body Bugg vs HRM?

Interested in reading the answers lol

A body bugg is relatively accurate and calculates total calories burned just from existing. It's worn all day long. An HRM accurately lets you know how many calories you're burning with working out. If you have the money, I would suggest investing in a body bugg. That way you know how many calories you're burning throughout the day and not guessing. I tried using an HRM an entire day, and it's not really meant to calculate your resting heart rate.

There are a few other products that are similar to a body bugg, but I'm completely blanking on the names. They're comparable, and I'm trying to save up for one. That way I'll know with accuracy how much I'm burning throughout the day.

Whats an HRM and where is it worn? I have a body bugg and really like as it tracks my steps and calories burned for the day without any added effort or requirement of me. I have to admit I have not worn it in sometime and did not renew the body bugg account information but it still tracks the information. I like to use it to compare against the activity I log in MFP and it is pretty close, cept of course the BodyBugg tracks more and real time.

I am not sure what an HRM is to tell you the difference but I will say if you do not need to invest in yet another device, dont! Use what you got, unless you are sure there is some benefit to upgrading, changing or spending the money in general.

Oh I see, well I suppose there are differences if all the HRM tracks is your heart rate. You can go to http://my.apexfitness.com/index.php to learn more about it.

I have both a Polar HRM and a BodyMedia Fit (made by the company as the BodyBugg...it's the version sold outside of Apex). I bought and used my Polar F6 about a year or so prior to buying the BodyFit. The Polar HRM is more about understanding your calorie burn for a specified amount of time (like a workout) as well as providing guidance (through a beeping system) to stay within a prescribed heart rate zone (when you fall outside of your target heart rate zone, it beeps an alert). These have been shown to be quite accurate as they are based on your heartrate, age, height and weight.

The BodyMedia Fit/Body Bugg is worn consistently (though you can take it off and wear just during workouts) and it records various data such as: calorie burn, # of steps, minutes you were in moderate vs. vigorous exercise, sleep hours and how solid your sleep was. In order to obtain the data collected by the "bugg" worn on an armband on your arm, you must subscribe to the service. After you have worn the bugg all day, you plug it into your computer and download the data. If you want to know your calories all day, you can also purchase a wristband that will hold the data (the data is transported from the armband to the watch). Initially, I loved my BodyMedia fit as it was VERY interesting to know what a typical daily calorie burn for me was on a workday vs. weekend and a workout day vs. a nonworkout day. What I found after using for a year, however, is that the calorie burn can be inaccurate based on the type of exercise performed. For example, exercises that use more "arm" movement tend to show higher calorie burns than leg-focused exercises. So, your calorie burn calculated by the BodyMedia Fit for a spinning class, for example, would most likely be much lower than you actually burned (because spinning classes are high intensity and burn a ton of calories, but do not require much arm movement). Likewise, even when I do a kickboxing dvd at a lower effort, I still have a pretty high burn, compared to other workouts.

Overall, after using both, I feel like the Polar HRM is a more accurate way of calculating workout calories. I thought the BodyMedia fit was fun, but after you wear it awhile, you get an understanding of how much you burn in a typical day. Also, it got cumbersome to wear and I often got a lot of questions. Also, in terms of cost, a good HRM will run you about $100. The Body Bugg (if you buy it at a cheaper site, like Costco) is $210 for the armband and one-year membership; the wristband will set you back an additional $75.

Hope that helps!

I have both a Polar HRM and a Body Bugg.

#1- HRMs are absolutely usesless for tracking calories. HR alone is not adequate to calulate calories burned. Some people have naturally higher HR than others, some people drink caffeine and so many other things can artificially raise your HR. A higher HR does not always mean you are buring more calories.

#2- Body Bugg does not use HR. It uses body temp, movement, the amount of heat the radiates off of you and sweat. It has a 3d accelorometer in that tracts all movement (up, down, forward, backward..ect). You wear it night and day so it's a lot more accurate in total daily calorie burn than using a HRM while exercising and caluclating calories burned in off times with some crappy calulator that's not even close.

#3- If you lift weights, HRMs are going to be totally useless, they don't track lifting very well because HR isn't the best method to indicate effort. Body Bugg will sense the movements, the increased skin temp and sweat that comes with lifting.

The only thing I can see a HRM being good for is training for running or cycling or something like that where pacing is important. If you want to track metabolism and lose weight, a Body Bugg is much better.

MFP told me to eat 1600 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, my Body Bugg says I burn closer to 3000-3500 on average per day. So, I eat between 2000-2200 normally and I've been losing 2 pounds per week. So, I'd say for me the body bugg is spot on.

I have both a Polar HRM and a Body Bugg.

#1- HRMs are absolutely usesless for tracking calories. HR alone is not adequate to calulate calories burned. Some people have naturally higher HR than others, some people drink caffeine and so many other things can artificially raise your HR. A higher HR does not always mean you are buring more calories.

#2- Body Bugg does not use HR. It uses body temp, movement, the amount of heat the radiates off of you and sweat. It has a 3d accelorometer in that tracts all movement (up, down, forward, backward..ect). You wear it night and day so it's a lot more accurate in total daily calorie burn than using a HRM while exercising and caluclating calories burned in off times with some crappy calulator that's not even close.

#3- If you lift weights, HRMs are going to be totally useless, they don't track lifting very well because HR isn't the best method to indicate effort. Body Bugg will sense the movements, the increased skin temp and sweat that comes with lifting.

The only thing I can see a HRM being good for is training for running or cycling or something like that where pacing is important. If you want to track metabolism and lose weight, a Body Bugg is much better.

MFP told me to eat 1600 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, my Body Bugg says I burn closer to 3000-3500 on average per day. So, I eat between 2000-2200 normally and I've been losing 2 pounds per week. So, I'd say for me the body bugg is spot on.

You obviously have no idea how HRM's work.

If an HRM has all your information, heart rate and Vo2Max, it will be pretty spot on in tracking calories for activities where your heart rate is steady(Ie Cardio).

I do agree with you on strength training aspect, as when you lift the pressure causes your heart rate to shoot up which in turn causes your calorie burn to go up... which is why they are not really meant to be worn for strength training.

For the body bug though, if your working out in a really hot area you are going to sweat more which will mean increased skin temp and more calories burned even though your heart is not working that hard.. so it has it's flaws too.

Plus not a lot of people can afford to buy the whole system and pay for the monthly membership.. which is where HRM's come into play because they are better then nothing, since no device can accurately track calories burned.

I also suggest you read this article:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

#1- HRMs are absolutely usesless for tracking calories. HR alone is not adequate to calulate calories burned. Some people have naturally higher HR than others, some people drink caffeine and so many other things can artificially raise your HR. A higher HR does not always mean you are buring more calories.

There are many types of HRM's, all with a variety of feature sets. As mentioned, the ones with VO2 max inputs or calcs, and with setting up both your resting and maximum HR; these get really close to an accurate calories expended count. I have an S725 Polar, which at the time of purchase was their best model, and it has a mode that you can discover your VO2 max and RHR. During the test, you lie in bed without sound or lights on, and it measures the variability of the time between the R intervals of the sinus rhythm of your heart. I perform the test periodically, and it has shown my fitness progress. And it has an effect on my calories expended. As you may expect, they go down because of the increase in efficiency due to better fitness.