts by not cheating yourself out of movements like swinging arms when on the treadmill instead of gripping the rails. The advice it gives is supposed to become more tailored to your individual situation as it collects more data.

Yay! Thanks! That helps a lot!


Now, more info:

I forgot to put the band in sleep mode last night, and remembered when I woke up to pee. That means when I got up, it only recorded about 3 hours of sleep. So I added sleep time through the app...but I didn't realize that the app can record sleep twice in the same time period, so I added a sleep time for the total time I was alseep...including the 3 hours it already recorded. That made it think I slept way more than I had. In trying to fix it, I delected the band's original recording of my 3 hours of sleep, which also wiped out my resting heart rate for the night. *sigh* Live and learn.

So, what I've learned is that if you forget to put it in sleep mode, it will still record your sleep stages, but it won't show them to you until you've designated that time as sleep. Also, if it has recorded part of the time, you should only add the time that is missing, so that it doesn't duplicate minutes that it's already recorded.

What I also discovered is that even though it wiped my recorded resting heart rate for the night, it still has a graph which shows heart rate at intervals throughout the night. Keep in mind, it recorded this even before I told it to go in sleep mode. This tells me that it's checking heart rate at intervals throughout the day and night, it's just not showing you the info except in this graph during sleep times. This also means that it should not be a huge leap to get on demand or continuous heart rate monitoring.



Now, regarding activity: I took my dog for a walk and a little bit of a jog. He's elderly, and wasn't up for much running, so we went just under a mile and a half. The band appears to have recorded the distance and steps accurately, as compared to iCardio, but I forgot to take my heart rate monitor band to compare calorie burns.

The Up app recorded the steps, but didn't designate them as any sort of workout. So I added a workout:walk, and it asks beginning and ending times, and the perceived effort. First I put moderate, then I changed it to easy...and the calorie burn changed. I find it a little disappointing that the app is calculating calorie burn based on perceived effort, which is notoriously inaccurate, rather than on the bioimpedence sensor info. I'm going to be providing that feedback to Jawbone as well. Perhaps that's something else that will be improved in future updates, but for now, I don't see that basing burns on "effort" distinguishes the Up3 from any other band. If I can't get a good explanation for that, I'll be sending mine back.

Meanwhile, I'm going to have some lunch, digest a bit, and then bike around the block with my heart rate monitor to compare calorie burns. Will report back later.

I'm going to bike around the block in a bit with my heart rate monitor on and compare, but it's good to know that about step activities.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to do the bike before work. I did go for a very short run with my HRM and the Up3, and the HRM registered about 10 fewer calories burned than the Up3 did. This is a cause for concern, but without something to verify against that I know is accurate, I can't say which is correct. My assumption would be the HRM, but that's not definite.

Ok...after doing the 30 Day Shred, Jawbone did not recognize that I had done an activity. So I added the workout, and had to put it at moderate intensity to get it to match the calorie burn from the heart rate monitor. I guess all I can do at this point is ensure that I keep wearing the HRM for workouts to see how they match up, and track carefully for a few weeks. I will say that Jawbone consistently says I burn fewer calories per day than I think it should, but perhaps over the winter I really have gotten that sedentary. We shall see.

One thing is that I could set my goals to match on the Bodymedia app and MFP, so that the calories burned, consumed and the deficit were exactly the same between the two apps. I can't seem to get that to happen with the Jawbone, and I don't quite understand how it's meshing with MFP. In the process of trying to figure it out, I disconnected the two, and after reconnecting, the Jawbone calorie adjustment isn't showing up any more. *sigh*