Fat 2 Fit Radio

Review: Bodybugg

Weight loss is accomplished by one thing and one thing only, a calorie deficit. You need to take in fewer calories than you expend on a daily basis and based on the amount of deficit, you’ll lose a certain amount of weight. For example, a 500 calorie a day deficit will yield about 1 lbs. of weight loss per week. The input part of the equation is solved by keeping a close eye on what foods you eat and by logging that food down in some sort of food journal. But, how about the calorie expenditure? How many calories are you burning while working out, jogging, at rest or even sleeping? If you look on-line you’ll find BMR calculators that will estimate how many calories you expend. We even have one over at Fat2fitradio.com/bmr. These equations are based on height, age, and weight. With the addition of body fat percentage we can get even closer with different equations. We take that BMR number and multiply it by what kind of workouts, sports or job duties you perform to come up with that important number of how many calories your body burns, but they are just estimations. This is where the Bodybugg comes in.

The Bodybugg is the answer to finding out how many calories you burn on a daily basis. With the use of an accelerometer, pedometer and sensors that contact the skin and read temperature and something called GSR, galvanic skin response, the Bodybugg can determine to 90% accuracy, how many calories your body is actually burning. “Big deal!” you say? With this information it is a trivial matter to create the calorie deficit by simply subtracting the deficit number from the actual number of calories you consume.

Take myself for an example. Apex, the company behind Bodybugg sent one over for me to try out. During an active day walking at lunch time at work, playing with my children and a workout in the evening, I’ll burn about 3400 calories in a day. Now that I know that information, I can plan my meals accordingly to create that all important calorie deficit. If I want to lose 2 lbs. a week, I should eat 2400 calories a day. Losing 1 lb. a week I should shoot for eating 2900 calories a day. The guess work is taken out of the equation.

So, that’s what should happen. What actually happens is I aim to eat 2400 calories a day and depending on how diligent or accurate my food log, I will make that goal plus or minus 10%. On the output side there were days when I only burned 2800 calories and then there were ones that I burned 4500. My results for the first 2 ½ weeks or so turned up a 3 lbs. weight loss. The Bodybugg site deduced that I was in an average calorie deficit of 691 calories a day over that time period. At least 1 week of that was vacation eating.

What exactly is a Bodybugg? It’s a small plastic sensor worn on the upper left arm. It also can include a companion remote display, for an additional charge, that can be worn on the belt, lapel or on the wrist. The arm unit itself connects to your computer and to the Bodybugg web stie with a supplied USB cable. There is no display on the arm sensor. There are two LEDs on the sensor that tell you the status of the battery and the memory. The sensor has enough memory for 14 days of data before it needs to be uploaded and erased. I can confirm that on my 1 week vacation the sensor recorded and never showed that it needed to empty it’s memory. The optional display shows you your current number of calories burned that day and the previous day. Steps taken for that day and the previous are shown. For calories and steps the target number of each is shown on the display as well. The unit also shows number of minutes of moderate activity that you engage in each day with a target number programmed into the display. Finally one of the most interesting parts of the display is the trip meter. If you were wondering how many calories that bike ride, or walk, or jog actually burned, then the Bodybugg has the answer. The trip meter displays the number of calories since reset and even cooler, the number of calories per minute that were expended during that time. So cool!

Bodybugg website The Bodybugg website is where all the analysis and tracking on this system take place. The web site will detect the Bodybugg sensor and download all the data on the unit since the last time it was plugged in. Also at the Bodybugg website is a nutrition tracker that systematically asks you what you had to eat that day. This particular feature was the only negative that I found in the whole system. The logging of food on the Bodybugg web site is far from perfect. If you’ve listened to the show you know that I have a soft spot in my heart for the Livestong iPhone app and the web site for tracking calories. It is an amazing two pronged approach that just works. The Bodybugg web site on the other hand is klunky in the tracking of foods. The database lacked some of the things that I was eating. I was able to add these into the system via a custom foods entry, but it took more time. The nutrition logging is also unforgiving when you make a mistake. If you hit the Finish button, even though you might not be done entering foods, you’re done for the day. I was unable to find a way to resume where I left off while logging foods. Another part of this negative was the inability to log foods while on the go. I mentioned I like inputting foods on my iPhone. The Bodybugg site is in Java. Java will not run on the iPhone so mobile food logging was not happening. The big save here was a tip that trainer Kim gave me. We setup a custom food called “calories” that was 25 grams of carbohydrates, or 100 calories. I simply logged my food on the Livestrong site and app and then transferred that number into the Bodybugg website using my custom “calories” food. It throws off the nutritional balance information that the site is able to parse through, but the calories are in there.

Using the Bodybugg The sensor is worn on the upper left arm. That’s it. It does take a small while getting used to wearing it. After a couple days I forgot that I had it on at times. Since there is no display, there’s nothing to distract you. That said, if you are easily distracted, do not get the optional display. I’ve found myself just looking at it and seeing what was going on, how the number had changed in the last hour or so.

Training Included with the purchase of the Bodybugg is a 45 minute training session with an apex trainer. They will walk you through the system so that you can get the most out of it. My trainer was Kim, and she did an amazing job walking me through all the areas of the web site. It would have taken me four times the time and effort to find myself. That not because it’s overly complex, just that there is so much useful information on the site

Is it worth it? The Bodybugg system is not a cheap one. The sensor by itself, with a 6 month subscription to the site is currently $199. With the optional display it’s $299. After the 6 months is up you can purchase access to the site for $9.99 a month or purchase 6 months or 1 year at a time for a discount.

Bottom Line Having the real-time, accurate feedback on how many calories I’m burning has been eye opening. There is such a huge difference in calorie burn from day to day. I now completely understand how America and the rest of the world has gotten so fat. While sitting at my desk I burn so few calories that if I wasn’t watching what I ate extremely close I would, without a doubt, gain weight and go back to being that fat person. Sometimes the big difference is just a 20 minute walk at lunch. The difference could be getting out in the yard and cutting my own grass instead of having an army of thin gardeners cut it for me. But, the little differences add up.

So, is the Bodybugg worth the expense?  If you have the means to buy one and you’re serious about using it to lose weight, then it’s definitely worth the price.

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Tags: 24 hour fitness, apex, bodybugg, fit bit, go wear fit