Azsuzi- I have the fitbit and I think of it like a super powered pedometer. It has a "3D motion sensor" so it tracks you movement through the day & your activity level and gauges your whole day burn on that. I'm sure there is a way more technical explanation but it's beyond me. I just think of it as magic and go with it. Lol. I enjoy it and the challenge to get more steps and make my flower grow (Your activity level is shown in how big your flower is....) keeps me moving around.

Hey all hope everyone is having a good weekend. (WARNING: I feel a rant coming on) My weeks almost through and I cannot wait. It's been poop here at work for the last 2 days. The only thing I can say is if you have a problem while staying at a hotel please let the desk know. We would much rather help you out and have you enjoy your stay than have you suffer then have you yell at us as you check out and demand compensation. If we don't know about the problem we can't fix it for you. This is hospitality people we want you to have a great stay that's how we get business!! Ugh. Also I am not magical no matter how much you badger me I cannot magically make a room in the type you want appear out of thin air. If I could I wouldn't be working here. (End of rant...sorry it's been a trying weekend) So anyway other than work it's been a good week. Got lots of stuff done had good foods and had a great workout on Thursday and have another planned for tonight. I was supposed to do it yesterday but after work I spent 3 hours running errands and trust me I was burning the calories running from place to place. I earned the game night with my friends. Tonight it's back to wallbreaker and Cardio Boxing. I really enjoy the boxing part on your shape. I'm thinking of getting the UFC fighting workout one too since I enjoy this one so much. Here's hoping that today goes better from here on out (getting yelled at at 7am is not fun). Happy Sunday to everyone!
Ayla

I'm thinking about getting a FitBit. Korki and anyone else that has one - how does it count calories burned? I'm all confused on how it works since its not a heart rate monitor. But I think the sleep tracking feature would be neat. I don't think I get good, sound sleep and that would certainly help me figure it out.

Hi Sue, I looked around and here's what I could find on the FitBit calculations:

When you first join Fitbit, your dashboard will show an estimated number of calories burned for that day. The estimate is based on your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which we calculate using the height, weight, age, and gender information you provide during sign up. If you are using the Tracker and syncing your data we replace the estimated burn with the Tracker's data plus any additional activities you might log that were not captured by the Tracker.

When nothing much is logged, we try to guess how many calories you have burned if you were sedentary. (Sedentary means you got out of bed, got dressed, went to your day job, came home, and did nothing much more than walk to your car). Once you start logging activities, we assume that you know best and we stop estimating; we use the data you provided. If you only log a small portion of your activity, we'll be missing a lot.

(If you are not using the Tracker and just using our online tools to manually log your food or activities, then you will see estimated calorie burn plus what you manually log in activities. If this applies to you, you should probably also log your general life activities - i.e. 8 hours of working at a desk or 1 hour or so of house work to get a better picture of how many calories you are actually burning.)

What I get from this is that it starts off with a similar template to MFP. Then, after it's collected some actual data based on our walking, daily duties, what not, it alters that calculation for better guestimate.

Today was my first time logging an actual "activity" (hiking). I did feel a burn at bits, but the calories given me are higher than I would have predicted. That could be that the tracker is actually counting my steps vs. MFP which had no real data, but I don't know.

I use it mostly for motivation. I like having it, it's fun to use, and I enjoy the sleep thing. The steps are awesome, and flights traveled is also a lot of fun. If I didn't already belong to MFP, I would have gone with their whole program. FitBit is building a "real" community so that you can find others in the are and challenge each other and such.

I highly recommend it. No regrets here.

Oh, and the sleeping thing. I often "pass out" watching TV than consciously falling alseep, so I often forget to press "start" on the tracker. Don't worry about it. As long as it's on your wrist, you can go to the website later, log what time you fell asleep and woke up, and it'll check the tracker for those moments.

This week is going to be very tough for me when it comes to OWLs. I am almost always over my sugar goal. Any suggestions?

Decent day today a little strength training and couch to 5k. My wife bought us 7 new workout videos yay! Also for a laugh I will admit this. I didn't have money to buy dumbbells so I found me some nice heavy rocks outside. Those are my weights.

Forgot to weigh in this morning....instead had to weigh in after dinner ! Horrible, I know so I show a gain from last week. Disappointing...but I have been working out like crazy so in time i will see results!

This week is going to be very tough for me when it comes to OWLs. I am almost always over my sugar goal. Any suggestions?

Aaargh, I know. I'm terrible with sugar. I wish I could say that I have learned how to eat only natural sugars and give up the rest, but it's been a no-go for me so far. The good news is that it doesn't impact my weight loss at all, but on the other hand, I'm aware that it would be healthier for me if I could cut more of the sugar out. Either way, I'm in your boat, and I would love suggestions on how to cut the cravings or the sugar, too.

Decent day today a little strength training and couch to 5k. My wife bought us 7 new workout videos yay! Also for a laugh I will admit this. I didn't have money to buy dumbbells so I found me some nice heavy rocks outside. Those are my weights.

I kinda love this. Seriously. Whatever works, yeah? You clever Ravenclaw, you. ;D

Hi guys, can someone do me a favour-can you fl in the spreadsheet for me? Am on a tropical beach with limited internet...
weight: not sure so same as last week. Owls:9, house points: 320. Will try and catch up later in the week, enjoy your week x

Hey guys! Sorry I have been an absentee Ravenclaw lately. I'm trying to get back on track, I've been on a really long plateau for a while. I guess I'm happy I haven't gained anything, but I haven't really been losing either.

Anyway, I'm making an effort to be around and participating more. Hope ya'll are doing well

MissKlara - maybe you were eating too little before. You may need the extra calories to keep up with your activity level. I found increasing my calories broke my plateau and let me start moving again.

OMG Tae Bo boot camp is super tough! There are at least six sets of pushups and the abs part is really really difficult for me. Its very strength oriented so I think I'm going to alternate that and the cardio. Its still gets the heart pumping but its not as sustained as the other. I've set myself some new long term goals:
1. Run a 5k - I plan to do this in may after I finish the couch to 5k plan
2. Run a 10k - not sure when I'll do this yet hopefully as soon as I can
3. Do the Tough Mudder - My brother-in-law and sister-in-law(opposite sides of the family, crazy huh?) just did this and I want to be able to next year. It is a grueling 11 mile military obstacle course full of mud, water , walls, fire, nets, electricity, and more. Its super hard core! If you want to see a map of the course check out this link: http://toughmudder.com/events/georgia-2012/ I hope I can be ready next year. Also, its for a good cause the proceeds go to the wounded warrior project. Hope everyone is having a good valentines day I making my wife's favorite meal tonight since we couldn't find a baby sitter to go out. So it fettuccine alfredo at home which we haven't had at all this year. I gotta eat light till dinner cause the calories are super high.

I feel like I've barely been on in the past few days. Hope everyone is still doing well. Loving some of the motivated attitudes in here, though. Clearly I need to stop in more often. I'm nervous this week might end up being a gain or just sticking the same. I'm gonna try to just keep with it and be a little more strict with my food and water this last couple days and hope that gets me where I need to be.

So its been an interesting week so far. My food has been fine as usual but my personal life has been a roller coaster. My wife had an accident on valentines day. She is ok mostly, some bruising from the seat belt but otherwise she is fine. My little RAV4 however has a beat up front end on the driver's side. I really love that little car it's paid for and gets 30+mpg! It is also how I am able to make money delivering pizza. I took my minivan into the shop only to find there is a whole list of problems with it. So I am going to try and fix it myself because I can't afford to pay $2000 dollars to fix it. Also there is a possible new job on the horizon for me. I have been looking for one for a long time but most don't give me much after daycare. The problem is this one is very nontraditional it is a computer repair shop in a small town looking for a technician/business manager/clerk. The pay is basically commission only but they are offering the entire profit of the business. Which means if they don't make a profit(they're not now) I wouldn't get paid. I've built a business up from a loss to profits before and the margins where much higher but I feel uneasy about this. It could however be a great opportunity and I have been looking for something in the IT field. I haven't got in as many workouts as I would like to because of the drama here.

Wow that sounds a bit crazy Jazzgnat. Hope your wife is okay, and good luck with the job.

Hello all! So, have had a lovely holiday, but haven't been logging food at all, and done limited exercise (although the two hour sea kayaking trip was a pretty good workout for my arms (read- absolutely killer!!) Going to try and be super good this weekend though to make up for it little bit, and hopefully won't see a gain on Monday... Hope you're all well and so on, if you want to see the most beautiful beach in the world (in my opinion!) google Koh Maak, Thailand. Was stunning. Xx

Aaaaand finally, something I wanted to share with you guys.... my sister has just put one of these wall transfers up in her room, how cool is this?! I right want Dumbledore's wisdom over my bed!!