Bodybugg/Body Media Fit Questions Thread:

Ok call me clueless but what's the difference between a bodybugg/body media fit and a regular HRM? Do you wear the former all day? I'm VERY interested since my weight hasn't really fluctuated much and need all the help I can get!

I am thinking of getting a BMF. Do you think it would track kayaking? I guess it would if it relies on arm movement... I guess I am wondering how you figure out how many calories to eat.... It tells you what you burn but does it tell you what you need to eat (calorie-wise) to lose x lbs/week based on your numbers? How would things work out if you are just starting to become active but are not exactly in the habit yet? (I really want one of these but with the price, I need it to be something I need, not just something I want). I believe they are now available in Canada, right?

You simply subtract calories from your total daily burn to create a deficit. For example, I typically burn around 2100 calories on a work out day. To lose 1 lb a week, I would subtract 500 calories for my intake (calories eaten). On a rest day, I'll burn around 1800-1900 calories; I'd still stubtract 500 calories from that number for my intake.

Since I use MFP, and I've found that I burn 1800-1900 calories, without dedicated exercise, I simply set my MFP goal as 1550 (1800-250=1/2 lb per week) and let MFP add back my exercise calories.

I guess I am wondering how you figure out how many calories to eat.... It tells you what you burn but does it tell you what you need to eat (calorie-wise) to lose x lbs/week based on your numbers?

that's just math. 1 lb per week is 500 calories a day. Just eat 500 less than your typical daily burn once you figure out what it actually is.

To answer a previously posted question:

No, it doesn't track a stationary bike accurately because your lower body is doing all the work and there is no forward progression so it pretty much thinks you're sitting an a chair but with fidgety legs or something. On a road bike, there is forward progression and you sway side to side slightly when riding hard so it is better, but not perfect.

Not true.

Rememver, the device uses several metrics:

#1- Movement. It is very sensative, it will register movement in any direction. Basic rocking or jiggling or bouncing will trigger it and should track some of the cycling/stationary bike exercises.

#2- It tracks skin temp, the harder you work the warmer you get, the more calories you burn.

#3- It track heat emitted away from the body, similar to the first but measures the amount of heat your expelleing instead of body temp.

#4- Stress. I has sensors in that measure stress.

I would say that #2 & #3 would apply most to a stationary bike but it will also register some movement. I would certainly take the BB reading over a HRM for that activity.

Contact their tech support and see what they say about using the BMF with cycling...

Ok I'll just tell you - they advise you to take it off and then compute the calories using an online calculator, and enter them manually.

Question: Are you still tied to a website to use this?

My understanding is that if you buy a BFM or variant, you have to go to their website to get all your stats. There's a digital display you can pay extra for but I understand it just shows 'in the moment' type info.

I no longer use the website to access the data (PM for more info). I am glad that I had 3 months worth of subscription before I made the switch though.

To answer a previously posted question:

No, it doesn't track a stationary bike accurately because your lower body is doing all the work and there is no forward progression so it pretty much thinks you're sitting an a chair but with fidgety legs or something. On a road bike, there is forward progression and you sway side to side slightly when riding hard so it is better, but not perfect.

It tracks walking just fine, so if you are riding your stationary bike, maybe let your arms hang down and see how if it tracks differently...?

When I go to the gym I double-up by wearing a Polar HRM with the BodyMedia Fit. For stationary bike and elliptical/Arc work I move the BMF to my calf and it catches the activity much better - it registers about 80-90% of what the Polar captures as far as calorie burn.
It's a bit of a pain to move it around - from calf to arm - since I mostly circuit train doing a lot of different activities, but it's worth it to me. I think I need to order a size Large band for it though, so I can get it over my sneaker to my calf without stretching the band so much...

That's pretty much how I do it. I add my exercise still and then at the end of the day when I connect, I might just add one called bodymedia fit difference if the BMF had recorded a higher cal burn than MFP.

Can't comment on it vs other things but it seems to be pretty accurate for me. It have me higher total cals burnt for the day than mfp maintenance plus exercise did. I've adjusted my intake because of this. However my numbers are larger than yours so a small change for me would be a larger percentage change for you.

As always, record data and adjust if necessary

no MFP will not adjust. You need to change it under settings - goals - customise.

The more data it can gather the better it will learn your body and how it burns/sleeps and the better your results will be. I wear my BMF constantly, except for showers. Sometimes at night I'll move it lower on my arm to give the normal area it rests time to breathe, so maybe you try that to see if the lower location doesn't hurt as much. (just remember to move it back up in the morning, when it's worn too low it can give higher burn readings than normal).

As for food entry, I still track everything here and then enter it as one large meal at the end of the day into the BMF database.

For MFP vs BMF/BB numbers, I just ignore MFP and follow my BMF data. I spent months trying to reconcile the two and it was a frustrating time of stalls and gains. Once I did a bunch of calculations and found out that the BMF data jived better with all of those averages than anything I got from MFP, I just started using BMF for daily calorie intake and burn numbers. Been losing steadily again ever since.

*edit* Forgot the elliptical question part. For me, I don't hold onto anything when I do elliptical, I move my arms like I'm running and my BMF data matches up almost exactly to my HRM data. But I've read lots about if you hold the stationary bars it can read way off from the lack of upper body movement and it can be somewhat off when using the swinging arms. My closest experience to the elliptical with it is the ARC trainer since I do hold onto the moving arms for that and the BMF does show a little lower than my HRM.

My biggest discrepancies are stationary bike and roller skating (I pace skate without engaging my left arm nearly at all). The BMF is way low for both of those, so I just take it off and then enter the calories burned as per my HRM for either of those workouts.

May be a dumb question but what happens as it learns your body? Do the calories adjust on their own? And how does it learn? Does it basically just take what it says you burned, look at what you consumed and how much weight you've lost and say, "Wow, she should have lost 3 lbs with that deficit but only lost 1. Maybe we're over estimating her deficit!"

Yeah, I'm still on about the over estimating.